One Year Ago, They Marched For Their Lives. Here’s What Happened Next

By De Elizabeth


On March 24, 2018, more than a million people took to the streets in protest of gun violence for the first-ever March For Our Lives (MFOL). Student activists and survivors of the February 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, organized the official event in Washington D.C., While peer activists staged sibling marches in cities around the globe. Several students involved have not stopped fighting for gun reform in the following months, the topic keeps it up and continues to be on the minds of young people daily. And while tangible change has occurred in the form of new gun safety laws and even more offered proposed legislation, one fact remains clear: there really is still a lot of work to be done.


In the early planning stages of MFOL, student organizers had a seemingly sincere outcome in mind: Raise awareness, and motivate others to get involved. “We hoped that the march could be a flashpoint that people saw as a moment they determined to fight before it was also late — before they, also, lost someone to gun violence,” Ryan Deitsch, co-founder of MFOL and MSDHS graduate, told MTV News. “Our objectives were to ... Empower others to stand up and demand an end to gun violence in all communities.”


Charlie Mirsky, MFOL’s co-founder and Political Director, agreed, adding that they aimed to “show that all these pent-up feelings that the nation had [about gun violence] would be represented on a stage for each person to be able to see at one moment.” According to Mirsky, organizers wanted to build upon the momentum from the world’s response to the Parkland shooting sort in attempt to present the gravity of the U.S.’S gun problem. “We wanted to prepare that moment that each person could remember, and show how several people cared about this issue,” he explained.


Gabriella Socio, a 16-year-old who attended the D.C. March and later worked with a local chapter in Middlesex County, NJ, told MTV News that she was drawn to the event immediately after her little brother was so afraid of gun violence, he declined to attend school. “He was only in kindergarten and was scared of getting shot in school,” she mentioned. “I didn’t grow up scared of school, nevertheless my brother does.”


Socio, whose entire family member accompanied her to the march, described the event as “amazing,” adding: “To be around other enthusiastic people is a true once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was able to let my voice be heard, which was something I have never felt before.”


Today, MFOL is more than just the event that took the world by storm last spring. The business equips young people with the needed tools to take action against gun violence, like guides for contacting elected officials, or tips for beginning coalitions at the local level. Mirsky, who soon became the organization’s D.C. Representative, has been busy making a team of student lobbyists all under the age of 21 who are talking directly to lawmakers about gun reform. “In the past year, we’ve built a strong, structured agency to the point where we can continue to mobilize ... And be a real player in this progressive movement,” he mentioned. According to Deitsch, who currently oversees the organization’s content production and partnerships, MFOL right now has more than 200 chapters all across the country.


For the students who have joined MFOL at the local level, the feeling of being on the frontlines of history is palpable. “I was drawn to [MFOL] as I was inspired by the Parkland activists’ drive to spark a change in terms of gun violence,” Quinn Bosselman, who served on the organizing committee in Huntington Beach, California, told MTV News. “After [the march], I couldn’t entirely describe the feeling of gratitude I had for my community and their dedication to such a key topic, and also the aim I had for this movement’s future.”


Jacob Martínez felt identically immediately after serving as one of the lead organizers at a march in Arizona. “It was an overwhelming feeling of unity and strength as ... [We] descended on the state Capitol to mention ‘enough is enough,’” the 17-year-old explained. Inspired by that solidarity, Martínez went on to work as a National Field Organizer for MFOL, and today, is planning to run for city council in District 3 of Mesa, Arizona.


“A big distribute in my run ... Is ensuring the city has a good relationship with our public schools, and is supplying adequate resources for student both relating to their learning and mental health,” the 17-year-old told MTV News. Martínez attributes his want to further enact change to the opening MFOL. “After [the march], there was a sense of accomplishment, knowing we were making an impact larger than ourselves,” he added.


“We’ve saw a further rise in activism among young people,” Deitsch remarked, adding: “We need each person to demand action, and be the catalyst that causes real change.”


Members of the agency are also building on the momentum they’ve felt in the months since the inaugural MFOL. “Things have changed for the better since last year,” Deitsch mentioned, noting that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has been steadily losing political power “because kids asked the country to have a moral compass.” Mirsky added that progress has been made “on paper,” citing the H.R.8 and S42 expenses designed to strengthen background checks on gun purchases; Socio noted that things have improved in her state of New Jersey, highlighting the eight new laws passed by the state in 2018, including a ban on “ghost guns,” or untraceable 3D-printed firearms.


“These federal charges that are being pushed right now have a very strong support from the new Residence of Representatives,” Mirsky mentioned. “So there’s definitely some movement here.”


For some students, the fact that folks are simply talking about gun reform is progress in and of itself. “MFOL has kept the topic of gun violence in our day-to-day discussion for over a year,” Bosselman mentioned of his community, which recently elected Rep. Harley Rouda, a Democrat who supports gun reform, while voting out former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a congressman with a “A” rating from the NRA.


Nevertheless, it hasn’t been an entirely smooth journey for these student activists, especially in Washington. “There is still a lot of work to do in terms of expanding voting rights and putting people in the Senate — and the White Home — who are not corrupted by special interest groups, like the NRA,” Bosselman noted.


Mirsky agreed. “The answers are there,” he mentioned. “It’s just getting cash out of the hands of corrupt politicians.”


naturally, one powerful metric of change will ultimately be a reject in gun violence, which is something we sadly haven’t seen nevertheless. According to the CDC, there were nearly 40,000 gun deaths in the U.S. In 2017, which was the highest it had been in more than 20 years, and 2018 was reported because the worst year for school shootings in the U.S. On record.


With the grave reality of gun violence statistics, some students are much less optimistic about the future. Dylan Caçador, who attended the MFOL rally in Boston, Massachusetts, told MTV News that while awareness and planned charges are a step in the correct direction, he worries about “guns in the hands of more people in more places.” The 20-year-old noted that several states allow hidden weapons in places of worship, despite tragedies like the Emanuel Church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.


“Many states have also expanded ‘stand your ground’ laws, which permit the use of deadly force against a perceived threat,” Caçador pointed out. “So we’re left with this spectrum of states with very tough restrictions, to states that continually put more guns into more hands.”


Socio believes that the ultimate solution lives within a reframing of what firearms are — and what they aren’t. “The trustworthy answer is that we need people to change their minds about guns,” Socio mentioned. “Guns are dangerous. They aren’t toys that anyone can have. Making the rules stricter ... Accommodates save lives.”


And the MFOL organizers are keeping their eyes on the progress made by other countries in the wake of gun violence, especially given that gun homicide rates In the United States are 25.2 times higher than other high-income countries, and several politicians continue to accept money from companies like the NRA to fund their reelections, only to provide “thoughts and prayers” at every gun-induced tragedy. In contrast, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced “our gun laws will change” as a direct response to a mass shooting at two mosques. In 1996, the U.K. Started the method of drafting new gun legislation in response to a school shooting, and Japan rarely has more than 10 gun deaths a year due to its strict gun laws. Change, as these countries have shown, is possible, nevertheless it does not although seem like enough American politicians want it.


“The end aim is to create our nation [reflective] of all these major countries that have passed these typical sense gun laws and have far, much less shootings and gun related deaths,” Mirsky explained to MTV News.


Still, the fight marches on — and these MFOL organizers and participants aren’t willing to give up as soon as soon. “More than anything, this nation needs a revolution of compassion and typical sense,” Caçador mentioned. “It’s far also easy for dangerous people to get hold of firearms. That’s hardly a suggestion at this point; it’s been proven true far also several times ... And the implications are catastrophic.”


Bosselman agreed, listing “universal background checks, closing loopholes, banning assault weapons, and funding the CDC’s research on gun violence” as a few logistical steps needed to end the U.S.’S mass shooting problem.


For Deitsch, the work has only just begun. “We are in a higher class of place today than last year, nevertheless that doesn’t mean hit the breaks,” he mentioned. “There is so much more that must be done on these issues. To stop right now could be unthinkable.”


We can all take action to prevent gun violence. Visit enough.Mtv.Com for ways you could take action.