Paul McCartney took part in the March for Our Lives protest in New York, one of hundreds of associated demonstrations that took place in parallel to the main rally in Washington, D.C. A CNN reporter caught up with the Beatles legend who was wearing a “We can end gun violence” T-shirt and tried to ask him some policy questions. But McCartney refused to get into specifics, saying he didn’t know whether gun violence could end on the legislative level, but emphasized that what citizens can do is make sure their voices heard. “I don’t know” if gun violence can be ended, McCartney said. “But this is what we can do, so I’m here to do it.”

Although he didn’t outright say it, McCartney seemed to want to highlight that he was like one of the many people at the rallies around the world whose lives had been changed dramatically by gun violence. “One of my best friends was killed in gun violence right around here, so it’s important to me,” McCartney said in clear reference to the 1980 murder of John Lennon. McCartney and his wife, Nancy Shevell, took part in the rally only a few blocks from the Dakota Building, outside of which Lennon was shot dead by Mark David Chapman.