It’s OK if you’ve just come here to see the best photos of San Francisco’s March for Our Lives protest. And you’ll find the best of the photos below.

“Bullets are lazy” the children sayBut before you go, I should mention that because my sweetie is a teacher, he has a tactical defense plan in case a shooter comes to his school. In his classroom there’s no corner hidden from both windows, so he has coached the students to hide in a particular spot, and if a shooter passes by one window, he’ll shoo them to the other. The class has discussed and reviewed this plan. “Bullets are lazy” the children say, because he’s taught them that bullets run along walls. So they know not to lean on walls in an active-shooter situation. I’ve fired a variety of guns but his seventh graders know more about firearms than I do. I thought you should know about that.

He teaches seventh grade, my sweetie.

Another thing I’d like you to know: he had his first lock down on Thursday. An older student joked that he was going to shoot up the school and later in the day someone wrote on the bathroom mirror “don’t go to school tomorrow.”

Attendance was sparse the next day. Can’t really blame them. Would you want to send your kid to school on the day of a shooting threat? I wouldn’t. Anyway, this wasn’t considered newsworthy.

But you already know that.

Just like the kids at my sweetie’s school, who’ve been told time and again, “it isn’t normal to have active shooter drills.” When I was a kid, there were tornado drills and fire drills, but no murderous rampage drills.

And surely you know this, because either you are old enough to remember, or someone has explained it to you. That’s a thing we have to explain to kids now.

Another Teen Rages Against Normalizing Gun Violence

Kids that should be going to college are instead going to caskets. -Kai Levenson-CuppKids like Kai Levenson-Cupp.

Kai spoke about the normalization of gun violence at the rally for San Francisco’s March for Our Lives. His words really hit me. So much fury, but also so much hope. Here, the fury:

“Kids that should be going to college are instead going to caskets…How many children must die to protect the second amendment? How many children must die to protect an amendment written by men who owned other men as slaves? …

We are buying silence with the lives of children. At this point the only thing that would be truly shocking is change.”

But Kai Levenson-Cupp is fifteen. He has that determination that makes youth both treasured and foolish. He outlines what age he was during several tragedies, and how they affected him. But he moves beyond the present, beyond hope, to the stubborn certainty of the future tense:

“When I am sixteen, … assault weapons WILL BE banned.”

“When I am seventeen the Federal Gun Violence Restraining Order WILL be passed.”

“When I am eighteen I WILL vote.”

He doesn’t stop there.

Before you scroll down to the photos of the march, definitely give this a listen.

Powerful Speech by Kai Levenson-Cupp at the March for Our Lives San Francisco Rally

Thanks to OSTester News 1 for the audio. I grabbed this from their full video of the rally. 4:23 minutes long.

Photos from the San Francisco March for Our Lives Rally

All of these photos are from the rally or the march that followed on 3/25/2018, at the San Francisco protest in support of the March for Our Lives events happening all over the nation.

Click to see large images.

These gents gave me permission to take their picture.

This protester has discovered the Little Black Dress of protesting. Lady liberty works as a protest outfit for nearly any occasion. Nice font work on “Books Not Bullets” too.

Two fab fellas. I don’t think I saw a woman there in heels that tall.

Your To Do list.

Who wore it better?

Look! I caught a writer on the act.

I can’t resist the street art. Market Street.

Market Street. The protesters fill Market (which is the widest street in San Francisco) but there was room to walk on the sidewalks.

Nice purple chopper bike. Nice graffiti. This must be San Francisco.

“Respect my existence or expect my resistance” A classic.

This public service announcement brought to you by the streets.

Karma Bennett

Karma has a degree in writing and sociology. She’s an Americorps grad and a board member of the California Writers Club. Her first foray into human rights work was with the Westcott 12 activists who launched a 100+ day camp out in protest of sweatshop labor. Since then she’s organized with IndyMedia, Occupy Oakland, and most recently with Solidaridad Con Los Ninos, a group that organizes caravans to visit detainment centers. She loves street art, poetry, and dancing with wild abandon.

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