Parkland students Leni Steinhardt, Brianna Fisher and Zoe Gordon were interviewed on MSNBC by Joy Reid earlier.
“I want to be able to be the people’s voice who unfortunately aren’t able to be here, the ones that don’t get to voice their opinions about this issue because they suffered from it,” said Zoe. “So I really want to be their voice and their megaphone and call out for change.”
Leni said: “We were just in New York just last week, doing a panel there, and a couple of students were coming up to us and saying you’re inspiring to us, we’re looking up to you, we’re going to fight with you, and I just tell them, first of all thank you, but we’re just students who want to create change, and we hope that they march along with us today.”
Leni and Brianna on the MSNBC with Joy Reed talking about their collaboration with the Guardian. Photograph: Jane Spencer/The Guardian
In response to the renewed attention to the movement to combat gun violence in the US, youth organizers in Chicago and Baltimore formed a new organization: Good Kids Mad City.
The group of 1,500 teenagers is working to bring attention to the violence faced every day in inner cities and the systemic issues that perpetuate this violence.
In Chicago this morning, members rallied outside a hospital where people injured or killed in shootings on the city’s west side are treated.
Parkland student David Hogg is giving interviews to the press. He is insisting on how crucial it is for young people to register to vote - “to hold politicians to account”. “We have a right to our lives and we’re going to fight for that”, he said. pic.twitter.com/5Kg97ri0LI
“On the way here, I’ve been meeting people from all over and thats what I’ve been telling you all along that it’s not just Parkland and Douglas— It is going to affect everyone, and here they are.” - Diana Haneski, Media specialist at MSD, told Parkland student correspondent Nikhita Nookala.
Suzanna Barna sends this view of the crowd from the roof terrace of the Newseum, the media museum in Washington.
My colleague Jessica Reed is also at the march in Washington.
This is Isabel, 16, and Evelyn, 11, from Chicago. They are urging all adults around them to pick up the phone and call their representatives. "People in my age group ... all we can do right now is march and urge adults to push for change". pic.twitter.com/KDc8IzvmKi
This is Isabel, 16, and Evelyn, 11, from Chicago. They both came to DC to be part of the “bigger march”, and they’re urging all adults around them to pick up the phone and call their representatives. “People in my age group ... all we can do right now is march and urge adults to make a change”, she says.
Evelyn and Isabel were standing next to Soheir, 71, originally from Egypt, and John, her Republican-turned-Democrat husband (he is 72, and a Vietnam veteran).
Soheir, 71, and John, her Republican-turned-Democrat husband (he is 72, and a Vietnam vet). John said: "[teens] should tell all adults that instead of them being on Facebook, adults should go and vote! And if you can't show up at your representative's door, you should call!” pic.twitter.com/ug6cdSbwNM
John turned the teenagers, and said with force: “[Young people] should tell all adults that instead of them being on Facebook, they should go and vote! And if you can’t show up at your representative’s door, you should call them!”
The teenagers agreed - they can’t wait to vote, they said.
Still no comment yet from Donald Trump, who is in Florida, apparently at his golf club, today.
But deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters issued this statement:
We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their first amendment rights [right to free speech] today.
Keeping our children safe is a top priority of the president’s, which is why he urged Congress to pass the Fix Nics and Stop School Violence Acts, and signed them into law.
Additionally, on Friday, the Department of Justice issued the rule to ban bump stocks following through on the president’s commitment to ban devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.
Staff carry trays of coffee at Mar-a-lago while the President is in residence Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Melissa Falkowski, a journalism teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, sends this video of the crowd in Washington.
Her students are continuing to interview marchers.
“I lost my daughter to gun violence four years ago,” Paula Cross of Willoughby Hills, Ohio, told Rebecca Schneid. “There are so many things that need to be done that aren’t being done. I came to support the movement you kids are starting.”
Paula Cross of Willoughby Hills, Ohio Photograph: Rebecca Schneid/The Guardian
“Kids like me shouldn’t be at school and be worrying about dying,” said 17-year-old Samanthan Konigsberg of Dalton high school in New York City. “Ninety-six people a day die from gun violence. Why do we have to be worrying about getting shot instead of SATs and Prom? It’s ruining our childhood.”
Photograph: Rebecca Schneid/The Guardian
“I went to the women’s march a year ago and that was got me started with activism,” said 17-year-old Leah Campbell, who goes to Severna Park High School in Maryland.
“We will be able to vote soon, and unless they start taking action, they’re not going to be in office much longer,” Aja Mathis, an 11th grader from New Jersey, told Christy Ma.
“I’m here to fight for change in gun regulations,” Alexx Vieux told Lewis Mizen. “It means the world to be a part of a movement that has sparked hope across the nation. As a survivor it is my responsibility to make change and prevent this from happening in the future.”
Some long-time gun violence activists are hailing how the Parkland teenagers have reinvigorated the movement, while also pushing for the momentum to be delivered to black and Latino communities – which are disproportionately affected by gun violence.
This week, representatives from those communities gathered at the Urban Gun Violence Town Hall in Atlanta.
The Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reported on the efforts to bring the momentum of the movement to end gun violence to the communities that need it most:
Activists came from inner-cities across the country – from Chicago, Oakland, New York City, Miami and beyond – to discuss whether the desire for gun reform can be channelled towards preventing everyday gun violence.
“Background checks and assault weapons bans – this doesn’t solve all the gun violence. It doesn’t solve why people want to take up a gun,” Mosley told the Guardian. “I’m so fearful that once this banner goes up of ‘mission accomplished’ that we won’t talk about high unemployment rates, or how people can’t find a job. How they’re told that every door of opportunity is closed for them but prison.”
Meanwhile Richard Luscombe is in Parkland, Florida, at the scene of the shooting, where a march is also expected today.
While classmates are rallying in Washington, thousands more Stoneman Douglas survivors, their families and supporters are among tens of thousands gathering in Parkland this morning to march to the scene of last month’s shooting.
Officials have predicted that anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 people will listen to the speeches from the amphitheatre at Pine Trails Park before walking the mile south to Stoneman Douglas high school.
It’s an overwhelming number for a city with a population barely above 30,000, and the logistics of such an event have been a challenge. But to the students who have remained to march in honour of their 17 lost friends and teachers, there was never a question of being anywhere else.
“Parkland is a family. And when our family is hurting, we all come together,” said Liam Kiernan, a 15-year-old MSD 10th grader. “We become stronger because we feel we’re all one person.
“We all have that same desire of change because 17 lives were taken for no reason and we need to come together more than ever. This shows how much of a family we are.”
Kiernan, 15, is walking with his father, and is hoping to link up with a number of his classmates. He says the mood inside the school since they returned to classes two weeks after the massacre has been sombre, but that students and teachers have been determined in the lead up to today.
“Everybody has been been kind of solemn but everyone’s come together at the hardest of times, really showed strength and love,” he said. “It’s one of the hardest times of all of our lives, but we’re going to come together. Some of my teachers have gotten tattoos, they’ve been so amazing. You need all the help you can get.”
The message from today, Kiernan says, is that the Parkland students will be heard. “What we want to tell everyone is we’re still here, we’re still resilient after everything that happened. Our message is we don’t want this to ever happen again. The first time should have been the last. We want to show the whole world that hey, we’re here, and this needs to stop.
“At Columbine, they didn’t have the technology to get their voices heard. At Sandy Hook the victims were too young. In Parkland the kids have social media, instagram, snapchat, these new sources that they can come to and just speak and tell of what they’re feeling from their hearts. That has connected with a lot of the world, and everyone’s started listening because they can connect with these students that are hurting.”
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