On March 24, a March for Our Lives rally was held in Athens along side nation-wide protests for gun control in the United States. Photos by Jordan Rhym
Co-Editor-in-Chief Aneesa Conine-Nakano discusses the impact students can have on gun control following the Parkland, Florida shooting in February.
Students at Clarke Central High School were roughly between the ages of nine and 13 on Dec. 14, 2012 when Adam Lanza killed 26 students and faculty members at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
After the shooting, I remember my Instagram page flooding with text posts sending prayers and love to the people in Newtown, Connecticut. It made sense. When something is so hard to grasp and the politics surrounding gun control is a mystery to middle schoolers, what else would they post?
Over five years later, my classmates and I learned about the devastating mass shooting in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14, where 17 people died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSDHS).
However unlike following the Sandy Hook shooting, I saw posts with the words “thoughts and prayers” crossed out and replaced with two words: “policy and change.”
In my last editorial featured in Volume 15, Issue 3 of the ODYSSEY Newsmagazine, I discussed the amount of conflict and at times stagnation that comes from armchair activism. It was easy to brush this off as something that would pass quickly. A post is just a post if nothing comes from it.
After all, if the death of 20 children in 2012 wasn’t enough to pass the 2013 Assault Weapons Ban and legislation like the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, which would allow anyone with a concealed carry permit to carry in all 50 states, was passed through the House of Representatives at the end of 2017, how would this change people’s minds?
Shortly after the Parkland massacre, students from MSDHS began speaking out. Most notably, student Emma Gonzalez delivered a 11-minute speech that went viral stating, “They say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred — we call B.S.! That us kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works — we call B.S.!”
Never before had there been this big of a push for advocacy and education regarding gun legislation by and for teenagers. Several protests, marches and walkouts have been planned including the one that took place on March 24.
It is easy to become pessimistic after years of seeing minimal progress and at times, regression of gun control, however what we can learn from the students at MSDHS is that our voices matter and can be heard.
I turned 18 years old 10 days before the Parkland shooting. Many of the seniors at CCHS are either already 18 or turning 18 shortly. We have the power of advocacy and an actual say in elected representatives.
Do research. Form opinions. Find ways to contribute to the movement and then fully engage.
We cannot afford to stay silent about tragedies and legislation that has a direct effect on our safety. People are ready to hear our voices and now is the time to speak up.
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