Students are getting and sharing the message that they’re safer without guns
By Olivia Brown. Published on February 26, 2025.
On March 22, 2012, I got a Facebook message with a simple call to action: “Today, walkout, 1st lunch, justice for Trayvon.”
Within the hour, I marched alongside more than 300 of my peers out the doors of our Florida high school in protest of the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, who was once a student at our school. We were devastated but walking out made us feel triumphant and energized.
That was the first time I’d seen how social media could mobilize and build power among young people, but it was far from the last.
I think of that day often as I work to empower young people to use their social media prowess to reduce gun violence. Because despite all the marching and organizing that has happened in the years since an angry armed man killed Trayvon, our gun violence crisis has grown dramatically. Today, gun violence is the leading killer of children and teens in the U.S.