Commentary: About 150 demonstrators, including four of us from Truth or Consequences, occupied the four corners of the busy Telshor/Lohman intersection between 10:30 and noon in solidarity with the March for Our Lives talking place in Washington, DC, and more than 800 other locations around the world.
The Las Cruces crowd was laced with Democratic candidates for state and federal office. I spotted Steve Fischmann, Billy Garrett, Bill McCamley, Nathan Small and Xochitl Torres Small.
I'm guessing several thousand cars passed by during our demonstration, most of whose occupants greeted our presence and signs with indifference. Those who responded were largely positive, giving us supportive honks and thumbs up, but we were also met with head shakes of disapproval, the occasional middle finger, some yelled insults and one purposely expelled cloud of choking exhaust fumes.
Among a sea of gray heads and a handful of young faces, a youngish military retiree wearing the crisply ironed uniform of an army staff sergeant stood out, especially after he accepted the gift of my sign and marched over to a median strip where he stood (until chased back to the sidewalk by the police) proclaiming his support for "Sane Gun Control."