Parkland Students Launch Nationwide 50 Stops Tour To Register Young Voters & Talk Gun Laws Reform
/Anyone who thought the Parkland students might go into summer hibernation, hitting the beach and soaking up the rays is wrong. Last Sunday 788 diplomas -- four of them posthumous --- were handed out to graduating seniors of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. On Monday students of the March for Our Lives movement announced the kickoff of a national summer bus tour designed to raise awareness around gun control issues and to register voters in advance of the November midterms.
Launching June 15th at the Peace March in Chicago, the tour – named March for Our Lives: Road to Change – will make 50 stops across America in 60 days. The state of Florida will not be forgotten when a separate tour led by March for Our Lives activists rolls into action, with events in all 27 of Florida’s congressional districts. Registering young people to vote and educating the community about where their political candidates stand on gun reform and their relationship to the NRA is the students' priority.
"After we had the march, our thought process was, ‘Now that everybody knows what’s going on, how do we actually get them to do something and act on what they now understand and feel?'" Stoneman Douglas junior and March for Our Lives activist Alfonso Calderon tells Rolling Stone. "That’s why we decided that we wanted to be face-to-face with different people from all parts of the country, many of whom are underrepresented. Those are the people who are really going to make a difference in these votes, which are going to save lives."