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The young will be heard

 
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, and mass shooting survivors, from left, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky and Alex Wind participate in a panel discussion about guns, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, in Cambridge, Mass. The Feb. 14, 2018, attack in Florida killed 17 people, 14 of them students. The students have become vocal advocates for stricter gun laws. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) MASR101
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, and mass shooting survivors, from left, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky and Alex Wind participate in a panel discussion about guns, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, at Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, in Cambridge, Mass. The Feb. 14, 2018, attack in Florida killed 17 people, 14 of them students. The students have become vocal advocates for stricter gun laws. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) MASR101
Published March 23, 2018

They have wept and shouted in front of TV cameras, created a campaign on social media and confronted state lawmakers in the halls of the state Capitol. Today, they march.

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of last month's mass shooting in South Florida that claimed 17 lives, will headline a march in Washington to protest gun violence and demand change. Around the country and Tampa Bay, students, families and activists will take to their own streets to march in solidarity and unity. All Floridians should be with them in spirit if not in the streets.

The movement, dubbed #NeverAgain, already has made a meaningful difference. The infamously gun-friendly Florida Legislature enacted a three-day waiting period on all gun purchases and raised the minimum age to buy any gun from 18 to 21. Lawmakers banned the sale and possession bump stocks, which enable semiautomatic rifles to mimic automatics, an idea also favored by President Donald Trump. Yet even those modest gun controls have angered the National Rifle Association, which has responded with a lawsuit challenging the waiting period and attacks on lawmakers who until now have been marching in step.

In Washington, a massive new spending bill includes provisions to improve the background check system that screens gun buyers and rescinds a long-standing prohibition on gun violence research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a major mark of progress. That's not nearly enough.

The students want more, namely a ban on assault-style weapons like the one used in Parkland and other recent mass shootings. Their arguments for sensible gun control are not new. Said Douglas High student Florence Yared: "We cannot protect our guns before we protect our children." Tweeted student Delaney Tarr: "This (is not) about partisan politics. This is about protecting children and protecting Americans, something we can all agree on."

Tragedy has amplified these students' voices, and today hundreds of thousands more in Tampa Bay and throughout the country will join their chorus.