#NeverAgain is a social movement protesting for the prevention of gun violence by means of further gun reform. This movement is headed by a group of students impacted by the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and has gained support across the country. The leadership is one of the most unique aspects of the movement – rarely before have such young people taken active interest in an issue such as this, which has helped intensify much of the response from Americans and others throughout the world.
On March 24th, 2018, an estimated 800,000 protestors attended a demonstration in Washington, D.C., according to the March For Our Lives Twitter account. This estimate outnumbers the Women’s March of 2017, which drew crowds of around 440,000 people to the nation’s capital the day following President Trump’s election and was the largest U.S. demonstration in history. Across the U.S., 836 sister marches took place on the same day.
At the main march in Washington, D.C., Stoneman Douglas student Emma González delivered a speech; after two minutes of speaking about the shooting that took place at her school on February 14th, she followed with silence lasting four minutes and 26 seconds. Recognizing the exact amount of time that it took for the shooter to kill 17 of her fellow students, González brought to the stage an energy inspiring hundreds of thousands of Americans. She has become one of the most recognized faces of the movement, and her own Twitter account has 1.55 million followers.
Many adult celebrities and political figures were denied the opportunity to make speeches at the March 24th D.C. demonstration. The official March For Our Lives committee, made up of a group of Stoneman Douglas High School students, aimed to focus the leadership and public support of the movement on a purely youthful demographic, as schools across the country are the most common direct targets of these shootings.
The March For Our Lives movement brings power to American youth. Founded by the students who have been so heavily impacted by the mass shootings recently plaguing the U.S., the movement conveys an empathy that could never be captured in ordinary politicians, and brings power to the individuals directly affected by events of gun violence.
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