March for Our Lives spokesman discusses banning assault weapons

The call by March for Our Lives to ban semi-automatic assault weapons is a conversation starter, not a defined policy proposal. The country needs to talk about finding ways to end gun violence, but the NRA has blood on its hands for opposing gun-control legislation. That’s according to March for Our Lives creative director Jammal Lemy.

The March for Our Lives website lists 10 policy proposals, including a call for a “semi-automatic assault rifle ban.” Lemy declined to define that term while appearing on Nevada Politics Today.

“There’s been constant debates as to what is a semi-automatic rifle,” said Lemy. “When we proposed that, it was about starting the conversation again, so we could actually come to an agreement and start this dialogue as to considering what is and what isn’t a semi-automatic rifle.”

Asked if his group wanted to ban all semi-automatic rifles or just a subset of those weapons, Lemy said, “We don’t particularly want to infringe on anyone’s rights. We don’t want, we hope we don’t have to call for that ban. But like I said, if there’s a reoccurring weapon, like the AR-15, in multiple shootings, we want to bring that to light.”

FBI statistics show that around 90 percent of firearm homicides, where the weapon is identified, occur with handguns. Remy doesn’t support outlawing them, however.

“No, I don’t think they should,” said Remy when asked about banning handguns.

The conversation then turned to whether a gun ban would lead to criminals giving up their weapons or just punish law-abiding citizens.

“We’re not worried about the people who continually uphold the law,” said Remy. “We’re worried about the people who at any moment who can break that law. Criminals will always find ways to work around the system. We just want to make sure the system is tight-knit enough.”

He continued, “We’re all about starting the conversation, opening the dialogue between both sides. So, it’s not strictly just banning assault weapons, because the thing is we don’t want to infringe on people’s rights. But it’s been shown time and time again that this country has a gun issue, and the thing is we want to figure out why that is and how we can best solve that.

In a February CNN interview, March for Our Lives member David Hogg called the NRA “child murders.” Asked about that, Remy said, “If you’re feeding into this problem and children are dying in these mass shootings, you should have blood on your hands, because you basically are endorsing this.”