A group of Florida students who survived a mass shooting at their high school in February said they will spend their summer on a 75-stop bus tour rallying for stricter gun control laws.
About two dozen students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School said Monday the focus of the bus tour will be to register people to vote with the aim of bringing in more voters who support reforms to U.S. gun laws.
“Four million people turn 18 this year. And if every single one of those people votes, encourages their friends to vote, makes sure their family is getting to the polls, we can make real change in this country,” said Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, during a news conference in Parkland, Florida.
‘Road to Change’
The student organizers, who wore matching “Road to Change” T-shirts, said the bus tour will focus on districts where elected officials have received significant money from the National Rifle Association, a gun-rights lobbying group that has long organized get-out-the-vote efforts for gun-rights supporters.
The tour is the latest development in a youth-led campaign against gun violence sparked by the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day, which left 17 people dead.
In the months since the shooting, Parkland students have organized rallies in Florida’s capital, Tallahassee, as well a march in Washington.
The summer bus tour will begin June 15 in Chicago and will make stops in more than 20 states before concluding in Florida. It will also stop in every congressional district in Florida, according to the organizers.
The students said their tour is being funded through donations.
Graduation
On Sunday, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School held its graduation, paying tribute to those killed in February’s mass shooting.
Senior class president Julia Cordover urged students to change the world by voting in this November’s congressional elections.
The parents and siblings who came to the stage to pick up the diplomas in place of the murdered children received standing ovations.
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