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Parkland Students Have Big Summer Plans (That Might Worry the NRA)
Parkland Students Have Big Summer Plans (That Might Worry the NRA)
With the midterm election nearly upon us, March For Our Lives activists won't let voters ignore gun control.
Students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School are spending their summer protesting -- this time, with a bus tour demanding political change on gun reform.
March For Our Lives activists announced two "Road To Change" bus tours taking place this summer that aim to get young people registered to vote in the mid-terms. "Even after this summer, we're not going away until this epidemic is cured," Parkland student Jaclyn Corin told the Sun-Sentinel.
A mass shooting at MSD High on February 14 left 17 dead, including four students who would have graduated on Sunday night. But the shooting also made national celebrities of student activists who, in the wake of the tragedy, became prominent voices demanding changes in gun laws. Emma Gonzalez, president of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance, proved such an effective voice she was named this year to The Advocate's Hall of Fame, and was inducted on Friday at the magazine's Champions of Pride gala.
Gonzalez and other prominent leaders like David Hogg and Cameron Kasky stood among fellow March For Our Lives students on Monday morning to announce the Road to Change bus tour. That came after movement members on Sunday tweeted out a promise for 800 more marches.
\u201cSchool\u2019s out. But our work is just beginning. Tomorrow we\u2019ll announce what\u2019s next. \n\n#MarchForOurLives\u201d— March For Our Lives \u262e\ufe0f (@March For Our Lives \u262e\ufe0f) 1528065431
The Road to Change will have two legs. One will travel to more than 20 states and make upward of 50 stops in places where National Rifle Association-backed candidates are running for office. There will also be a separate bus tour of Florida, the Parkland activists' home state, with 25 stops and a promise to travel to every Congressional district in the state.
"We're going to places where the NRA has bought and paid for politicians who refuse to take simple steps to save our lives," reads a statement on the March for Our Lives website, "and we'll be visiting a number of communities that have been affected by gun violence to meet fellow survivors and use our voices to amplify theirs."
The Sun-Sentinel also reports the group plans to critique Florida gubernatorial candidate Adam Putnam, whose boasts of being a "Proud NRA sellout." He inspired a Publix boycott earlier this year that led the grocery store chain to cut off its donations to Putnam and all candidates. They'll also critique Gov. Rick Scott, the likely Republican nominee for Senate against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson. "He [Scott] doesn't listen because he has his eyes on the prize, which is NRA money," Corin told the newspaper.
