Hundreds of Americans took to the streets on March 24 all across the country in order to advocate for more gun control after the infamous Stoneman Douglas shooting and similar shootings.
The main march took place in Washington D.C, but over 800 sibling marches took place around the globe. The closest marches to the school were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois.
“The sheer number of people there shows just how many people want change in some way or another,” freshman Mason Rathunde said.
People of all ages and backgrounds participated in the marches, an idea origanally organized by Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the Stoneman Douglas shooting.
“There were many signs all saying various things, but they all summed up one major thing,” Rathunde said. “That thing is that the people wanted and needed change.”
The people who participated in the marches carried signs to get their message across. The messages ranged from short and succinct, such as “Me Next?”, to slogans such as “The Scariest Thing In A School Should Be My Grades.”
“There was one I could recall that actually had a backpack soaking in blood with a bullet hole in the back mounted on crude wooden sticks,” Rathunde said.
The marches, known as “March for our lives,” are working not only to change gun control laws, but are also uniting advocates for stronger gun control in pursuit of a common goal. As tragic as the shootings are, the citizens are banding together to change the government.
“[The march] should, in theory, grab the attention of our representatives and other government officials,” Rathunde said.