Over 200,000 people of all ages descended on Washington DC to support gun reform initiatives on March 24 according to Digital & Imaging Service Inc.
Following the death of 17 students in Parkland, Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, surviving students began to push for stricter gun laws.
Their activism caught the attention of EMPOWER, the youth branch of the organization behind the Women’s Marches.
The March for Our Lives on March 24 was the result of their efforts thus far.
A number of celebrities performed at the event between powerful speeches given by student activists telling their own stories of loss that brought many in the audience to tears.
Often the topic was not only about school shootings, but also about the urban violence faced by many black and Latino youth, such as when student activist Edna Chavez spoke about the loss of her brother Ricardo Chavez.
In a survey of Mercer students conducted by The VOICE, it was found that half of all black students surveyed knew someone that had died due to gun violence.
But the most powerful moment of the the rally came when Emma Gonzalez, the face of the Stoneman Douglas survivors, came on stage.
Following a powerful speech, during which she listed all of the things her fallen classmates would “never again” do, she suddenly fell totally silent.
In that instant the crowd fell absolutely silent, barely a single sound escaped from the hundreds of thousands gathered there. The National Mall was transformed into a sacred space, and Gonzalez into a priest leading a wake.
Confusion soon spread in the crowd, with various cheers of support coming up at various times. It was unquestionably an awkward moment, as all present wondered what Gonzalez was doing. Yet she stood resolute, tears in her eyes, with unwavering determination.
Finally she spoke, “Since the time that I came out here,” she said, “it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds. 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.”
And with that the crowd at once began to cheer wildly. It was as if suddenly all realized that they had been witness to a historic moment.
Students from Newtown High School, the high school for the school district that Sandy Hook Elementary School is in, were present to support their fellow high schoolers.
Sandy Hook was the site of another mass school shooting, where 20 children and 6 adults lost their lives.
Ben Albee, a student at Sandy Hook High School, shared his thoughts about the two schools in a text statement, writing “The thing that’s different between sandy hook and parkland is that in sandy hook, you heard the grief of parents of victims, but the children who survived- the children who had to realize how loud a gunshot is at such a young age- were kept silent.”
He continued, “After parkland, the survivor students became the spotlight and they’ve been working so hard to right the wrong they experienced first hand.”
Famous mass shootings were not the only focus of the rally, however, as many came bearing signs with the faces of those they lost to guns, faces that have never appeared on the news.
Among them was Paula Chaves, a 17-year-old from South Lake High School in Reston, West Virginia, who carried a poster with a picture of her father.
“I’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this since I was little, because of what happened with my dad,” she told The VOICE.
Eight years ago, she says, she lost her father to gunmen in their then home of Puerto Rico. He was confronted by two men outside an ATM, she says, and when he refused to hand over the money they wanted, they abducted and shot him.
That wasn’t the last encounter Chaves had with gun violence however. On March 9th of this year her high school was placed in lockdown due to reports of a student with a gun on campus. Although the reports were proven false later, according to a tweet by Fairfax County police, Chaves says, “Nobody knew what was going on for 40 minutes, we were in the dark for 40 minutes.”
She also said, “I was just thinking in my head, ‘I’m going to be the next person in my family that’s shot and killed,’ and it was just very terrifying not knowing anything, because when you’re in that situation, when you’re inside, you don’t know anything. And so I was texting my family and my friends, just saying our goodbyes just in case anything did happen.”
A recurring theme throughout the rally was that the March’s efforts were not going to end when the day did. Repeatedly speakers called on the audience to register to vote.
When David Hogg, another Parkland survivor, took the stage, he started his speech by attaching a price tag to his shirt labeled “$1.05.”
He said of the gesture, “I’m going to start off by putting this price tag right here as a reminder for you guys to know how much Marco Rubio took for every student’s life in Florida.”
In a page entitled “Don’t Put a Price on Our Lives” on the March for Our Lives website, the movement claims “There are 3,140,167 students enrolled in Florida. Marco Rubio has received $3,303,355 from the NRA. That comes out to $1.05 per student.”
Marco Rubio is a senator for Florida, where Parkland is. Hogg’s message was clear, support gun control or be voted out. He finished his speech by saying, “To those politicians supported by the NRA that allow the continued slaughter of our children and our future, I say get your resumes ready.”
Tappan Vickery, a volunteer coordinator with HeadCount, an organization that helps to register voters at events was there striving to ensure that.
Throughout the mall there were seven stations set up by HeadCount, and over 800 volunteers spread out across the area, Vickery said. Their goal was to collect a thousand total new registrations by the end of the event. At just the station she was at she noted they had registered about 200 new voters.
She noted that most of the new registrations were for young voters, and a number of those too young to vote had pre-registered so that they can vote once they turn 18.
She told The VOICE, “It’s so awesome to see these kids excited about wanting to engage.”
