OHS Students Organize March for Our Lives to Raise Firearm Safety Awareness

By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com

“It could have been me. It could have been my best friend,” said Livvy Cohen, junior at OHS in regards to the Stone Douglas High School shooting.

After the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, students and parents around the country have been organizing marches in protest for gun reform and gun legislation, and some in the Oxford community are climbing aboard. 
Stacey Smith of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America-Oxford has been leading the community organization for the march in Oxford this Saturday. She reached out to Cohen and Anna Claire Franklin, junior at OHS, to see what could be organized for Oxford High School.
“We were talking about it on a school level, and Stacey is the one who brought it to a town level,” Franklin said.
According to Everytown.org, an gun safety organization, there have been 306 school shootings since 2013.
“I remember sitting in the hall where my friends and I eat lunch, and we were all planning our escape route if something like that were to happen,” Cohen said. “I realized that I should not have to be planning on running into the student parking lot and hiding under a car.”
Franklin believes school is supposed to be a safe place for an education. She doesn’t want to fear for her life or for the lives of the teachers and friends who she loves.
She doesn’t like “the fact that [life] could be ripped away from me because you are choosing guns over the lives of kids and children,” Franklin said. 
Since the shooting in Parkland, Moms Demand Action has been working and advocating for gun regulation on both the local and national platforms, Chapter Leader Erica Jones said. The chapter’s big focus for national gun regulation is currently legislation on concealed-carry permits across state lines.
In addition to working on a political platform, the organization also has an education program, Jones said. The organization reaches out to parents and adults to explain the importance of gun safety and how the responsibility falls upon them.
“If you choose to keep a gun in the house, you should keep it locked, unloaded and your child should not have access to it,” Jones said. “You are more likely to be shot by a toddler in this country than you are to be killed by a terrorist.”
According to Jones, the risk for domestic abuse triples when there is a gun in the home, especially for teenagers who are dealing with mental health issues.
“I know a lot of my friends are struggling with mental health issues,” Franklin said. “It is something that we have to face every day, and I don’t want to think about [what could happen] if some of them had access to firearms.”
According to Jones, most gun owners are in favor of regulations of guns. The organization is in support of background checks and mental health analyses for those who are wishing to be gun owners.
The members of the Moms Demand Action, such as Faye Cox, believe in common sense when it comes to handling firearms. The organization is simply trying to save lives while the march will raise awareness for gun safety and regulation.
“The students have been leading this [march] every step of the way,” Cox said. “We’re here for them.”
The march will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 24, at City Hall located on The Square. It will include student speakers from Oxford High School along with Mayor Tannehill. The Ole Miss Big Event will also be sending volunteers as a part of their volunteer services.