Last weekend’s March for Our Lives rally in Charlotte attracted an estimated 2,500 people. Of course, one of the things that made this event different from other protest marches in Charlotte is that it was organized by high school students, one of them being Myers Park High School senior Maddie Syfert.
“I hope we’ll be taken seriously now.” She added their efforts were dismissed by some with comments such as, “Stop eating Tide Pods and then we can talk.”
For now, Syfert says she hopes for what she calls small steps to address gun violence, such as banning bump stocks and raising the age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21
“We will continue fighting for this,” she says. "We will have more meetings or whatever to go beyond the march. It’s just the beginning of the movement, and we will not stop fighting until something is done to change the gun laws today.”
More student activism is planned for April 20. That’s the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting in Colorado in which two students killed 13 people. Organizers of the National School Walkout are encouraging students to walk out of school for the day. Syfert says she is not part of that organizing effort.