High school students from the Washington, DC area held a ‘lie-in’ protest outside the White House, demanding gun control legislation. The protest comes after the recent school shooting in Florida, where 17 people were killed.
Gathered outside the White House on Monday, activists read out the names of the victims that were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida. Students then laid down in the street outside President Donald Trump’s residence for three minutes at a time, in a bid to highlight the relatively short amount of time it took 19-year-old alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz to kill 17 people with an AR-15 rifle.
Cruz was arrested roughly 40 minutes after the attack and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder. School students have been at the forefront of protests ever since.
There was a brief scuffle between a protester and a man who brought a pro-gun sign to the rally. Otherwise, the demonstration passed without incident.
“I used to feel pretty safe but this has been happening more and more and the people in Florida probably thought it would never be them until it was, so I don’t know if my school’s next,” one young girl told Ruptly.
“It’s certainly strange to think that children are out here, some of these children are elementary school age protesting about guns," another protester said.
This hasn’t happened anywhere else in the world and you know the news is on and my mom tries to change channel for my little sister who is ten years old, she doesn’t want her to feel scared and unsafe or not sleep at night because she is scared that someone with guns gonna come to her school and kill her and her friends and her teachers.
Students who survived the shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas are urging children and parents to join them in a massive new protest. A group of five senior and junior students at the school, led by Cameron Kasky, appeared on several major TV networks over the weekend to drum up support for a “March for Our Lives” rally, scheduled to take place on March 24 in Washington, DC.
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“Every kid in this country now goes to school wondering if this day might be their last. We live in fear,”reads the March For Our Lives mission statement.
"It doesn’t have to be this way. Change is coming. And it starts now, inspired by and led by the kids who are our hope for the future. Their young voices will be heard."
Trump was not at the White House during Monday’s protest, having spent Friday visiting victims and first responders of the tragedy. He reportedly spent the rest of Presidents’ Day weekend at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort, where he asked members about gun control issues.
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