Cameron Kasky at Parkland Shooting Rally Fort Lauderdale Feb 17, 2018.Barry Stock via Wikimedia Commons
Cameron Kasky is an American activist fighting for gun reform across the United States. As a survivor of the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida in 2018, Kasky decided that through the tragedy he would find purpose and fight in the hopes that an incident like the Parkland shooting would never happen again.
The Parkland Tragedy
Cameron Kasky was born on November 11, 2000, and grew up in Parkland, Florida, where he attended the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Throughout his education, Kasky was a keen member of the school’s drama club, a “theater kid,”[1] and was known by his peers as the class clown.
On February 14, 2018, the atmosphere at Marjory Stoneman Douglas was cheerful; many of the students were celebrating Valentine’s Day. Nearing the end of the school day, Kasky left his class and headed straight to pick up his younger brother Holden from the special needs classroom.[2] Everything seemed perfectly normal. However, as the students were leaving the school building, the fire alarm sounded and they were ushered back inside and told to hide. They hid for an hour before the SWAT team entered and finally told them that they were safe.[3]
During that time, a former student had entered the building and killed seventeen people, three faculty members and fourteen students.
Never Again MSD
The night of the shooting, Kasky went home and took to Facebook to express his frustration with the lawmakers and legislation that allowed the perpetrator to purchase the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting. As Kasky’s posts began gaining traction, press outlets began taking notice, and Kasky was invited to write opinion pieces and give interviews for various television segments.[4]
Deciding to make the most of the increasing momentum, Kasky invited a couple of his school friends, Alex Wind and Sofie Whitney, over to his house to channel their collective frustration and pain and start a movement against gun violence. It was Kasky that came up with the name ‘Never Again MSD,’ and the group began creating accounts and groups on various social media platforms. By the third day, the Never Again MSD Facebook page had amassed more than 35,000 followers.[5] Before long more of Kasky’s friends, including David Hogg, X González, and Jaclyn Corin, had joined the campaign.
In an interview with the BBC, Kasky explained:
That day I said, 'We need to flip this narrative.' After all these shootings, you see such similar things. You see crying mothers talking about their children. You see people talking about how the shooter was just a nice boy - misunderstood. With only a few exceptions, so much of these shootings had the same exact response. A couple of lawmakers would get kids from the shooting to stand next to them, they'd sign some bill that did nothing, and we'd be done. I said, 'We can't have Parkland be that city.'
I wanted it to be that 20 years after the shooting when people thought of Parkland, they didn't think of people crying, they thought of people in the worst possible situation standing up and standing for something that was bigger than them.[6]
Wikimedia CommonsLogo for March For Our Lives 2018
March for Our Lives
On February 18, 2018, Kasky and his fellow Never Again MSD members announced that they would hold a rally called March for Our Lives through Washington D.C. on March 24th. Five days later, Kasky, González, and Corin appeared on The Ellen Show to promote the march and outline their goals. In the interview, Kasky explained that the group had received criticism from those who argued that they should give their community space to mourn before lobbying for change. Kasky addressed the criticism:
The thing that inspired us to create the march was people saying, “You are all talking about gun control, and this is not the time to talk about gun control. This is the time to grieve, a time to mourn.” And we understand that. And we said, “Now might not be the time to talk about gun control. Here’s the time to talk about gun control: March 24th.”[7]
Shutterfly, a long-time partner of The Ellen Show donated $50,000 towards the march. Numerous other celebrities and organizations also donated for the rally, including George and Amal Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Gucci, and Steven Spielberg.
On March 24th, it is estimated that between 200,000 and 800,000 people attended the main March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C., whilst more than 800 sibling marches happened simultaneously across the globe.
Lorie Shaull via Wikimedia CommonsMarch for Our Lives on 24 March 2018 in Washington, D.C.
Since then, March for Our Lives has become a fully-fledged non-profit organization, working hard to advocate for gun reform across the U.S. The organization work through marches and rallies, lobbying for legislative changes, and by endorsing candidates for gun reform throughout election campaigns. March for Our Lives have already had a significant impact since their founding in 2018, such as the implementation of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in Florida which saw the minimum age to buy firearms increased from eighteen to twenty one, prevents mentally unstable or potentially violent people from purchasing them, requires potential buyers to go through background checks and waiting periods, and provides a program which assists schools in hiring police to protect the students.
Learn more about March for Our Lives here.
Conclusion
Cameron Kasky, along with his peers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, is proof of the power that student-led activism has. In the face of the most horrific tragedy, Kasky channeled his pain and anger to focus on making change to prevent more people from experiencing the events of the Parkland shooting. In 2024, as he takes a break from his activism to focus on his mental well-being, Kasky remains one of the most remarkable and influential heroes of his generation.
[1] Witt, Emily. How the Survivors of Parkland Began the Never Again Movement. [Online] Available https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-survivors-of-parkland-began-the-never-again-movement. 2018.
[2] Kasky, Cameron. Parkland student: My generation won’t stand for this. [Online] Available. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/15/opinions/florida-shooting-no-more-opinion-kasky/index.html. 2018.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Witt, 2018.
[5] Lowery, Wesley. Students denounce political inaction after Florida shooting. [Online] Available https://www.heraldnet.com/nation-world/students-denounce-political-inaction-after-florida-shooting/. 2018.
[6] BBC News. Cameron Kasky: How being a student gun control activist took its toll. [Online] Available https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-47217467. 2019.
Page created on 10/21/2024 3:41:48 PM
Last edited 10/21/2024 3:53:59 PM
