This weekend, the majority of my protest-happy college peers swarmed the National Mall for the March for Our Lives. They posed for Instagram pictures holding homemade signs blaming the Republican Party and the National Riffle Association for gun violence. If you care more about ending school gun violence than the amount of Instagram likes you get, skip the march in favor of more productive activism.
Despite claiming the March for Instagram likes is not about politics, the organizers, led by foul-mouthed social justice warrior David Hogg, have focused their attacks almost exclusively on Republicans. They have spoken in favor of a variety of other Democratic causes that have nothing to do with gun control and have served as fundraising tools for the Democratic National Committee.
The March has actively excluded the voices with which they disagree. Kyle Kashuv is a pro-Second Amendment survivor of the Parkland shooting. He is the only student who has met with elected officials to craft legislation that will reduce gun violence in schools without infringing on the Second Amendment. Yet, the mainstream media has consistently excluded Kashuv from their coverage of the Parkland survivors. Somehow, his opinions are less important than his left-wing peers.
Even if the March for Instagram Likes achieves every one of its goals, it won’t stop the next school shooting. The Parkland shooting did not happen because of lax gun laws. The FBI ignored multiple tips about the shooter, the local police filed more than 30 reports about him, the school expelled him, he was recommended to be forcibly committed to a mental health institution, and the armed resource officer at the school failed to step in when they were needed the most. Every level of law enforcement failed.
The March for Instagram Likes is self-serving activism. Nothing will come from it except participants giving each other a pat on the back and a double tap on Instagram. Try to remember a time when a partisan screaming session resulted in legitimate policy change.
If you want to have an impact on gun reform legislation, schedule a meeting with your elected officials or organize a lobbying day on Capitol Hill. Have an intelligent, fact-based conversation about guns with people who don’t have the same perspective as you. You might not get as many likes on Instagram, but you will be far more likely to achieve the change you desire.
