More than 100 teenagers at Rocky River High School joined thousands of their fellow students across Ohio today, observing 17 minutes of silence in honor of the victims of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. StateImpact Ohio’s Ashton Marra reports the local demonstration was about more than the victims.
A number of student demonstrations across the country were organized solely to honor those killed in the nation’s third deadliest school shooting on February 14. But in Rocky River, the student organizers were also calling on members of Congress to enact stricter gun laws to prevent future shootings.
Seventeen-year-old senior Ariel Russell wants an increase to the minimum age for purchasing firearms and to restrict semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“But a lot of me is genuinely worried that it is going to take my generation to do this because we haven’t been listened to by legislators.”
Her classmate, 18-year-old Duncan Feighan, agrees.
“I hope that this entire country stands up in inspiration of us and puts an end to this. Put an end to this partisan politics that has infected the issue of gun violence.”
Wednesday marked one month since the Parkland shooting.
