Parkland survivors join Triangle students at Rally for Our Lives

In response to the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February that sparked the international March for Our Lives protests this past weekend, UNC-Chapel Hill students organized a rally to show their support and protest gun violence.

On Wednesday, students from across the Triangle gathered on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus at Polk Place, more commonly referred to as the Quad, to protest gun violence. The rally included several notable speakers; among them were two survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Jaclyn Corin and Sarah Chadwick.

“I think within this movement, the thing that I found to love the most is speaking at colleges, speaking at high schools, speaking at middle schools, speaking to students our own age,” Chadwick said. “Because it makes such an impact because like I said, teens inspire other other teens.”

Corin also emphasized the importance of spreading awareness to students about why they should enact change.

“It’s just as important for college kids to get involved as it is high school students because we’re a part of the same generation and we’re the young voters,” Corin said. “18-29-year-olds only show up to the polls one out of five times and that needs to change.”

For Vahagn Giulumian, a first-year studying chemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill and an organizer of the event, he was motivated to help with the rally because he wanted to speak up for all students.  

“It’s our voice together,” Giulumian said. “High schoolers, middle schoolers too, college students. All of us together are the ones who make a difference tomorrow.”

Several notable North Carolina politicians were also in attendance and spoke at the event like North Carolina State Sen. Jay Chaudhuri. Chaudhuri has been working on the issue of gun violence for two decades.

“I’m here because this issue is important to me,” Chaudhuri said. “It’s an issue that I’ve been working on for 20 years starting with my time at the attorneys general’s office … I think we have entered a new chapter on how we talk about gun violence and how we tackle the issue of gun violence and I want to do my part in trying to make sure the General Assembly passes common sense gun reform.”

For Chadwick, her transition from a normal high school student to an activist roaring for change in gun legislation in America was natural and a role she embraced.

“I’ve always spoken out about things I believe in and I’ve also been a huge activist for gun control before it happened to my school,” Chadwick said. “Especially after Pulse, because it was so close to home for me, and Las Vegas, once everything happened, I tweeted out and then that tweet got a lot of attention a I was kind of thrown into this. But I’m glad I was. I’m glad I was thrown into activism because truly there’s nothing more in the world that I was more prepared to do than to be an activist.”

Many of the students that attended wanted to see gun control in some capacity. Many students want stricter legislation including a ban on semi-automatic weapons, universal background checks and waiting periods as well as mental health reform.

Olivia Corriere, a second-year studying environmental studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that she feels a longer waiting period to purchase and obtain a gun would be effective because it would prevent weapons getting in dangerous hands.

“I used to work at a sporting goods store and they sell guns at a gun counter and it would take someone 20 minutes to get that done, including the background check, and that’s ridiculous that you would be able to evaluate someone’s mental health and their record in 20 minutes,” Corriere said. “That’s ridiculous.”

Corin said that no matter how old students are, they should make an effort to get involved in the issue of gun violence early.

“Even if they’re not old enough to vote, to pre-register because as soon as they turn 18, they should be at the polls,” Corin said. “To make clubs in school or to just make politics a part of their daily lives because my only regret was before this, I wasn’t involved in politics.”

College students are using their resources to enhance their knowledge on gun control. Alex Conte, a third-year studying economics and African-American diaspora studies, said he believes while protests and demonstrations are a step in the right direction, he wants his peers to understand the issue as a whole.

“I’m doing my research, I don’t take anything at face value,” Conte said. “I do my best to figure out from the most mature people in my life like my professors, you know like your mother, your father. You know the most important people and the smartest people in your world and you just listen to them and then you build your own beliefs and environments.”

While Chaudhuri believes that the walkouts and March for Our Lives in Raleigh have been big steps in promoting awareness, he emphasized that North Carolina needs to move toward further change.

“We’ve walked out, and we’ve marched forward, but now we have to walk into the General Assembly and demand common sense gun reform and that really is, I think in North Carolina, going to be our next step,” Chaudhuri said.

Giulumian said that he enjoyed seeing the amount of support from all students throughout the Triangle, especially from the university’s rivals.

“It was just sweet how we came together as one voice. I was so happy this was able to happen,” Giulumian said. “The only other time you see NC State, Duke students and UNC students together are at games when we’re rivals but for this type of issue we not rivals. We’re together, we’re all one.”