Gun control advocates push to make voter registration the legacy of Parkland shooting

When Lorena Sanabria, who survived a shooting that left 17 people dead at her Florida high school, awoke on her 17th birthday this month, the first thing that crossed her mind was: “I’m one year closer to being able to vote.”

The massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February sparked a renewed interest in gun control, with students who survived the attack leading rallies, marches, walkouts and pushes for gun legislation. People across the country, and the world, participated in hundreds of events demanding action on gun violence.

Now, leaders are hoping the momentum from the March for Our Lives movement will lead to a more enduring next phase: getting young people to the voting booth in November, an effort to change not just policy in Washington, but the people who set it.

Groups from around the country are hosting voter drives at high schools and colleges, including during widespread school walkouts on Friday, the anniversary of the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School. They are setting up voter-registration tables at gun-control marches and are working to galvanize the nation’s youngest voters around a single issue.

“By voting in the midterms I will choose to vote for senators and representatives who do not support the NRA,” said Kira Pomeranz, a senior at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, who registered to vote in February and will turn 18 in August.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/gun-control-advocates-push-to-make-voter-registration-the-legacy-of-parkland-shooting/ar-AAw9T7f?li=BBnb7Kz