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Gripping silence marks Florida shooting during Washington march

Author
Rebecca Boone, AAP,
Publish Date
Sun, 25 Mar 2018, 1:34PM
Teenage marchers are pledging to vote in November for candidates that will listen to their cries for gun control.
Teenage marchers are pledging to vote in November for candidates that will listen to their cries for gun control.

Gripping silence marks Florida shooting during Washington march

Author
Rebecca Boone, AAP,
Publish Date
Sun, 25 Mar 2018, 1:34PM

Tens of thousands have swarmed into the nation's capital to march for gun control and ignite political activism among the young.

Teenage marchers are pledging to vote in November for candidates that will listen to their cries for gun control. 

Chin high and tears streaming, Florida school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez stood silently in front of thousands gathered for the "March for Our Lives" rally in Washington, DC.


She continued to stand silently as a few crowd members shouted out support. She remained silent as tentative chants broke out. Her silence continued as those attending also fell quiet, many weeping.


The gripping moment on Saturday stretched for six minutes and 20 seconds, the amount of time Gonzalez said it took a shooter to kill 17 people and wound 15 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, last month.


"Everyone who has been touched by the cold grip of gun violence understands," Gonzalez told the hushed crowd, describing the long hours spent waiting for authorities to identify their slain classmates, the horror of discovering many of them had breathed their last breaths before many students even knew a "code red" alert - designed to warn staffers and students of a potential threat - had been called.

Gonzalez is one of several teens from the school to become gun control activists in the wake of the shooting. Their efforts have galvanised youth nationwide, with hundreds of thousands attending similar rallies across the country.


As the three-hour rally wrapped up, Gonzalez assigned some homework for the demonstrators:
"One final plug," she said. "Get out there and vote."

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