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Florida Students Began With Optimism. Then They Spoke to Lawmakers.
TALLAHASSEE — The morning began with optimism. It did not last long.
On Wednesday, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland awoke to an overcast sky. They had slept on green cots in the Tallahassee civic center, and it had been a long, cold night. Some agreed that their blankets had smelled strangely like bacon. Many had been up past 3 a.m., researching lawmakers and editing speeches. They had runny eggs, home fries — and bacon — for breakfast.
Then, a week after a shooting rampage killed 17 at their high school, the students headed for the capitol, marching together up a hill, past a statue of leaping dolphins. They had come to urge lawmakers to impose new restrictions on guns, including a ban on the sale of military-style firearms like the AR-15 used in the rampage at their school. A former student, Nikolas Cruz, has been charged in the slayings.
As the students walked to the capitol, Rosio Briones, 17, was quiet. “I don’t know how to put my thoughts into words,” she said. “This still feels so surreal to me.”
But another student, Olivia Feller, 16, stood with Anthony Lopez, 16, and ran through a list of state legislators: who supported what, who they might be able to sway. “We are ready,” she said. “Sleep deprived but ready.”
Outside the capitol, Senator Aaron Bean, a Republican, was rushing into the building.
How did he feel about the student visit? a reporter asked.
“Angst,” he said. “I just — there is so much emotion. I’m really really sad. It’s a very sad situation. Kids shouldn’t have to worry about that. It’s already tough enough being a teenager, without worrying about things like that.”
Did he plan to vote in favor of any bills that would do anything about that?
“You know, I think it’s too early to say.”
Why?
“It’s just too early to say.”
Inside, the students divided into groups of 10. Senator Lauren Book, a Democrat, had helped the students arrange meetings with lawmakers in both parties, and the groups were supposed to meet with some 70 elected officials.
Group Six crammed into the elevator with two parent chaperones. They met with Representative Patricia H. Williams, a Democrat, and Senator Debbie Mayfield, a Republican. Ms. Mayfield said that changes were needed, perhaps including raising the minimum age to buy powerful weapons, but she rebuffed criticism from a student, Daniel Bishop, 16, that such a change would not actually prevent deaths.
“We can’t stop crazies,” she told the group.
Afterward, Amanda De La Cruz, 16, looked distraught. “I want the ban on semiautomatic weapons,” she said. “I don’t care about the crazies.”
Then they headed to the House floor, where the powerful speaker of the House, Richard Corcoran, a Republican, had agreed to take their questions.
Standing at the front of the chamber, he promised to unveil what he said would be the most sweeping gun reform package in the nation’s history by Thursday or Friday.
Then a 16-year-old student named Alondra Gittelson raised her hand.
“I just want to know why such a destructive gun is accessible to the public — why that gun, the AR-15, that did so much damage, how is an individual in society able to acquire such a gun?”
Mr. Corcoran responded that he would not be in favor of banning weapons like the one used in the attack on the students.
“I think that if you look, it’s widely used in multiple different hunting scenarios,” he said. “I know people who go out and they’ll do boar hunts and they’ll use them.”
He continued: “You can disagree, but what I tell my kids — and being in elected office, you have to be very, very, very careful how much authority and power you bring to government. The greatest atrocities known to mankind have been committed by governments.”
“I understand your question,” he added. “And we’ll look at it, but I’ll just be honest with you: Me personally I don’t believe that’s the solution.”
Afterward, Ms. Gittelson observed that Mr. Corcoran had said exactly what her stepfather had predicted he would say.
Around noon, hundreds of people converged on the capitol in support of the Stoneman Douglas students. Then, in the afternoon, the tone inside the capitol changed, as protesters flooded the building.
The morning had been filled with impassioned but respectful conversation between the Stoneman Douglas students and lawmakers. But as the day wore on, college students and others packed the hallways carrying signs and boxes of petitions.
On one floor, they crowded the doorway of the office of Gov. Rick Scott, shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” On an upper floor, they gathered outside Mr. Corcoran’s office: “Face us down! Face us down! Face us down!”
As the students pressed lawmakers in Tallahassee, cries for stricter gun control measures swelled on sidewalks and football fields around the country.
Back in South Florida, students formed an enormous heart on an athletic field at Coral Springs High School and then walked to Stoneman Douglas High School, about five miles away, where more than 1,000 students gathered.
“Seventeen lives are more important than gun rights,” said Christopher Lormeus, 18, who had walked from Coconut Creek High School, six miles away.
Near Tampa, thousands of students left their classrooms and stood silently for 17 minutes, according to The Tampa Bay Times.
The protests stretched far beyond Florida. In Montgomery County, Md., students left their high schools, walked to the Metro, and rallied in front of the Capitol, holding signs with slogans like, “Protect kids not guns.”
They walked out of Simon Kenton High School in Kentucky, according to the Enquirer, chanting “never again,” and filed out of Mesa High School in Arizona, hoping to support the Parkland students. “This is our mark in history,” one student said, to whoops and cheers.
But at Needville High School, about an hour outside Houston, administrators threatened any student who protested during school hours with a three-day suspension.
”Life is all about choices and every choice has a consequence whether it be positive or negative,” Curtis Rhodes, the superintendent, said in a statement posted on Facebook. “We will discipline no matter if it is one, 50, or 500 students involved.”
Jess Bidgood contributed reporting from Boston and Neil Reisner from Parkland, Fla.
Gun Violence in America
A Historic Case: On Feb. 6, an American jury convicted a parent for a mass shooting carried out by their child for the first time. Lisa Miller, a reporter who has been following the case since its beginning, explains what the verdict really means.
Pushing for Action: A group of parents reeling from a mass shooting at their children’s private Christian school in Nashville believed they could persuade the Republican Party to enact limited gun control. The Tennessee legislature proved more hostile than they imagined.
Echoing Through School Grounds: In a Rhode Island city, gunshots from AR-15-style weapons have become the daily soundtrack for a school within 500 yards of a police shooting range. Parents are terrified, and children have grown accustomed to the threat of violence.
The Emotional Toll: We asked Times readers how the threat of gun violence has affected the way they lead their lives. Here’s what they told us.
Gun Control: U.S. gun laws are at the center of heated exchanges between those in favor and against tougher regulations. Here’s what to know about that debate.
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