NRA hits new low

TENS of thousands of students across the United States have walked out of school demanding tough action on gun violence.

In one the biggest student protests since the Vietnam era, students from Maine to Alaska are rallying against the powerful National Rifle Association.

Carrying signs with messages such as “Am I next?” students bowed their heads in memory of the 17 dead in the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The NRA has maintained gun control is not the solution to shootings, instead blaming the Florida shooting on mental health.

As the demonstrations unfolded, the NRA responded by posting a photo on Twitter of a black rifle emblazoned with an American flag. The caption: “I’ll control my own guns, thank you.”

PROTEST FIGHT

Maxwell Nardi, a senior at Douglas S Freeman High School in Henrico, Virginia, said students were sick of the violence.

“We’re going to keep fighting, and we’re not going to stop until Congress finally makes resolute changes,” he said.

Around the nation, students left class at 10am local time for at least 17 minutes — one minute for each of the dead in Florida.

At some schools, students didn’t go outside but lined the hallways, gathered in gyms and auditoriums or wore orange, the colour used by the movement against gun violence.

Over and over, students declared that too many young people have died and that they are tired of going to school every day afraid of getting killed.

“Enough is enough. People are done with being shot,” said Iris Foss-Ober, 18, a senior at Washburn High School in Minneapolis.

Some schools applauded students for taking a stand or at least tolerated the walkouts, while others threatened punishment.

A SNAPCHAT feature shared across social media has perfectly depicted the immense size and scale of student protests across the United States on Wednesday.

Snapchat is particularly popular among teens and young adults and as high school students staged walkouts to demand action on gun violence, a feature on the app showed the immensity of the movement.

The feature lets users locate friends and events on a map with a heat map for context showing the popularity of the event among active users. It then lets you tap the event for footage.

The dotted map shared by many on social media was the result of 3000 demonstrations across the country, a wave of protests one historian called the largest of its kind in American history.

The walkouts are a part of a larger, ongoing protest that has sprung from the latest school shooting in America when 17 people were gunned down in Parkland, Florida last month.

The students carried signs with messages like “Never again” and “Am I next?”

They railed against the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the politicians who support the powerful organisation.

The demonstrations extended from Maine to Hawaii as students joined the youth-led surge of activism which clogged up social media.

The student protests dominated the Snapchat Maps feature, as one user pointed out the “walkouts are basically the only events showing up”.

More at source http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/snapchat-map-shows-scale-of-americas-biggest-problem/news-story/0e93a3df60074460ed6d2b8cbaef7b54