The Marjory Douglass High School shooting in Parkland, Florida left 17 students and faculty dead in the largest high school shooting since the Columbine Massacre in 1999. The survivors left in the wake of this tragedy, specifically the students, are taking matters into their own hands and advocating for stricter gun control laws.
They called for national walkouts March 14 across the country; according to EMPOWER, the youth branch of the Women’s March group, there were more than 2,500 walkouts planned nationwide. These led up to the national March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C. March 24.
Elizabethtown College students participated in the walkout by hosting a memorial at the Peace Pole in front of Zug Memorial Hall March 14 from 10 a.m. to 10:17 a.m.
Parkland students also started the #NeverAgain: Pick Up a Pen campaign to encourage people to write their representatives and advocate for stricter gun control laws.
They want to memorialize their fallen classmates and teachers and protest for stricter gun control laws. This includes the ban of assault weapons, required universal background checks and a gun violence restraining order that would allow courts to disarm people who display warning signs of violent behavior.
Many schools encouraged students to participate in the walkouts, while others thought that it was a distraction. Without permission from the school, students faced disciplinary actions such as suspensions, detentions, and even lowered grades.
However, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), schools could not punish students more harshly just because they were expressing their political views.
Expert Corner:
written by Jonathan Rudy, Peacemaker in Residence
Peacemaker in Residence Jonathan Rudy said that this kind of advocacy from students feels new and has a different energy than before. He attributes this to the cumulative amount of school shootings in the past and that this is a group of particularly articulate students. He also noted that since the election of President Donald Trump, the country has seen many grassroots protests organize for advocacy on a variety of intersectional issues.
Rudy stated that people want responsible gun ownership, but some representatives in Congress as well as President Trump have their hands tied with obligations to organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) and arms manufacturing. For the most part, they have responded “half-heartedly,” Rudy said.
“I think that in all of the grief and all of the tragedy, like at a grassroots level, people are being pulled together, and that’s where this tsunami of change is rising,” Rudy said. A cultural change needs to happen because we are a culture obsessed with guns and are a warrior nation, according to Rudy. In the meantime, he proposed policy changes to take the right steps towards responsible gun ownership. There is already a line as to what citizens cannot own, and Rudy wants to see that line extended to assault weapons and the like.
This comes down to the issue of human security versus national security, and Rudy said that human security should come first. “I’m very happy and proud to be on a campus where students are taking some of these issues and really running with them by highlighting and organizing and being activists,” Rudy said. For more information, check out Rudy’s piece entitled, “The Myth of Security: Why We Need to Place People Before Guns” in The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.
