Three more 'March For Our Lives' gun-control rallies planned across Arizona

The Republic | azcentral.com

People stand outside the entrance of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to greet students as they enter the school grounds on Wednesday, Feb, 28, 2018.

At least four marches are planned across Arizona in solidarity with the Washington D.C. March For Our Lives on March 24.

Days after a mass shooting at a high school in Florida left 17 people dead, teens who survived the assault announced they were organizing the march to advocate for gun control and to try to prevent school shootings.

Those organizers are calling on the nation's leaders to ban the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, and to close loopholes in the background-check system that have allowed thousands of people to buy guns even though they had criminal records, mental health issues or other problems.

In Arizona, 16-year-old Samantha Lekberg of Surprise and 17-year-old Jordan Harb of Mesa were the first to announce a sister march here, planned for 10 a.m. at the state Capitol.

Since then, activists have begun planning sister events for Prescott and Tucson, as well as another Phoenix event that will merge with the larger march.

MORE: Teens organize Phoenix 'March for Our Lives' in wake of Florida shooting

Las Vegas shooting victim's friends planning Tucson march

Two friends of Christiana Duarte, a University of Arizona alum who was killed in the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas last October, are planning a March For Our Lives in Tucson.

Hannah DeSanto said she and Jessica Hopkins, both UA seniors who were close with Duarte, found it "just horrifying" to see another mass shooting, and so soon.

MORE:UA saddened by loss of alum Christiana Duarte in Las Vegas shooting

"We’ve let it settle a lot more than the students in Florida have, and for people to be saying, 'They’re acting too soon, they haven’t let it sink in or had time to heal,' it’s frustrating to hear that because I wish something was done sooner to prevent that Florida shooting, to prevent the Vegas shooting," DeSanto said.

"We’ve let it sit now for five months and whether it be five days or five months, we both want to do the same thing and be the change and take that action."

Family and friends spent Monday desperately searching for Christiana Duarte, a recent UA graduate. The 22-year-old was attending the country music festival with her brother's girlfriend Sunday night when the shootings occurred.

They are working with students from six high schools and one middle school in Tucson to plan the march. Activist group Tucson Stands Up is also helping with the planning.

The Tucson march will begin 11 a.m. at Jacome Plaza and will walk along 4th Avenue to the UA campus. More than 5,000 people have expressed interest in the "March For Our Lives - Tucson" on Facebook.

Another march planned in Prescott

The same organizers that have planned women's marches in Prescott are planning a March For Our Lives at the city's Courthouse Square.

The Women's March on Prescott, Prescott Indivisible, Yavapai Democrats and the Democratic Women of the Prescott Area are planning the event for noon March 24.

More than 400 people have expressed interest in the Prescott march on Facebook.

Teens raise $13,000 for Phoenix event

More than 11,500 people have expressed interest in the "#MarchForOurLives Phoenix, Arizona" event on Facebook, which Harb and Lekberg are planning with dozens of other Valley teens.

As part of the planning, they created a GoFundMe to cover event costs that has raised more than $13,000 in just over one week.

Harb posted that Geraldine Hills, founder and president of Arizonans for Gun Safety, will handle the money, which he said will cover costs such as $3,000 for portable toilets.

MORE:Phoenix 'March For Our Lives' organizers demand local gun-control measures

The fourth event in Arizona, and the only one that is not listed on the national website marchforourlives.com, is a march from Phoenix City Hall to the State Capitol an hour before the teens' event.

That march is being organized by Kathryn McKinney, who leads Black Lives Matter Arizona alongside the controversial Rev. Jarrett Maupin. Maupin said he is not involved in the march.

MORE:As Jarrett Maupin sought justice for a Phoenix family, he also asked them for cash

"We’re not competing, we’re just supporting" the teens' march, McKinney said.

Her Facebook event, similarly titled "#MarchForOurLives ARIZONA," proposes installing metal detectors in all public schools and banning all guns in public.

Neither of those are positions the students organizing the original event have publicly taken. The students are encouraging the Legislature to ban bump stocks, require universal background checks and provide ways to prohibit domestic-violence offenders and people with mental-health issues from having guns.

Harb said the concurrent march "is calling for policies that do not fully encompass or align with the goals of the March For Our Lives."