Emma Gonzalez brings March for Our Lives rally to an emotional silence

“This kid was flagged”, Kashuv said of accused shooter Nikolas Cruz and reports to law enforcement before the shooting that he posed a threat.

The 18-year-old survivor of the Parkland shooting has been battling with legislators (including a Republican candidate who thought it was appropriate to call her a “skinhead lesbian” and “bald-faced liar”) and trolls since the massacre. “We have to make sure this will never happen again anywhere, anywhere in the world”.

A second big change, Pariser said, is that the students who have spoken out after the shooting haven’t generally been accused by mainstream political figures of politicizing the event. “It takes one shooting for it to start a movement”.

Gonzalez was one of the final speakers at the Washington, D.C., rally.

“This is the country’s capital, this is where all the big guys meet”, McCarthy said. And while the most visible of the Stoneman Douglas survivors made their way to Washington D.C. for the main march, those who stayed behind continued the fight on their home turf. “But just as a heart needs blood to pump, my hometown needs the alliance of other communities to properly spread this message”, she said.

“I just felt like enough is enough”, Herman said. “Everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands”, she said.

“Pointing out the irony of someone wearing the flag of a communist country while simultaneously calling for gun control isn’t “picking” on anyone”. Future victims are likely to copy the Parkland students in speaking out about the violence, being direct about the political failings that led to the events, vocally demanding that lawmakers fix the problem, and knocking down conspiracy theories. “I represent the African-American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant lovely girls full of potential”.

Another senseless mass murder in the United States.

Warner says in response to those votes that “I think it’s time to change our positions and re-examine them”.

Kasky said measures backed by President Donald Trump included in the recent federal spending bill, including $2.5 billion for school safety programs and improvements to the federal background check system used for gun purchases, fell short of Trump’s initial call to raise the age to purchase a gun to 21.

Students also shared how their experience with gun violence has impacted them, their friends and the nation as a whole.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill named after Marjory Stoneman Douglas High that raised the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21.

Gonzalez, who is head of the Stoneman Douglas Gay-Straight Alliance, wore an olive green jacket with multiple patches, to include the flag of the communist Cuban state, as she spoke.