The Million Mom March was a rally on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 14, 2000, designed to promote tighter restrictions to keep guns out of the hands of kids and criminals. Supporters claimed that 750,000 people gathered on the National Mall. Supporters of the event also claimed 150,000 to 200,000 people across the country held sympathy marches.
A counter-rally by the pro-gun Second Amendment Sisters, was also held on the same day.
The Million Mom March had its roots in August 1999, when New Jersey resident Donna Dees-Thomases saw broadcast coverage of the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting rampage in Granada Hills, California. Dees-Thomases decided a week later to apply for a permit to march on Washington and protest the lack of "meaningful gun laws" in America. In September 1999, she was joined by 25 Tri-State mothers at a news conference in Manhattan, and announced that a grassroots movement of mothers called the "Million Mom March" would march on Washington. CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and other major network TV news organizations covered the march and counter-march extensively.
Read more about Million Mom March: Background, Controversy and Liquidation
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