Parkland Students Propose a Peace Plan for a Safer America

Parkland students are seeking action for better gun control. 

On Feb. 24, 2018, 17 people were killed and 17 others injured after a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Sparked by this event, students arranged March for Our Lives on March 24, 2018, a demonstration supporting legislation to decrease gun-related violence in the United States.

Now, the students and other people who are part of the growing March for Our Lives movement are making a big move by proposing their “Peace Plan for a Safer America.”

To take on this crisis, we need to think big.
To take on corrupt powers that be, we have to be strategic.
To take on violence, we have to be pro-peace.
Introducing: A Peace Plan for a Safer America. Created by survivors, so you don’t have to be one.https://t.co/cDryRiWLta

— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) August 21, 2019

The Peace Plan would implement a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, a mandatory gun buyback program, a national licensing and gun registry, and a national director for the prevention of gun violence. It would also fortify the current gun laws by increasing the eligible gun-buying age from 18 to 21 and create a federal agency that would overlook a gun licensing program that includes in-person interviews and a 10-day wait before a gun can officially be purchased, with an annual gun license renewal requirement on top of that.

In relation to the gun-specific acts proposed, the Peace Plan also calls for automatic voter registration for eligible Americans when they turn 18, an increase in mental health, suicide prevention, and domestic violence services, and the creation of a Safety Corps, comparable to a Peace Corps but aimed at gun violence protection.

Policymakers have failed, so survivors are stepping up.

The #PeacePlan is written by the generation that’s only ever known lockdown drills. But we WILL be the last.

We’re not just fighting against the status quo, we’re fighting for real change, for justice, for peace.

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) August 21, 2019

The March for Our Lives board of directors know that the Peace Plan is a bold proposal but they are also confident in the fact that the current state of America and its relationship to gun violence needs dramatic action and change.