Photo courtesy of Darby Keller
The estimated hundreds of thousands of participants at the Washington, D.C. March For Our Lives included Elizabethtown College students. The march, which supported gun control in the wake of the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, took place Saturday, March 24.
About 40 Etown students, led by sophomore Darby Keller, attended the Washington, D.C. march. Keller said she is passionate about gun control because she has younger siblings and remembers hearing about school shootings throughout her life.
“It’s important to make sure [victims’] lives aren’t wasted,” Keller said. “It’s important to do something to change things because if we don’t, each time we talk about these issues nothing gets done. We can’t let this keep happening.”
At a poster-making event Friday, March 23 at the Mosaic House, students made signs to carry and finalized plans for the march.
Sophomore Elizabeth Doll wrote, “No one deserves to disappear,” a quote from the musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” on her sign. (“Dear Evan Hansen” star Ben Platt performed with “Hamilton” star Lin-Manuel Miranda at the Washington, D.C. march.)
Doll saw the aftermath of the Parkland shooting and decided to do what she could to help.
“This just felt like a good thing to be part of, and it’s something I believe in, so I want to do my part to make a change,” Doll said while making her sign. “That way no one else has to go through what the students of Parkland did.”
The March For Our Lives was Doll’s first march.
According to Keller, the Etown students saw several Parkland student speakers and performances at the march.
Several Parkland survivors spoke at the march, including Emma Gonzalez, whose speech included over four minutes of silence; the entire speech took the same amount of time as the shooting itself. Before the march, Doll called the Parkland survivors “brave” and praised their openness in demanding policy change.
Another notable speech came from 11-year-old Naomi Wadler, who highlighted African-American shooting victims. Besides Miranda and Platt, Washington, D.C. performers included Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato.
“Obviously the issue is the focus, but it’s nice to know other people of a larger caliber are also passionate and want to see change,” Doll said.
Sister marches took place around the world, with events as far as Sydney, Australia and as close as Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The Lancaster march began at Clipper Magazine Stadium and ended at Binns Park. Participants mingled before the march started, discussing their opinions on gun control and admiring each others’ signs. Event organizers gave out official March For Our Lives signs and handmade ones with Lancaster-themed phrases.
High Library Access Services Librarian Amy Magee has attended other activism events in the past.
She participated in the Lancaster March For Our Lives because she sees gun violence as a real problem, one that she feels a personal connection to due to working on a college campus.
“I would love where I work and every learning environment to be safe, and to not have to worry about who might walk through the door,” Magee said before the event.
Once the marchers reached Binns Park, emcee Kevin Ressler introduced speakers including Lancaster City Mayor Danene Sorace and Lancaster County students.
Angel Colon delivered the event’s keynote speech. A survivor of the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, Colon listed gun violence statistics and encouraged the crowd to chant, “Enough is enough.”
“It’s common sense,” Colon said regarding stricter gun laws. “No other family should go through what I went through, waking up early in the morning learning their brother, their son, had been shot multiple times.”
After the march, Keller commented on the kindness of the people there and said it was great to see the country as a whole come together.
However, not everyone in the country, or at Etown, would agree with the marchers. First-year Ryan Runkle owns firearms and is a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). While he supports stricter regulations and improved background checks, he does not support a ban on some or all guns.
“I feel that these protesters have no authority to infringe upon my constitutional right given to me by the 2nd amendment,” Runkle said in an email.
While he also supports marching as a form of protest, he said the March For Our Lives itself did not go after what it should have.
“[Marchers] should be protesting the shooters, and demanding better/more help for similar people in states of poor mental health,” instead of attacking the government and NRA, he said.
“No one wanted the Second Amendment taken away. No one wants guns to be banned. We just want regulation,” Keller said after the march.
Overall, there are different opinions of what should be done in terms of gun control, even among Etown students. According to Keller, acting on those opinions, whether by participating in the March For Our Lives or another way, is part of what makes a difference.
“We’re the ones who will be growing up and taking over everything,” Keller said. “It’s important that we get involved young with issues that we care about and that matter.”
