After yet another mass shooting rocked the nation, many are calling on politicians to finally act, but it looks like Hollywood will step up first.
A gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida last week, killing 17 people. Now, students and community members are demanding lawmakers to enact gun control laws that would prevent further tragedies from occurring.
“We can’t ignore the issues of gun control that this tragedy raises. And so, I’m asking — no, demanding — we take action now,” said Cameron Kasky, a junior at the school. “At the end of the day, the students at my school felt one shared experience — our politicians abandoned us by failing to keep guns out of schools.”
Many have hoped legislators would vote on common sense gun laws after previous tragedies, but nothing has happened. Because of this, students across the country are organizing an anti-gun violence march to get politicians to finally do something. And they just got a boost from Oprah Winfrey.
“I am joining forces with you and will match your $500,000 donation to ‘March For Our Lives.,” Winfrey said on Twitter after George Clooney vowed to donate $500,000 to the march. “These inspiring young people remind me of the Freedom Riders of the 60s who also said we’ve had ENOUGH and our voices will be heard.”
The March For Our Lives will take place on March 24 in Washington, D.C. According to organizers, now is the time to act because “school safety is not a political issue.”
“Inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar,” the group said in a statement. “In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now.”