As millions celebrated Valentine's Day this year, seventeen precious lives were lost to senseless gun violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Feeling let down by their adult representatives, the youth of America have taken to social media to fight for better gun legislation. On March 24th, youth from across the country will mobilize in Washington, DC together with music icons such as Ariana Grande, Vic Mensa, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson to urge leaders to support gun control legislation.
In order to amplify the event in DC, March for Our Lives has teamed up with Tumblr and Twitter so as to engage families that are unable to attend. Twitter, for example, is encouraging its audience to tweet with the hashtags #MarchForOurLives and #IWillMarch. These are tags that can be used across all other social media platforms to illustrate the value of this conversation to the American public. Conversely, Tumblr will be partnering with Everytown for Gun Safety, livestream the march as it happens. Additionally, Tumblr users will also be to express themselves using stickers, GIFs, and illustrations that the site is creating to honor the march.
Perhaps the most important element of the March for Our Lives social media and in real life protests is the actionability of the campaign compared to the Women's March on Washington and #metoo, which has led to the firing of a few high profile abusers but not driven a wide spread systematic change. The power of geotagging on social media will especially be helpful in making the case for gun control to politicians across different constituencies. Tumblr also has an action page where visitors can sign a petition for gun safety and register to vote.
Below is a list of the demands being made by the youthful organizers of the protest to congress:
- Pass a law to ban the sale of assault weapons.
- Prohibit the sale of high-capacity magazines.
- Close the loophole in the background check law that allows dangerous people who shouldn’t be allowed to purchase firearms to slip through the cracks and buy guns online or at gun shows.
Much like the black vote that swung elections in Alabama, the youth led by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior, David Hogg, have also warned Capitol Hill that they will apply their voting power to drive the targeted change that they are looking for.
https://mashable.com/2018/03/22/march-for-our-lives-when-where-what-explained/#rv35lUZG7qqu
https://mashable.com/2018/03/22/march-for-our-lives-tumblr-livestream/#olgKvaNM7mqf
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