One of the biggest tragedies hit the United States on February 14, 2018, when the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left 17 staff and students dead. This replaced the 1999 Columbine High School shooting as the deadliest school shooting in America. As we move on from such a tragic event, many of the students took to all forms of social media advocating for things such as stricter gun control laws. While Congress continues to discuss the pros and cons of such laws, students from all over have decided to take matters into their own hands by staging national walkouts all throughout the month of March. The Parkland students went even as far as making a Twitter account, to publicize their plans to everyone in an easy way on a national scale.
On March 1, the Stoneman Douglas students led a “Company Boycott” against the NRA, the National Rifle Association. Celebrities like Alyssa Milano had boycotted the three specific companies that have ties with the NRA: Amazon, Apple, and FedEx. Those three companies were amongst the few that offer discounts to NRA members. On March 14, a Woman’s March Youth EMPOWER group organized a national school walkout. Those walking out had stayed for seventeen minutes, one minute for each victim killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
On March 24, the highly anticipated March for Our Lives campaign happened in Washington, D.C., and in sister cities New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston. Companies such as Lyft offered free rides to the rallies all across the country. Another event will happen on April 20, the next National School Walkout. Students in Connecticut planned on walking out this day at 10 o’clock, local time, seeing as this will be the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting. They are planning for seventeen minutes of silence to honor the seventeen victims. The Connecticut students invite all who want to join, making this a national event.
These National Walkouts are slowly, but surely, bringing people together from all across the nation. This is a topic that has been affecting others for quite some time, and now is the time to stand up for what you believe in and join in. As we continue to wait for Congress’ decision, let’s do something else to show just how badly we as students want a change for our nation.