Full Speech From March For Our Lives Charleston

 Before I begin I would like to thank Sydney Clinton and Dalton Bell for their leadership and giving me the opportunity to stand before you today and help organize this unique event. Without them, this march would not be happening.

There are many ways to judge the success of a protest. You can look to the turnout at the protest, the number of people that showed up. You can look to the media coverage surrounding the event, how much attention it received. However, the biggest indicator of a protest�s effectiveness is actual policy changes made because of it. When looking at this protest, not just the one here but the national Never Again movement, that is how I will judge success.

We can achieve that success but it can only be attained if we keep up the pressure after we go home tonight. When the legislation is passed and the changes we want to see are made, then we can relax and celebrate our hard work.

Until then, we cannot let up.

There are a multitude of ways that you can create change beyond attending this march. Mark Sanford is known to pop up in random locations throughout the Lowcountry every other week or so. He usually announces where he will be on Facebook a few days before. Go to him, voice your concerns and implore him to take action. All of our representatives hold meetings with the public and about five people go to them. And then we are outraged and unsatisfied when they don�t do what we want them to do. It�s not always them not listening, it�s us not speaking. The March For Our Lives is us speaking, but you can�t just press the gas really hard for one second and then let go and expect your car to go far. It requires a constant, unrelenting force on the pedal to reach our destination. Do not go home tonight and take your foot off the gas. Do not go home and post about how you had a great time at the March For Our Lives and then never post about it again or make no effort to seek change. The NRA is waiting for this wave of activism to pass like so many have in the past. We have to generate a storm that they cannot simply wait out. We cannot go home and say that the job is done. This march will be a failure if we do not keep up the pressure and continue to speak out.

The next question is, �What changes do we want to see? How do we know when we have reached our destination?� My answer to that is when mass shootings stop becoming commonplace in our society. When our government can pass a comprehensive law that implements universal background checks, raises the minimum age at which a person can buy a gun to 21, bans bump stocks, closes the Charleston loophole and extends the waiting period for a person buying a gun to at least 5 days or until the FBI gives the green light, dismisses the ridiculous proposal to arm teachers, and bans assault weapons.

Is our movement working? Is the national attention around our movement making a difference? I�d say yes. Just look at Florida. They recently passed a law that raises the minimum age and bans bump stocks. Just yesterday the Justice Department announced that they would be banning bump stocks. Look at our president who declared his support for banning bump stocks and other gun control measures while speaking to members of Congress. We have our foot in the door. We have started the conversation. But it will take a combined force of all of our voices to swing that door wide open. There is so much to be done. And it starts with you. Seek out your representatives. If you can�t meet with them in person, bombard them with emails and letters. If they don�t listen, vote them out this November. These guys are in hot water right now and they work for us. There is a voter registration booth here today if you need it.

To my generation: Generation Z. We are gaining power and we are the new leaders of this country. The future is now. Don�t take the backseat and let the adults take control of this situation. Let this movement be a foundation for the many years of activism that Generation Z will generate and shake up the status quo. Things are going to be different now. We are going to dig ourselves out of the hole that previous generations have dug. The time to act is now.

To the politicians who disregard us because of our age: November is fast approaching and for the first time, our generation will be voting. We are not going to be complacent with your incompetence like previous generations have been. We are here to shake things up. Things are going to be different now. Your days are numbered and you will find yourself out of office if you continue to ignore our demands. We will win this fight because we are the new electorate and we don�t accept inaction as leadership.

Governor McMaster, we won�t forget your comments on our movement. We will not forget this November when we go to vote and say, �Enough!�

If we are going to win this fight, we have to keep the ball rolling. Do not go home and forget about what happened here today. Keep up the pressure and eventually we will break down the door. Never again will we be complacent. Never again will we move on and forget. Never again will we allow the adults to shut us up. We will do these things to make sure that what happened in Parkland, Florida never happens again.

You can find a video of my speech right here.