Caroline Carter-Teens push for stronger gun control in lie-in at White House

Washington D.C. teens desperate for stronger gun control participated in a lie-in outside the White House this morning in response to the Parkland, FL shooting. The teens, responding to a call from local group Teens for Gun Reform, lay on the sidewalk in ways resembling dead bodies for only a few minutes to symbolize the ease and speed with which anyone can legally purchase an assault weapon. Teens for Gun Reform is part of a new national movement of student-led groups advocating for better gun laws. Students from Stoneman Douglas High School have also organized a rally in D.C. in late March, with smaller rallies and protests being scheduled in states across the country. Some groups are even organizing nationwide school walk-outs. EMPOWER, the Women's March youth branch, is organizing a walk-out on March 14, the one-month anniversary of the Parkland shooting. Other groups will be staging their protests on April 20th, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. The White House has responded to these protests by scheduling a listening session with Stoneman Douglas students and teachers later this week.

After almost every mass shooting, victims and their families are swept under the rug after a week or so of sending out "thoughts and prayers" and national coverage on every news channel. However, these students are refusing to be ignored and acting on their feelings in the hopes that they can stop a similar tragedy befalling anyone else. In the years leading up to the passage of the 19th amendment, women's suffrage activists did much of the same by rallying and pushing until the government satisfied their demands for their rights. These protests and new groups are a prime example of people exercising their right to peacefully assemble and use their voice in democracy to inflict the change they wish to see in the world.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/19/587089773/teens-lie-in-at-white-house-to-protest-for-stronger-gun-control