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On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Las Vegas shooting that left 58 dead, high school students and adults gathered in Palo Alto Sunday to honor the victims, and to call for tighter gun regulations.
The event at Lytton Plaza in the heart of downtown was organized mainly by students from Palo Alto High School, and served to inspire others young and old to vote for candidates they believe in.
“The 58 people from Las Vegas can’t vote, and the 17 from Parkland can’t vote either,” Miles Breen, a 16-year-old junior at Palo Alto High School who helped organize the rally, said during a speech Sunday.
“That is why we must vote in their honor,” he told the crowd of about two dozen. “If you think your vote doesn’t matter, you’re sorely mistaken.
Even though he can’t yet vote, Breen said he can contribute to the betterment of his country by organizing events like Sunday’s, which also featured a station where people could register to vote.
He said he was inspired by the action of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students from Parkland, Fla., who founded the March For Our Lives campaign after the Feb. 14 shooting at their school.
Julie Lythcott-Haims, an author and former Stanford University dean, told the crowd “Generation Z” is powerful and will need to be the leaders of gun control reform in the nation.
“Your activism, your refusal to accept the gun culture, the status quo, your determination to save lives and to save America awes me,” she said.
“You have taken to the streets, you organize rallies, you speak with rationality and you speak from your heart.”
“This is your country, this your time, this is your life. Lead us out of our American nightmare,” she said.
Addison Beaux, a former staffer for Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was given the day off on Jan. 8, 2011, when Giffords and others were shot at an event she was holding, and six people died.
Beaux brought his dog, Wanda, who he has owned since just before the shooting, and spoke at the event.
“Don’t let anyone dissuade you that your voice has power,” Beaux said. He told the crowd there is a culture of violence in America that must be changed.
“We have to speak up, we have to talk about it,” Beaux said.
“The only way to ensure that change will come is to get out and vote,” Meredith Bright said at the rally.
Bright graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2000, and her niece, Jaclyn Corin, also attends the school, and is one of the founders of March for Our Lives.
“We must demand universal background checks, mental health checks, longer waiting periods to buy firearms, and better regulations on gun accessories that are made with one intent: to kill,” she said.
“I’m here today because of all of you. Everyone here is the change we need, and I’m proud to stand beside you,” Bright said.
Now a Dublin resident, she said she felt compelled to speak at the rally even if it only inspires a few people to action.
The rally was organized along with a nation-wide series of similar events sponsored by Shattering the Silence, an organization fighting to ban bump stocks, an accessory for guns that allows semi-automatic guns to fire much faster, similar to an automatic one.
“Change will come, but only if we continue to take action,” Bright said.
Lythcott-Haims said she spoke at the even because it’s inspiring to see young people “walking out of school, challenging politicians, and speaking truth to adults,” and she wants to help them grow their voices.
“I want them to know they have the support of those of us who are older and who have failed to solve these problems that they’re now tackling,” she said.
