What has March for our Lives Accomplished?

4 min readJan 4, 2019

March for our Lives was one of the most successful movements of 2018, and it was lead entirely by high school students. On March 14, 2018, there was national school walkout exactly one month after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. More than 3,000 schools took part across the nation. Students participated under threats of expulsion from school administration, including more than 200 students at Hempfield High School, in Lancaster, PA where I live, who faced serious repercussions for leaving class during the walk out.

I was lucky enough to be able to work with the administration at Lancaster Mennonite School, where I was a student at the time, to come to an agreement that eased the administrations concerns, while still allowing students to live out their convictions. The walkout was one of the largest student protests to ever take place in US history. Ten days later, 1.2 million people participated in March for our Lives. The crowd in Washington D.C. rivaled that of the Women’s March. Several thousand marched in here, in Lancaster, making it one of the biggest demonstrations the city has ever seen.

Within just weeks of the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas School, Florida Senator, Marco Rubio agreed to engage Parkland students in a public debate, willing to hear their concerns and ideas. This is just one example of many times that the voices of students forced politicians to respond and take action against gun violence.

In just four weeks, student survivors of the shooting were able to pressure Governor Rick Scott into signing a bill that directly addressed several issues brought to the table by students. (3) The bill included expanding background checks, implementing a mandatory 3 day waiting period for all firearms sales, and increasing the legal gun-purchasing age from 18 to 21. I should note that the NRA did sue the state of Florida following the passage of this bill. (4) That suit is still pending.

Politicians were not the only ones to be influenced by the boldness of students. The response from businesses and corporations was key to the success of March for our Lives. Restaurants, hotels, and small businesses all over the country cut their ties with the NRA. Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart, L.L. Bean, REI, and several other companies all changed their gun sale policies, many raising the age to purchase a gun at their store to 21. (2) Dicks went even further by removing all AR-15s from their shelves. CEO Edward Stack, released a statement, praising student efforts and making it clear that the company’s decision was inspired by the voices of student leaders.

“These kids talk about enough is enough. We concluded if these kids are brave enough to organize and do what they’re doing, we should be brave enough to take this stand.”

The attention that gun legislation got during the midterms was an indicator of the new prominence of this issue in the U.S. Gun safety became a core issue during the congressional race in between Jess King and Lloyd Smucker in Pennsylvania’s 11th District. Gun safety was addressed in all three of the debates between these congressional candidates. This past spring, students attempted to meet with Mr. Smucker to talk about gun safety laws. He denied the request. This prompted a student-led sit-in at the Congressman’s office. Mr. Smucker has yet to agree to sit down with students to talk about how to make schools safer. The persistence and energy of young people is what kept March for our Lives alive and moving forward.

The issue of gun safety was prominent not only in Lancaster, but in nearly every Congressional race across the country, reflecting the importance of gun legislation was to voters. According to an NPR survey(1) conducted in the weeks following the Parkland shooting, 75% of Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws. This is a significant jump from the 68% found in NPR’s survey following the shooting in Las Vegas, which happen less than five months earlier. This change in the national attitude toward gun legislation can be directly attributed to students’ call to action.

March for our Lives is far from over. There is still work to be done and progress to be made. Just last month, the White House made a surprise move, placing a ban on bump stocks, the device that is attached to a semi-automatic weapons to make it fire like an automatic. This victory means that the pressure is still on, the seriousness of the issue is still present in the minds of voters, and the country is continuing to take the steps needed to curb gun violence in America.

March for our Lives has forced young people into the field of social justice. I now am involved with the Sunrise Movement, a national organization of young people working to combat climate change. Out of curiosity, I posted the question in the group’s feed wondering how many of the students had been involved with March for our Lives prior to joining Sunrise. I got many enthusiastic responses from high schoolers across the country. March for our Lives woke students up and led them to take action. For thousands of high school and college students, March for our Lives was just a beginning. Young people will continue to fight and, as March for our Lives has proven, change is possible — in the new year and beyond.

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What has March for our Lives Accomplished?

Written by Ashton Clatterbuck