Bill Murray compares Parkland kids to Vietnam protesters in anti-gun op-ed

Bill Murray compares Parkland kids to Vietnam protesters in anti-gun op-ed

Bill Murray is taking a stand against gun violence, lending his support to the student movement sparked by the survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

In an as-told-to piece for NBC News THINK, the actor compared the Parkland kids who have rallied to advocate for stricter gun laws to the young protesters who “began the end of the Vietnam war.”

“It was the students who made all the news, and that noise started, and then the movement wouldn’t stop,” he said of the protests surrounding the war in Vietnam during the 1960s and ’70s. “I think, maybe, this noise that those students in Florida are making — here, today — will do something of the same nature.”

After a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School took the lives of 17 of their classmates and teachers in February, surviving students founded the Never Again movement and organized the March for Our Lives, which will take place on Saturday, to demand gun control legislation.

In his op-ed, Murray acknowledged that some may fear the outcome of the demonstrations, comparing those who are against gun control to people who believed “it was going to be the end of the world if we lost Vietnam.” But working for peace will yield a positive outcome, he said. “People will survive,” he said. “If you can just stop shooting at them, they really do pretty well. It’s the right idea for a human to live in peace, and a peaceful nature is a proper thing. For children to be concerned about going to school, worried about what could happen to them at school, that makes for a horrible moment.”

Murray went on to praise the young people at the forefront of the movement. “The thing that’s so powerful about students is that, when you haven’t had your idealism broken yet, you’re able to speak from a place that has no confusion, where there is a clear set of values. But there are idealists left over the age of 18, I’m sure of it. Idealism is a voice that’s inside of you; it’s your conscience. … Sometimes it’s just a whisper, but, in some people, it’s a shout.”

March for Our Lives demonstrations are scheduled for Saturday in cities across the world. Murray can be seen next in Isle of Dogs, which premieres Saturday. Read his full op-ed over at NBC.