We are speaking up for those who don’t have anyone listening to them, for those who can’t talk about it just yet, and for those who will never speak again.
We are grieving, we are furious, and we are using our words fiercely and desperately because that’s the only thing standing between us and this happening again.
Emma González was born on 11 November 1999. On 14 February 2018 a shooter opened fire with a legally-obtained gun at González’s school in Parkland, Florida. Fourteen students and three staff members from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were killed: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Scott Beigel, 35; Martin Duque, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Aaron Feis, 37; Jaime Guttenberg, 14; Chris Hixon, 49; Luke Hoyer, 15; Cara Loughran, 14; Gina Montalto, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Alaina Petty, 14; Meadow Pollack, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alex Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16 and Peter Wang, 15. Many other people were seriously injured.
At the time of the shooting, González was in her school auditorium. Dozens of students were held there for two hours until police had secured the area.
WHAT EMMA DID NEXT
In response to the shooting, a group of twenty student-survivors formed the political action committee Never Again MSD, with González in their number.
Three days after the shooting, on 17 February 2018, several members of the group gave speeches at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. González gave a speech now known as “We Call BS” which became a viral sensation in its unapologetic disgust for political apathy towards gun control in the US.
On 20 February 2018, the Never Again MSD group organised a march on the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee. González and other students spoke with Florida state legislators, and watched the Florida House vote down the consideration of a bill to ban assault weapons with high-capacity magazines.
González and other students organised the nationwide March for Our Lives protest for 24 March 2018. González was on stage for six minutes and twenty seconds, the length of the Parkland shooting. After a powerful speech, she stood in silence with the crowd for over four minutes.
GET OUT THE VOTE
Gun violence is on the ballot. Our lives are in the hands of the people we elect. Vote in every election like it’s your last, because it very well could be.
In the months following the shooting and in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, the students involved in Never Again MSD spent several months touring the US with a simple message: “vote for our lives.”
By increasing youth participation, they argued, young people could vote for politicians with tougher stances on gun control, and vote out those who were supported by the NRA and opposed gun control legislation.
González was a frequent speaker at these events, remarking that voting is “your chance to be a hero for yourself and everyone you love.”
The 2018 midterm elections saw a 50% increase in the participation of voters aged between 18 and 29. This was the highest youth participation out of the previous seven midterm elections.
IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU MEDDLING KIDS
In March 2018, the Florida Legislature passed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. The Act raised the minimum age for buying firearms to 21, established waiting periods and background checks and barred potentially violent people from possessing guns. This was the first time in 30 years that a Florida legislature had passed any restrictions on gun ownership.
González’s determination in the face of personal tragedy is a lesson in the conversion of sorrow into action. She stands as a counter proof to the lazy argument that young people are apathetic to the political process. Her activism is proof of the fact that a group of committed individuals, regardless of their age, have the capacity to mobilise an entire movement and effect genuine change.
Freedom of Dissenters 