Saturday, March 24, 2018

Emma Gonzalez is a Warrior for Change


Emma Gonzalez, survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida. After the shooting Gonzalez, 18,  gave a speech advocating for gun control in the US. In the speech, she called out the NRA, Trump and called BS to gun industry talking points declaring, "They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works. We call BS." Her bravery and impassioned plea absolutely catapulted her into the spotlight making her one of America's most prominent advocates for gun control. More recently Gonzalez appeared on 60 Minutes. When asked why she thought the issue of arming teachers was stupid, she responded. "First of all, they have-- Douglas ran out of paper for, like, two weeks in the school year, and now all a sudden they have $400 million to pay for teachers to get trained to arm themselves? Really?"  Last week Gonzalez wrote an outstanding essay on gun control for Teen Vogue. In her essay she writes, "we don’t need to wait around to have our voices heard or for someone else to make a change — we have to be the change we need to see.” Today hundreds of thousands are expected to participate across the country in the March For Our Lives rally which sends a message to Congress for tougher gun regulations. If you're interested in joining the fight visit the hashtags #neveragain and #marchforourlives on Twitter. Gonzalez can be followed on Twitter at @Emma4Change

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