Aly & AJ Speak For First Time About Personal Experience At April Sacramento Shooting During 2022 NYC March For Our Lives Rally

Indie sister duo and advocates Aly & AJ took to the streets this past Saturday as part of the New York March For Our Lives rally against gun violence. In NYC to perform and celebrate as part of the 2022 Governors Ball festival, they took the stage at the MFOL rally for a very different and important reason: to mourn those who have been lost amidst the waves of senseless shootings around the country, applaud the youth who are working to make a change, and to share their own very real recent experience with gun violence.

In front of an impassioned crowd, they gave a vulnerable and poignant speech and spoke publicly for the first time about their own recent experience with gun violence during the tragic April 3 shooting in Sacramento where their tour bus, with themselves inside, was caught in the middle of gunfire, and in which six people horrifically lost their lives. They called out the absurdity of the habitual nature of these shootings in the US saying “This should not be normal, this should not be something we prepareourselves for as citizens when we walk out into the world.”

They also shared their own adolescent experience shooting guns for sport, but how enough is enough and things need to change: “...after the string of deaths that continue to flood our news, I never want to step foot on a shooting range again. I never want to shoot a gun “for fun” again. There is nothing fun about guns when you know the damage they can do.”

Their speech also shone a light on the youth that came together to make the march a reality, saying “Amazingly, we have brave teenagers to thank for creating March for Our Lives, and they are trying to shift the national consciousness. We have teens to thank for creating change that adults were unwilling to make.” Watch the full speech HERE (at 9-minute mark).

This appearance follows Aly & AJ’s continued efforts to use their art and their presence to promote change in the world, including being vocal supporters of Planned Parenthood & HeadCount, and having also partnered with social activism company Propeller for a second time while on the road with their recently capped national US tour, raising donations for The Trevor Project and To Write Love On Her Arms as well as encouraging fans at each show to sign petitions, join mailing lists for these organizations, and more.