‘In the wrong hands’: Protest march on St. George Boulevard calls for tighter gun regulations

ST. GEORGE — Around 50 people gathered in St. George Saturday morning calling for “common sense guns laws” during a gun violence protest in the wake of recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York.

At a March for Our Lives gun violence protest march held in St. George, Utah, June 11, 2022 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

“We want guns to be in the right hands, like our brave policemen, but we don’t want them in the wrong hands,” said Chuck Goode, current chair of the Washington County Democratic Party and a candidate for Washington County Commission Seat B.

Goode and others gathered at the St. George Town Square with signs that read “Arms to Ukraine, not our teens!”, “What matters more? Your AR-15 or our kids?” and “Ban assault weapons, not books.”

The group soon left the town square and marched up Main Street to St. George Boulevard. From there they went to 200 East where they crossed the street and looped back to their starting point. There were the occasional honks of support for the marching protesters and at least one heckler who shouted “Guns are great!” as he drove by.

The march was also a part of the greater March for Our Lives movement that held protests in various cities across the nation Saturday. The group formed in the wake of the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in by students and others seeking to end gun violence through the stronger gun regulation at the federal level.

“The students are saying, ‘Stop killing us,’” Goode said. “They are begging our senators now for regulation.”

At a March for Our Lives gun violence protest march held in St. George, Utah, June 11, 2022 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

The protests also follow the passing of the Protect Our Kids Act by the House. The bill is a wide-ranging gun law reform that raises the legal age to buy firearms from 18 to 21 and places limits on the sale of high-capacity magazines. It also provides incentives for the safe storage of firearms and penalties for the violation of federal safe-storage requirements. An individual could face fines and possible imprisonment if their gun is stored improperly and is subsequently used by a minor to injured or kill themselves or another person.

Raising the age limit has gained increasing traction as the shooters in Texas and New York were both 18.

The house is also considering a bill creating a “red flag law” at would allow a federal court to order the confiscation of firearms from a person that family, police and others believe to pose a threat to themselves or others.

“It really is these gun regulations that keep guns out of the wrong hands,” Goode said.

Now in the hands of the Senate, particular elements of the Protect Our Kids Act passed by the House may be dropped if the legislation is to survive. Multiple news sites report that the bill is expected to die in the Senate as Republicans are not as open to certain facets of gun control that their Democrat colleagues are calling for.

At a March for Our Lives gun violence protest march held in St. George, Utah, June 11, 2022 | Photo by Mori Kessler, St. George News

Congressional Republicans have generally favored addressing issues of mental health and how that relates to gun violence rather than tightening gun laws overall.

“The solution is not arming teachers or blaming mental health. That’s not what is cause this,” Goode said. “It’s too many weapons of war in the hands of children.”

Goode, along with Rebecca Winsor, a fellow Democrat and candidate for Washington County Commission Seat B, both said they mainly want to see the legal age to buy a gun raised, have expanded background checks and gun-purchase waiting periods.

“We have to wait three days for a package from Amazon, so you can wait three days to buy a gun,” Winsor said. “It would have made a difference in Uvalde.”

“We could have stopped that Uvalde shooting with that 18-year-old if had a waiting period or we had any of the regulations that are on the senate bill now,” Goode said.

A ban an assault weapons is also something Goode and others attending the protest want to see, and was a part of a short list of wanted gun regulation outlined in a letter they are sending to Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney.

The letter states in part:

I want to repeat my request that you go with legislation like the Protecting Our Kids Act and not a watered down, toothless bill. Americans have had it. We want expanded background checks. We want an assault weapons ban. We want federal red flag laws. We know these things work, whereas “hardening” our schools and arming our teachers has not and will not. We are watching and we are angry. The Senate had better get this done or face the voters’ wrath in November.

Romney has shown some support for the raising the legal buying age and red flag gun laws.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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