#MeNext ?: Schoolchildren in the US Demand Arms Trade

Students at the American School of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, where 14 February killed 17 people, were trained in case of an attack with a firearm. Special exercises were conducted at the school, video surveillance systems were installed and emergency exits were identified, but this did not save the students during a real attack. with the BBC.

Фото: Depositphotos

Realizing that even being prepared, it was very difficult to avoid panic and escape, the students at the school in Parkland, as well as many other American schools, organized a spontaneous movement that required toughening laws on the sale of firearms in the United States.

“In Newtown the students were too young and didn’t know what to do. But believe me, everything will be different for us,” said Parkland school student Alex Wind, who survived the shooting.

When shooting began at his school on Wednesday, Alex and 60 other students hid in a dark dressing room for an hour and a half while gunshots were heard outside.

Immediately after these tragic events, Alex and four of his friends founded a campaign called Never Again. And now several dozen teenagers are waging a tireless campaign, including on American cable TV channels, declaring that they will not give up and will demand a ban on the arms trade until the end.

“It’s completely crazy that a 19-year-old can’t buy liquor in a store, but can easily buy an AR-15 assault rifle, a military weapon,” Alex says.

Participants in the movement announced their intention to hold a March 24 “For Our Lives” in cooperation with other organizations advocating the introduction of measures to control the trade in weapons.

17-year-old student Cameron Kaski stated that his movement aims to ensure that politicians accept donations to their election funds from lobbyists who advocate for the free trade in arms are considered shameful and unacceptable.

“I want to tell all politicians - you are either with us or against us. We are paying with our lives for the games of adult politicians,” he said.

Twitter screenshot

A group of survivors from a shooting in a Florida school invites all students from the country to cooperate in organizing protests. For this, social networks and platforms are used.

15-year-old Lane Murdock from Connecticut so outraged the Florida massacre that she felt it necessary to respond to it.

“When I saw these reports on TV, the saddest thing was that it all sounded like a completely ordinary and common thing,” she says.

She, like other American schoolchildren, was accustomed to the fact that even in elementary school there are regular exercises to evacuate students. She remembers the first such teaching when she was seven years old.

“We all hide in some secluded room, sit on the floor and cross our legs. Our teacher turns off the lights, locks the doors and lowers the blinds on the windows,” she says.

Lane dreams of becoming a journalist and, despite his young age, is seriously working to establish links with other community groups, trying to make the upcoming protest action united and effective.

Violet Massi-Vereker, who lived hundreds of miles from Florida, put forward her own simple and provocative idea to draw attention to the debate on arms reform.

Building on the success of the #MeToo feminist campaign, this 16-year-old schoolgirl proposed a #MeNext movement? (“Am I Next?”), in which students and parents could voice their concerns and demand reform of gun laws.

Together with a group of classmates and their parents, she left with a poster on which this tag was drawn, at the gate of her school in Pelham, New York.

After the events in Florida at her school, the director gathered all the students and made a reminder of the evacuation measures in case of an attack.

“She told us: ‘I would like to assure you that nothing like that can happen here, but I can’t promise that,’” Violet said.

Now her page in Facebook has over 10 thousands of subscribers.

In Michigan, students at a Kalamazoo high school have already collected almost 50 signatures on their own “Students Against Guns” petition.

17-year-old Julia Kemple-Johnson says this idea came about during a dispute the day after the killings at a school in Parkland.

“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t hear about such killings in schools,” she says. “Teachers told us that the Columbine High School murders led to an explosion of public outrage. But we were born later, now these things happen every month, and we are used to them.”

Twitter screenshot

Members of her group are trying to connect with similar groups of students in Colorado and establish contact with surviving students at the Florida school. Their goal is to send messages to state congressmen demanding the introduction of a mandatory waiting period for the purchase of firearms to verify the identity of the buyer, as well as an overhaul of laws on the sale of semi-automatic weapons.

In Maine, students at Mount Desert High School held a silent protest the day after the shooting at a school in Parkland.

Such groups and movements are growing every hour, and their organizers are trying to coordinate actions among themselves.

Recall 14 February in high school in Parkland, Florida, shooting occurred as a result of which at least 17 people died and several injured. This crime was one of the most massive school shootings in US history. First, the attacker, Nicholas Cruise, triggered a fire alarm that caused panic at school, and then opened fire on the people running.

Also read eyewitness shooting records at school in florida stories of dead victims, shocking details from the life of arrow nicholas cruz and interview with the family that sheltered him.

All news about school shooting read here.

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