GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Town Hall for Our Lives was held in Grand Rapids on Saturday night, April 7 as a follow up to the March 24 March for Our Lives events.
The marches were held nationwide as a statement against gun violence and to push for gun safety in schools. The local march in Grand Rapids had about 4,000 participants.
The town halls were initiated by David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, when he tweeted the day after the marches: "Everyone should call for a town hall with their representative on April 7th."
The Grand Rapids town hall was organized through the nationally-based Town Hall Project by a group called GR Students for Change. The purpose of the town halls was to open a dialogue between elected officials and their constituents about gun violence.
"Hopefully the conversation won't die about control," said Ellie Lancaster, one of the organizers of the town hall. "Hopefully what we keep doing won't get ignored, and people will be forced to listen to us."
The town hall was held at Fountain Street Church, and Cathy Albro and Fred Wooden, Democratic candidates for Congress spoke about gun control and safety within Michigan communities.
GR Students for Change also asked Republican Congressman Justin Amash to attend, but organizers say they found out that he couldn't because he was spending Orthodox Holy Saturday with his family.
Even though Amash couldn't attend the event, a table was set up with three chairs and three name cards for Wooden, Amash and Albro.
Both Albro and Wooden spoke at the town hall, then the floor was opened up for questions from the audience. Although the event was organized by students, there was a range of ages represented at the meeting.
ABC News reported that on Friday morning, 33 Democratic lawmakers were planning on participating in town halls, and no Republicans had committed. ABC also said that there were more than 100 town halls scheduled nation-wide with more than 70 in Republican-held districts and about 30 in Democratic-held districts.
"I hope at the end of the day people realize that we aren't saying anything about the people who own guns or we aren't trying to take them away," said Lancaster. "We just want everybody—but students especially—to just stop dying from gun violence."
Lancaster said that moving forward, she wants to keep the momentum going. The next event that is planned in another school walkout on April 20, which is the 19-year anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.
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