Parkland Students Are Already Planning Their Next Protests

After organizing more than 800 rallies against gun violence on Saturday in their global ‘March For Our Lives’ movement you’d think the high school students from Parkland, Florida would take a rest.  However that is not the case.

Don't Miss Sarah Jones's Essay On Kristi Noem Titled Predatory Is The Point On The Daily.

According to the Washington Post Stoneman Douglas High School students such as David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez have begun planning their next series of marches to affect gun legislation.

Hogg was talking to reporters on Saturday in Washington and indicated that he and his fellow students had started the beginning stages of organizing protests at various state capitals around the country.  He did not specify which states would be first to be targeted by his group of young people who are taking the bull by the horns and openly confronting the political power of the NRA.

He did say, however that they were planning a walkout from their high school and other schools around the country on April 20th. It was on April 20, 1999 that the Columbine High School shooting took place, shocking the nation.  Since then very little — actually nothing — has been done to prevent more mass murders in the nation’s schools.

The April 20th school walkout is intended to be a remembrance of the lives lost at Columbine, Hogg said.  He also stressed that every event they have will also be an event to register more young people to vote, and they are focusing their energies not just on marches and walkouts but on changing the representatives we have in Congress and in state legislatures, as well as getting a new president.

One of the Parkland survivors, Cameron Kasky, spoke to the enormous crowd in Washington D.C. on Saturday during the ‘March For Our Lives’ and said that “voters are coming” if they don’t act to stop gun violence.  

Kasky fired up the crowd with his inspirational comments. “Welcome to the revolution,” he said before expressing his hope that our political leaders would “take common-sense measures to prevent the next mass shooting”, or “get out.”

The ‘March for Our Lives’ mass protest  was organized by the Parkland students after the mass murder at their Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day which killed 17 people dead and injured 14 others.

That shooting and subsequent protests have brought the debate over gun control and gun violence to the forefront of issues that will play a key role in this year’s midterm elections.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.