Friday marks the seventh anniversary of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 students and faculty.
Floridian students at Boston University are reflecting on the time since the Parkland shooting, and leaders are persistent in their efforts to end gun violence.
“Just having that situation being so close to the home was very intense,” said freshman David Alexander Marin, from Florida.
Marin said gun reform activism in Florida “became so much more permanent” after the Parkland shooting. He said his high school changed its fire alarm policies and increased security after the Parkland shooting.
Freshman Mia Lopez went to high school about 30 minutes away from Parkland, and many survivors of the shooting transferred to her school.
Lopez’s high school changed its handling of code red drills and enforced clear backpacks for students. The Parkland victims attended separate drills due to post traumatic stress.
“It’s good to be prepared, but I do think at the same time, it starts instilling a fear and an expectation in students that this is something that they’re going to have to endure,” Lopez said. “They’re children at the same time, and they’re at school to learn and not to be scared.”
Parkland survivors formed the national youth-led movement “March For Our Lives” to advocate for gun reform and an end to gun violence. Similar movements spread at BU in the wake of gun violence nationwide.
Students Demand Action at BU has been spearheading a gun reform campaign at the university since 2023 following a series of mass school shootings in the U.S.
Before Shana Weitzen came to BU, she launched a petition calling for universities to divest from gun manufacturers, which received more than 3,000 signatures.
When she arrived that fall, Weitzen partnered with BU Student Government to submit the petition to the Board of Trustees. The divestment proposal failed to pass.
In the spring of 2023, BU experienced a false SWAT incident, and Weitzen said BU sent out mistake alerts to students and lacked proper communication with students.
“We were on campus for about two hours with a complete lack of communication and transparency from the University,” Weitzen said.
SDA formed at the end of the 2023 to 2024 academic year with a mission of involving students in gun safety and gun violence prevention at the local, national and global levels. Weitzen is now the president.
David Rosenbloom, a professor emeritus at the BU School of Public Health, said gun violence is a major threat to public health and safety, and he advocates for banning assault weapons.
“We have terrible gun regulations at the federal level, and in most states, it’s too easy to have a gun,” Rosenbloom said. “When we banned assault weapons, there were fewer deaths from gun violence than there are now.”
Sean Waddington, treasurer of BU College Democrats, said he knows survivors of the Parkland shooting and emphasized the proximity of gun violence to every American.
“This is very real,” Waddington said. “It is not six degrees away from us. It’s one or two.”
Sophomore Philip Wohltorf, a member of BU College Republicans, said the country needs stronger security measures and border control, not full gun reform.
“We can address the root of the problem without restricting Second Amendment rights,” Wohltorf said.
Sophomore Alpha Barry, leader of Young Americans for Freedom at BU, said he thinks there is a gun violence problem in America, but stricter gun regulations will not solve it.
“The left, at this point, [doesn’t] even want strict gun control. They want to ban guns altogether, which I think is a gross violation of our Constitution,” Barry said. “Criminals are going to get guns either way. They’re going to do the crime.”
Barry said banning guns will not increase violence, because people won’t be able to defend themselves.
Marin said he sees the importance of the Second Amendment for self-defense, but there should be tighter regulations.
“There has to be a limit to who has guns in hand, and what types of guns are being able to be carried,” Marin said.
Weitzen said SDA is still working to educate the campus community about gun reform and finding ways to involve students in local advocacy. She said while promoting the divestment campaign is still a goal of SDA’s, other campus groups are calling for University divestments as well.
“[There are] other people with other interests asking for divestment currently, with the referendum on Israeli investment,” Weitzen said. “Not overloading the Board of Trustees with divestment requests, so each petition or issue gets its share of attention and full consideration.”
