Why March For Our Lives Became so Popular and Influential
Who are March For Our Lives?
In the past couple of years, there have been problems concerning guns and there have many many mass shootings as a result of it. People have been frustrated for quite some time now, especially the students who were affected by gun violence at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. In fact, these students went on to create one of the most revolutionary social movements in history called “March For Our Lives.” March For Our Lives is a social movement formed by high school students with a purpose in trying to bring an end to gun violence in this country.
What’s so special about them?
The thing that is so special about them is that they have gained so much support in less than a year. In that short period of time, their protests have even reached millions. According to an article written by German Lopez, he said that there were 1.2 to 2 million people who attended this protest on March 24,2018. This was one of the biggest youth protests since the Vietnam war as shown in the picture below. But what made them become so popular in such a short amount of time? Usually, if a group wants to gain popularity, it would take quite some time, maybe even years. The shooting in Parkland, Florida took place on February 14, 2018. A little over a month, they had the support of millions of Americans. If you think about it, it is impressive how much support they gained. In this article, I will help inform you all the different aspects that made this group so successful and popular.
Why are Americans so motivated in supporting March For Our Lives?
Looking back at the history of America, there have been at least 240 school shootings since the shooting in Columbine. When there is a problem, your natural instinct is to find a solution for it and if you can not, then you will do whatever possible to do so. This is the exact same thing that is happening today in America. The American people are sick and tired of the same thing happening over and over again. Americans are motivated in bringing change and they want it now, especially young people. There are so many teenagers telling their friends to join the March For Our Lives protests because they want to be involved in the conversation regarding guns.
Some of you might think that this is only happening in Washington D.C but no, it even extends to states like Utah. There was this incident in Capitol Hill of Salt Lake City in which 500 pro gun activists came out in support of arming teachers. An hour later, 6000 anti gun violence protesters came out to manifest. It makes sense why the country is frustrated. You would not want to send your child to a place where there could be a risk of a casualty happening. Even students are starting to feel anxiety Students should not get anxiety when they go to school, that is not right. Because of this, people want to try and bring change to America.
Everyone is United
By now you have probably heard the saying “Unity is strength, division is weakness” or “Even the weak become strong when they are united.” These old sayings are true. If we look at March For Our Lives and all other popular social movements, there is one thing they all have in common, and that is unity. This strong idea is so effective that it can reach the hearts of millions of people because of it. One of the main reasons March For Our Lives became popular so quickly is because America is united in the same idea that change must come to our country. With all the tragedies that have been happening since Columbine, I think we have reached our limit.
When I was looking at a speech that Emma Gonzalez-one of the founders of March For Our Lives-gave at a rally, it was as clear as day how people were feeling. In this video, she gave a speech for six minutes and twenty seconds, the amount of time it took for the gunman to shoot down Parkland high school. She later went on to give an emotional speech and state each name that died in the shooting at the school. For a brief period of time, she was then silent and that silence was strong enough to have people in tears. Everyone was hugging each other and crying hoping something new and good would come. I encourage you guys reading this to watch this video because you can see the impact that it has on everyone and even the people watching online. Her emotions were so strong that it will give you chills. As a result of their unity, the people are finally demanding to politicians to bring a solution to the gun violence problem happening in America. Millions are united and it will keep growing until March For Our Lives and their supporters get what they demand.
Persuasion?
To get an individual or group of people to support your ideas, you have to convince them to agree with what you believe. It may seem simple but there is more to it than that. March For Our Lives uses social media in such a powerful way to get support around the nation. On Instagram, they have 355k followers. On Twitter, they have 466k followers and on Facebook, they have about 308k followers. The reason that they have this many followers is because of the amount of quality they put into their posts. What I mean by this is that with each picture they put up, they try to educate and make you feel some sort of emotion that will hopefully impact you. This type of persuasion in which they try to touch your emotions is called pathos. Their purpose in trying to post something that appeals to your emotions is so that you can see in their point of view why they are supporting anti gun violence.
Let me use an example of a post that March For Our Lives put up on December 11, 2018. In this post, it is a picture of a girl with her hands up and in her hands has the words “Never Again” written. As you look at the post below, it makes you wonder what their message is and why she is having her hands up. This group has appealed to pathos in this picture by reaching to the audience’s feelings. A lot of their Instagram posts consist of these type of pictures. This approach in gaining support is very effective because most people are always on social media. By posting these pictures to their account, people will start sharing, liking, and following their account.
In another post that was uploaded on July 4, 2019, it was of a girl wearing a shirt saying “I don’t want my friends to die anymore.” Her shirt has a pin saying “we call BS.” Even the caption is powerful because it gives a statistic from a Law Center saying how homicide rates are 10 times higher in New Orleans, Detroit, and Baltimore than the U.S national average. You can see this post in the pictures below. If you were a person that did not know anything whatsoever about this group, you might wonder what they are talking about and what can I do to help. These types of posts help raise awareness and gain support from people so that they can be one step closer in achieving their goals.
So should you support them?
After looking into March For Our Lives for months and observing who they are, I have come to the conclusion that this social movement is worth supporting. Some of you reading this might be either Democrat, Republican, or independent. But in the end, it does not matter what political party you support, the only thing that March For Our Lives wants to achieve is to end gun violence in America. They really do not care who you are. Their only goal is to not allow another shooting occur so that people can be at peace and not have to worry about going to school, out with your friends, or whatever it may be.
For the longest, America has been suffering for years with gun violence. Mass shootings are happening more frequently and something must be done. I believe that if you support this group, we can help lessen the occurrence of these shootings. For more information or if you have any other questions regarding March For Our Lives, feel free to contact my email below or visit the March For Our Lives website.
Email: Czamo029@fiu.edu March For Our Lives Website
March For Our Lives popularity in America 