In the wake of the tragic events that unfolded last week at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, something incredible happened. Students who survived the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 17 of their friends and teachers pushed back and said: to heck with your thoughts and prayers, we want sensible gun reform now.
Two of those students who are now part of the #NeverAgain movement, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas seniors Carly Novell and Delaney Tarr stopped by The Opposition with Jordan Klepper on Tuesday evening, to add their well-reasoned remarks to the conversation. “I think we made it very clear that we’ve been fighting for common sense gun law, we just want people to stop getting shot,” Tarr said, when asked what they hoped the response to the tragedy would be. “We want children to stop dying at the hands of AR-15s and semi-automatic rifles.”
“I think there should be legislation to give us a step in the right direction, something small, to start towards gun control,” added Novell.
Klepper followed up by asking the two girls why their generation can’t just be content with thoughts and prayers, which has clearly worked (not) so well in the past. “Well as we’ve discovered, thoughts and prayers generally don’t protect you from gunfire,” Tarr responded, to massive applause from the audience.
She went on to point out that whereas the victims of Sandy Hook were too young to speak for themselves and Columbine occurred in the years before social media, their generation has “a platform and a voice that is unprecedented.” Looking back, it’s hard to believe that the Columbine shooting happened before of these students were even born.
Speaking of that platform, Novell and Tarr later promoted the March For Our Lives rally which will take place in Washington D.C. on March 24 — spearheaded entirely by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas survivors. George and Amal Clooney have already pledged $500,000 towards the rally with Oprah later following suite.
With any luck, and help from the efforts of these brave kids, maybe this really will be the last school shooting in America.