After calling for gun safety laws both online and in TV interviews after a gunman killed 17 at their Florida school, five students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have announced their plans to organize a nationwide march asking lawmakers to find solutions to end gun violence. HuffPost reports that the students made the announcement on Sunday during several different TV appearances, sharing that the “March For Our Lives” will be held on March 24 in Washington, D.C.
The news of the march comes after several students passionately called for gun control at a local anti-gun rally on Saturday. Stoneman Douglas senior Emma Gonzalez, whose emotional speech at the rally went viral within hours of her delivery, joined four of her peers on Sunday in satellite interviews with ABC, CBS, CNN and Fox News. In addition to the main march in the nation’s capital, similar marches are expected to run in other major American cities.
“Here’s the time: March 24,” said junior Cameron Kasky on the ABC program This Week. “In every single city, we are going to be marching together as students begging for our lives. This isn’t about the GOP. This isn’t about the Democrats. This is about the adults. We feel neglected. At this point, you’re either with us or you’re against us.”
Survivors of the school shooting in Florida are calling for a march on Washington to demand action on gun control. “People are saying that it’s not time to talk about gun control, and we can respect that. Here’s a time: March 24, in every single city.” https://t.co/7KxMqjCem8 pic.twitter.com/KVsDy0W9cJ
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 18, 2018
Also accompanied by students Alex Wind, Jaclyn Corin and David Hogg, Gonzalez stressed the need for other students’ presence at the march. While speaking on Fox News Sunday, she said, “We want students to be at that march and to be with us. We want to be with those students who we didn’t understand their pain before and it’s all too tragic that we all have to understand the same pain now.”
On the website promoting the march, the event’s mission statement reads, “School safety is not a political issue. There cannot be two sides to doing everything in our power to ensure the lives and futures of children who are at risk of dying when they should be learning, playing and growing. The mission and focus of March For Our Lives is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues. No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legislation to effectively address the gun violence issues that are rampant in our country.”