Just over an hour into the event, and as the moment of silence was wrapping up, a man charged toward the front of the stage. While his screams were mostly unintelligible to the crowd of a few thousand, livestream footage indicates he mentioned a gun. This was enough to startle attendees. At first, several dozen began to swiftly backpedal. Their unease created a ripple effect, which nearly triggered a stampede.

As people rapidly dispersed, some demonstrators frantically tried to hop barricades. Others immediately dropped to the ground. In some parts of the crowd, as shown in this video below, space became limited which led to protesters tripping and falling on others.

I had a unique vantage point, loitering well behind the gathering. Before I could understand what was happening, the crowd was already running in my direction. People darted around to find their kids before taking off. I saw one person stop to help an elderly woman who was unable to stand up on her own.

Someone apparently ran on stage and shouted “I have a gun” shortly after a moment of silence for victims of gun violence at the March For Our Lives rally. https://t.co/MhHYrGdadT pic.twitter.com/UuAK3UDyd7

— jordan (@JordanUhl) June 11, 2022

Activist and speaker Erica Ford quickly ran to the mic to assure the crowd everything was under control and there was no threat. Had it not been for her intervention many people could have been trampled and seriously injured.

Everyone froze.

An eerie stillness took over. We went from panic to calm in a matter of seconds. For many in attendance the entire ordeal felt much longer than it was.

“I was there doing crowd control and didn’t realize the scare was so short [until] watching the video back,” Mollie Davis, a volunteer with March For Our Lives, tweeted. “Felt like slow motion realizing what was going on from back by the [Washington] Monument. I tried to comfort people crying after, a little boy and his mom broke my heart.”

An air of relief and frustration emanated over the crowd. Faint sobs and exhales of relief intermittently pierced the silence. The program eventually resumed but the shock and fear lingered.

Nobody should have to experience that. No one should have to worry about whether attending a public event — or any gathering, for that matter — puts them in jeopardy. The subdued resentment which followed that so many of us felt was entirely justified.

This disruption of an otherwise peaceful gathering prompted a collective observation and recognition of the fear we all quietly share living in the United States.

Between 1998-2019, the United States suffered more mass shootings — crimes in which four or more people were killed — than the next 17 developed countries combined.

There have already been 264 mass shootings in the United States in 2022–more than 1 a day. Over 19,400 people have died as a result of gun violence so far this year. More than 45,000 were killed last year and 43,673 in 2020.

Gun violence, throughout the rest of the developed world, is an anomaly, not a daily occurrence. It is a uniquely American problem. And the sense of shared fear this totally preventable and avoidable epidemic creates was on full display on the National Mall this weekend. But it is fueled, in part, by the United States incomparably high rate of gun ownership. There are 120 guns per every 100 people in this country — the only country in the world with more firearms than people.

Yet, despite our grimly unparalleled global status, Congress is still refusing to address the problem in a substantive and meaningful way.

The framework for the Senate’s bipartisan gun deal announced on Sunday includes slightly upgraded review and gun dealership protocols, a potential closure to a loophole that allows violent unmarried partners to keep guns and investments in “mental health and suicide prevention programs; and other support services.” But the deal will not ban or confiscate any guns or high-capacity magazines. Nor will it raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm and excludes a mandate on universal background checks.

Congress must treat our gun violence problem with the weight and seriousness it deserves. Politicians cannot pretend that dumping money into areas tangential to the issue and making slight tweaks around the edges will magically create a remedy to this societal plague.

Jordan Uhl is a progressive activist and writer living in Washington, D.C. He is the host of Deep Dive on The Young Turks and co-host of The Insurgents podcast.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.