Survivors of the 2018 Parkland massacre and gun control activists gathered outside Congress in Washington, D.C., Monday to demand lawmakers pass the Background Check Expansion Act, which was introduced in January of this year. Seventeen students, staff and teachers were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. The action came one year after the historic March for Our Lives, which was inspired and led by students and took place in over 700 locations around the world. This is gun control activist and a survivor of the shooting, Emma González, reading her message to lawmakers.
Emma González: “Dear Senator, every year 1,600 children across the country lose their lives due to gun violence. The fabric you hold in your hands represents 16 lives that you can save by voting yes on S.42. What will you do?”
The rally follows two apparent suicides in the last week by survivors of the Parkland massacre.
In more gun control news, the federal ban on bump stocks—accessories that turn semiautomatic rifles into fully automatic machine guns—is going into effect today, despite last-ditch efforts from so-called gun rights groups to appeal the new law.