Parkland Students' Activism Honored With International Peace Prize From Desmond Tutu
Miami Herald, Nov. 20. After 17 of their peers were gunned down in the classrooms and hallways of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, a group of teenagers from the Parkland school banded together to work to change the nation’s gun laws and offer a platform for students who worry their school will be next.
On Tuesday, the college-bound activists realized the global reach of their anti-gun violence movement as they were awarded the 2018 International Children’s Peace Prize, joining the likes of Pakistani education-rights advocate Malala Yousafzai as winners of the annual prize. March For Our Lives leaders David Hogg, Emma González, Jaclyn Corin and Matt Deitsch received the award during a ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa.
Anti-apartheid leader Desmond Tutu, the winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, presented the group with the award and said he considered the movement to be one of the most significant instances of youth-led activism in recent memory.
“The peaceful campaign to demand safe schools and communities and the eradication of gun violence is reminiscent of other great peace movements in history,” said Tutu, the former general secretary of the South African Council of Churches. “I am in awe of these children, whose powerful message is amplified by their youthful energy and an unshakable belief that children can — no, must — improve their own futures. They are the true changemakers who have demonstrated most powerfully that children can move the world.”
Their 10-point plan of action includes banning high-capacity magazines, or those that hold more than 10 rounds, expanding the federal background check requirement to cover private sales, and ban semiautomatic assault rifles from public use. Their platform also calls for the strengthening of laws that disarm domestic abusers, funding research of gun violence as a public health issue and empowering the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to better regulate guns in America. -MORE...
Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article221949190.html#storylink=cpy
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/21/1814520/-Parkland-students-activism-honored-with-international-peace-prize-from-Desmond-Tutu
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