Parkland Survivors Call for a March on Washington
Following the tragic mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, which claimed the lives of 17 people, survivors are planning to protest gun violence with a march on Washington.
On March 24, March For Our Lives is taking place, and will see survivors of the Parkland mass shooting and their allies taking to Washington DC to demand an end to gun violence and needless deaths.
As their mission statement reads:
"March For Our Lives is created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar. In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now."
Alongside the march on March 24, the organizers of the Women's March are also planning a school walkout, suggesting that students, teachers, and anyone affected by gun violence, walks out of their schools on March 14. The organizers hope that Congress will take legislative action on gun control following the recent shooting in Florida.
And more than twenty students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have vowed not return to school until gun laws change. In a heartbreaking interview, one of the students who was in the school when the shooting happened, 17-year-old Alex Wind, told the Washington Post:
"How are we supposed to feel safe again? What if this happens again? What if this happens in any other school? How are we supposed to know and feel safe in those exact hallways where the shooting happened if nothing changes? If these laws caused the shooting in the first place, what’s going to stop (another shooting) if the laws don’t change?"
