Many civil rights movements have been started by students. And here they are. Hundreds of thousands of young people are taking part in March for Our Lives 2018, the first march for gun law reform, organised in Washington and in 840 other cities around the world.
Today's is the first March for Our Lives, an event that has seen enormous numbers of young people — far more than expected, and not only young people — take to the streets of Washington and 840 cities around the world. It appears that 500,000 people have gathered in the US capital alone, and when the sister marches are taken into account the total number of participants will exceed one million. They are taking to the streets to voice their opposition to gun use in the United States. To demand a political response to the problem of the proliferation of firearms. To demand that their lives no longer be at risk.
The Washington Post is live-streaming on YouTube from 11:30 in the morning. The march, which set off at 11 o'clock local time from Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest and 12th Street Northwest, also seems like an attempt to send the White House a message about the strain of living a daily life in which one's life is potentially at risk. This comes just after President Donald Trump described free access to guns as a "non-issue". March for Our Lives has received the support of numerous public figures, including George and Amal Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Gucci and Oprah Winfrey. Among the celebrities taking part in the various marches are Amy Schumer, Yara Shahidi, Connie Britton and Olivia Wilde, all united under the hashtag #NeverAgain. Which is a promise, perhaps, more than a hope.
The event that triggered this initiative is what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on 14 February, when seventeen students were killed in a shooting by Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from the school. That day, the lives of countless people changed for ever. The morning after, sitting in the school grounds, all the students wept for their friends and teachers who had been killed.
But instead of once again retreating, after dozens of incidents of this kind, to weep within the reassuring walls of home, this time something stirred. More than something. One million young people stirred.