A teenager is planning an upcoming “March for Our Guns” rally at Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach this month. In an interview with Wavy TV 10 in VB, 15-year-old Aiden Jackson said he was interested in planning the rally after seeing the publicity “March for our Lives” generated nationally. Jackson, a freshman at Ocean Lakes High School, in an on-air interview, said, “When I saw the “March for Our Lives,” I saw a lot of people for gun control. Not every youth believes that. Gun control is not the answer.”
The issue of gun control in the wake of the Parkland Shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which left 17 people dead and an equal number wounded, has re-ignited the national debate. Led by the student survivors, the issue has gained national prominence through a series of high profile media appearances all of which culminated in the March for Our Lives rally on March 24 that brought close to a million people to Washington DC.
According to Jackson, one of the reasons he is planning the rally is the fact that “not every youth believes gun control is the answer.” While he did participate in the student-led walkouts in March, he carried a sign with a vastly different message stating that gun control was not the answer. Jackson also said that during the walk-out, another student tore his sign apart. “Someone came up out of the blue, looked at me, read my sign, and ripped my sign, and then the entire school applauded.”
Nonetheless, the VB teen said he was encouraged and received positive feedback from his classmates who thought he was brave to share his contrarian opinion during the walk-out supporting stricter gun control. Jackson, struck a conciliatory tone in his interview inviting people from all sides of the debate to his rally, saying, “I want to invite all the viewers to come along and show your support and really view a different point of the aisle if you are in support of gun control.
