Student survivors of the Parkland school shooting will take their March for Our Lives movement on the road this summer, for a barnstorming US tour.



'Don't let anything stop you,' Jimmy Fallon tells Parkland school graduates Read more

The teenagers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school plan to make 75 stops in a 60-day, 20-state bus tour that is set to include meetings with victims and survivors of other school shootings, including the one in Sante Fe, Texas, last month, in which 10 people were killed.

The aim is to promote gun law reform and unseat politicians tied to the gun lobby through a massive drive to register young people to vote. A simultaneous bus tour in Florida will make a further 25 stops, in each of the state’s congressional districts.

The students announced their “Road to Change” tour at a press conference at the Pine Trails Park amphitheatre in Parkland, a venue that three months ago served as the memorial site for the 14 classmates and three teachers who were murdered on 14 February.

“This generation is the generation of students you will be reading about next in the textbooks,” said Cameron Kasky, 17, a leader of the Never Again movement that aims to build on the momentum gained by March for Our Lives rallies held in the aftermath of the shooting.

“Four million people turn 18 this year and if every single one votes, encourages their friends to vote and their families, we can bring real change in this country.

“A lot of politicians do not want a lot of young people voting; they want marginalised communities staying out of the polls because they know they’ll be voted out. Our generation can change the game, we do not have to surrender to dirty, awful politics.”

Sign up to receive the top US stories every morning

The student group has made no secret of targeting November’s midterm elections and elected officials supported financially by the National Rifle Association.

The bus tour will begin on Friday 15 June at a peace march in Chicago led by students from St Sabina Academy, several of whom teamed up with Parkland survivors in south Florida in March to discuss the drive for gun law reform. From there, students will traverse the nation, including stops in California, Iowa, South Carolina and Connecticut.

The Florida tour aims to put pressure on state politicians seen as weak on gun reform, despite the Republican legislature and governor passing into law in March the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. That law raised the age for firearms purchases to 21, banned the sale of bump stocks, which increase the rate of fire in semi-automatic weapons, and provided $400m for mental health treatment.

“So many state laws have been passed in order to make us safe around the country, but it is not enough,” Kasky said.

About 25 Stoneman Douglas students joined Kasky at the announcement, among them Emma González and David Hogg, both 18, two of the most prominent figures in the Never Again campaign. Both were among Stoneman Douglas seniors who attended a graduation ceremony on Sunday at which the late-night comedian Jimmy Fallon made a surprise appearance and speech.

Hogg’s book #NeverAgain, co-authored with his sister Lauren, 14, tells their story of the shooting and the setting up of the students’ protest movement. It will be published later this month.

Hogg has been a frequent target of the gun lobby as he has travelled around the US calling for improved background checks for firearms owners and bans on high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic assault rifles. He said he was encouraged by the support he has seen, which he hopes to turn into positive action.

“A successful summer would be any boost in youth and American voter turnout,” he said. “The amount of apathy we have right now is unacceptable. In the last midterm, 18 to 24-year-olds voted about 18%. That doesn’t sound American to me, and as a result you’ve seen people elected who, for example, don’t support net neutrality.

“Even if you’re not concerned with gun policy, and I think you should be, there’s a parallel between people that take money from the NRA and people that don’t support net neutrality.”

Play Video 0:56 Jimmy Fallon gives speech at Parkland school graduation – video

The Santa Fe shooting, Hogg said, had added fuel to the students’ push for change. “It’s motivated us even more, so that hopefully next year this doesn’t have to happen again,” he said. “Everybody needs to vote.”

‘We have good kids to protect’: the Texan schools where staff carry guns Read more

González said each tour stop was likely to be different. “We’re going from place to place,” she said, “to round tables, to rallies, we’re going to go to people’s churches, their communities, we’re going to talk to people and try to get everybody registered to vote.

“We’ll just talk about whatever. A group of kids I met last week, we were talking gun violence and got sidetracked and started talking about the Backyardigans. Those are the kind of connections that we want to make.

“We’re aiming for places that have experienced a lot of gun violence, or some places where we aren’t necessarily loved. We want to communicate with people, if they have a problem with us we want to address that problem and have a communication and see if there’s any common ground.”

Among those offering support to the students on Monday was Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquim was among the Parkland victims. He who has set up the advocacy group Change the Ref, aimed at diminishing the power of the NRA.

“The price we’ve paid for this is too high but being with them means a lot,” he said of the Stoneman Douglas students.



