On Valentine’s Day, 2018, 19 year old Nikolas Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and opened fire with his AR-15, killing fourteen students and three faculty members. In the moments and days following this school shooting, the high school students who lost seventeen of their own publicly shamed this country’s leaders, whom they named responsible for the nation’s gun laws, calling awareness to the NRA’s influence on national politics and demanding more gun control in the United States. Their raised voices quickly commanded the attention of the American people, as their message went viral. David Hogg, a senior at Stoneman Douglas at the time, took a video of students hiding on the floor behind desks while the sound of gunfire rang through the hallways of their school; the video went viral, as well. Emma Gonzalez, at the time a senior at Stoneman Douglas, spoke out at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida just a few days following the shooting. She said, “Every single person up here today, all these people should be home grieving. But instead we are up here standing together because if all our government and President can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it's time for victims to be the change that we need to see.” These students and this moment, and the attendant publicity, were the real beginning of #NeverAgain, and the March for Our Lives. They created a ritual experience out of fighting for gun reform. Quickly, these high school students became the leading organizers of the most powerful gun-reform movements of the past two decades, leaving the rest of the country to wonder:
Can these kids actually do it? Can they change history?
After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, politicians attempted some forms of gun control, and gun sanity. President Obama issued Executive Orders and some states, starting with New York, tightened some gun restrictions. However, Congress failed to pass many bills surrounding the issues. (Alter) In the years following Sandy Hook, of course, a pattern of mass shootings has emerged: Nearly every month, a shooter kills innocent people, whether at a school, a nightclub, a church, a concert in Las Vegas, a bar, or a synagogue on a Saturday morning. Then a momentary period of mourning occurs, Democrats call for more gun control, Republicans put forth “thoughts and prayers,” no laws are passed, and the country moves on, as we all wait for the next tragedy to occur.
Somehow, though, the country saw things happen differently following the shooting in Parkland. The persistence of student activism dominated the news cycle and demanded attention, interrupting the typical cycle of inaction that is too often seen in this nation’s reform on guns. (Willingham) First, the students took to social media to spread the word. “People always say, ‘Get off your phones,’ but social media is our weapon,” said Jaclyn Corin, a Parkland student. “Without it, the movement wouldn’t have spread this fast.” Emma González had no Twitter account before the shooting—eleven days later she had more followers than the NRA. (Alter) In the era of digital narrative, survivors found it powerful and effective to tweet out reactions to the shootings, and messages with loved ones, that were sent during the shooting. In the days following, they spread their call for gun control. High school students berated politicians such as Jack Kingston, a former U.S. representative from Georgia, who had tweeted: “Do we really think 17-year-olds on their own are going to plan a nationwide rally?” The students fired back, with words and passion and anger instead of bullets. Sarah Chadwick tweeted: “Hey Jack! Just wanted to let you know that, yes! Us 17yrs really are planning a nationwide rally! It’s crazy what determination, and a strong work ethic can lead to! But I mean you have neither of those things so I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” The students took criticism from other people in power, such as Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham tweeted, “David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Applied and whines about it.” David Hogg answered with a tweet, saying, “Soooo @IngrahamAngle what are your biggest advertisers … Asking for a friend. #BoycottIngramAdverts.” He then posted a list of her top 12 advertisers to share with his 700,000 plus followers. She lost 11 advertisers in the four days following. Afterwards, Ingraham tweeted a public apology. The Parkland students used social media to powerfully reiterate their anger; the backlash that these public figures received for denouncing them not only shows the influence of the students’ use of social media, but shows the influence that these teenagers now hold.
The #NeverAgain movement, and a string of rallies, protests, media appearances, and marches was launched by Parkland survivors. Their office, in a donated space, is located in a strip mall in a small town near Parkland. In this office, these young people hatched ideas that they hoped would lead to policy change. They organized the March 14 school walkouts, on the one month anniversary of the shooting. On that day, almost one million students across the United States stood up and walked out of class for the National School Walkout to protest this school-shooting epidemic. Students from Columbine High School, the site of America’s first deadly school shooting nineteen years ago walked out, along with students from schools all around the country. The support for tighter gun control increased to 68% from 60% in November, 2017. (Shepherd) Public support for the NRA is down to 37%, according to a WSJ/NBC poll, the first time since 2000 that the organization has been viewed more negatively than positively. Companies as large as Delta Airlines, Hertz, and Metlife severed ties with the NRA and Dick’s Sporting Goods stopped selling assault weapons. (Bryan) The walkout, organized by Women’s March youth groups, exceeded far past the 750,000 marchers at the Washington Mall for the Million Mom March in 2000, which was then the largest gun-safety protest in U.S. history. (Alter) “This youth movement is unprecedented,” says Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which was formed by the organizations behind the 2000 march. “What’s different here is that the children who are impacted are older, and they are able to give voice in a way that could not happen before.”
The #NeverAgain movement is such a rare media event, and moment, because it has been led by the youth of our country. "We are going to be the last mass shooting, we are going to change the law,” Gonzalez said. “That's going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook, and it's all going to be due to the tireless efforts of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most importantly the students.” She couldn’t state her case more clearly: The politicians won’t help, so the students, the youth, are the ones effecting social change. The passion and anger and tears of Emma Gonzalez made her one of the prominent faces of this movement. Just five weeks after the shooting, the March for Our Lives rally in Washington gathered together over 800,000 people, making it the largest single-day protest in the history of the nation’s capital, one motivating similar and subsequent marches in over 800 cities around the world, called the “the most ambitious show of force yet from a student-driven movement that emerged after the recent massacre at a South Florida high school.” (The New York Times) In Washington, Cameron Kasky, a Parkland survivor, opened the rally with “Welcome to the Revolution.” He said, “We hereby promise to fix the broken system we’ve been born into and create a better world for generations to come.” Along with Kasky, many young people came out to speak in front of the impressive crowd. David Hogg, said, “Who here is going to vote in the 2018 election? If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking.” Officials with Metro, the D.C. subway system, said more than 207,000 rides had been taken by 1pm, which is double the number taken by that time during the Women’s March. (The New York Times) Emma Gonzalez spoke for under two minutes at the rally in Washington. Then, she said nothing for four minutes and 26 seconds. “Since the time that I came out here, it has been six minutes and 20 seconds,” she said. “The shooter has ceased shooting, and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape, and walk free for an hour before arrest.
“Fight for your lives, before it’s someone else’s job,” she continued, and then walked offstage. In New York on that day, Mayor Bill de Blasio said over 150,0000 people marched, gathered in bright orange, the official color of a gun control advocacy group. In Boston, Houston, Minneapolis, Parkland, Los Angeles, in both cities and small towns, people stood behind these high school students and their mission for change. At these marches, participators were urged to register to vote. In Parkland, Sari Kaufman, a Stoneman Douglas sophomore, reminded people that “policy change is not nearly as difficult as losing a loved one,” she said. “Don’t just go out and vote: Get 17 other people to go out and vote.”
Since the March for Our Lives rally, the #NeverAgain movement focused on making gun control the primary issue to focus on for young voters in the 2018 Midterm Elections. “We’re going to show these politicians that we’re coming for them,” said David Hogg. “The world failed us,” he says, “and we’re here to make a new one that’s going to be easier on the next generation. If you’re against that, then get out.” These activists were young enough to live through a school shooting, but smart and old enough to be determined to make a change in this country for the rest of their lives; for themselves and generations to follow. The #NeverAgain movement hit the road in June 2018. The “Road to Change” tour lasted for two months and covered 50 cities. In Florida alone, a separate tour visited all 27 legislative districts in the state. They organized rallies and voter registration drives, and at the end of these two months, the activists had registered over 10,000 young voters. (Jones) Their ultimate goal was to boost excitement for youth voting and increase young voter turnout. An estimated 31% of eligible people from ages 18-29 voted in the 2018 Midterm Elections, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, exceeding the participation from this age group in the 2014 midterms by about 10%. (Sanders) The Parkland students also wanted to promote their agenda, which now consists of ten policy goals, ranging from funding gun violence research to banning high-capacity magazines to simple universal background checks. (March for Our Lives) At the end of the summer tour, the final speakers included 10 year old Yolanda Renee King, Martin Luther King Jr’s granddaughter. The ten-year-old stood in front of over 2,000 people and spoke about making this change. “They were there to remind the audience that, as they like to say, the young people will win.” (Jones)
Today, March for Our Lives has over 60 official chapters, and the Parkland students hope to grow that number into the hundreds in the next year. (Jones) Despite this push of young people activating for change, mass shootings have continued to occur. In the time following the deaths of those seventeen students and teachers at Stoneman Douglas, mass shootings have happened at a college bar in Thousand Oaks, CA, at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, at a high school in Santa Fe, TX. Yet, this media, a nationwide movement led by high school students, has become a cultural phenomenon. A movement of this kind, led by young people with this kind of force and purpose, is one that should be watched, and it has been. The students organized the largest single-day protest in the history of the nation’s capital. They registered over 10,000 young voters during their short two month summer tour. In November, they won the 2018 International Children’s Peace Prize. They raised over four million dollars in four days following the shooting. The #NeverAgain movement, generated in so many ways by the modern media, made the world listen to these young victims, the ones who were at Stoneman Douglas, who heard the gunfire in their hallways and classrooms that killed their friends and teachers. Although #NeverAgain has not yet led to major gun legislation in Congress this year, the movement has its sights focused on the long term. These young people, who have proven to be an incredible inspiration for all young people, now seventeen- and eighteen- and nineteen-years old, will continue to fight their fight, will continue to emerge as this nation’s voters, and will soon be this country’s leaders. The country should only be so fortunate.