Students Rally Outside Smith & Wesson Factory, Demand Gun-maker Stop Selling Weapons Illegal To Possess In Massachusetts

David Hogg, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, spoke outside the Smith & Wesson factory with Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son was killed in a shooting at the school earlier this year. (Matt Ormseth / Hartford Courant) Standing outside gates that bore the same name as the gun used to kill their son, Patricia and Manuel Oliver delivered an emotional coda to a four-day march for gun control reform in Massachusetts, demanding outside the Smith & Wesson headquarters in Springfield that the gun-maker stop building weapons as powerful as the one used earlier this year to kill 17 people at a Florida high school, including their 17-year-old son, Joaquin. “In those headquarters,” Manuel Oliver said, pointing at the gated compound behind him, “there’s a lot of mothers working there. And I’m thinking some of the mothers had contact with the weapon that killed my child.” “It’s not allowed in here,” Oliver went on, referring to legislation that makes owning a rifle like the one used in the Florida shooting illegal in Massachusetts, “but it’s allowed in Florida. Those mothers can go home and wash their hands, and maybe not feel so bad. But that weapon murdered my son, and another 16 persons.” The rally outside Smith & Wesson Sunday afternoon was the culmination of a student-led, 50-mile march that began in Worcester on Thursday. Several dozen counterprotesters lined the street leading to the gun manufacturer, bearing “Don’t Tread On Me" flags and signs professing their […]

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