 Some of you are simply enraged or saddened by what seems like a constant mirage of awful news. Whatever your story may be, I am so, so grateful that you're standing here today. Now I'd like to speak from my own experience, which falls most comfortably under the being enraged and sad in category. On February 20th, I spoke briefly at a small rally held right here on the steps of the state capitol. In that speech, I talked about what it felt like to be a student in post-Parkland America, in post-Parkland, post-Sandyhub, post-Columbine America. I'd like to take a moment to point out that I turned 14 just a few days ago, which means that I haven't ever grown up in a world without Columbine. And I've watched in quiet trepidation as I've grown up and lived through over 187,000 school shootings since then. That day in February, I talked about the conversation that my school had in the aftermath of the tragedy in Florida. How we all had to sit down and talk for close to an hour about what we were to do in the event of an active shooter on campus, going over every scenario possible, from what to do if we were shot, to are we allowed to break the windows and jump if we need to. I remember vividly a conversation I had with my dad when I was younger, that reminded me strikingly of our school discussion. We talked about what it was like for him to grow up with nuclear bomb drills throughout elementary school. He recounted the conversations he would have with his classmates surrounding issues, like whether they'd rather be at the center of the seemingly inevitable catastrophe and die quickly, or try to get far away and die later of radiation poisoning. This might seem morbid, but is it really that different from the conversations that we're having in schools right now? These conversations have a lot of parallels. They both involve dying in unthinkable ways, but there's one big difference. When we think about the Cold War, the circumstances were huge. It had to do with nations at war and espionage and nuclear warheads, things that seemed beyond anyone's control, but the people in power. Right now it might seem like the people in power also have all of the control, but the parallel ends before we get there. We have the power and this is why. Issues like gun violence come from within our own communities and our own lives. That simultaneously makes it even more scary and gives me so much more hope because we are bringing our own experiences and our own voices to the table. Everyone who is impacted by living in a gun-loving culture needs to speak out and it's by speaking from that pluralism, from that point of intersectionality that will give us power. We need to talk about every single way that gun violence manifests itself in this country. Everything from mass shootings to suicide to police brutality. Not every problem will have the same solution, but making sure we include everyone's voice is always, always the best place to start. Our voices together are louder than the NRA and the politicians who take their money. Because we can talk to our politicians. This is Vermont. Most of us personally know our politicians. So we can call BS and we can call our representatives. And if our legislators don't listen to us, we can vote them out. After all, they work for us. I just wanna bring up briefly that I wrote this speech a few days ago and a lot happened just yesterday in the state house. I wanna thank all of the Vermont politicians who did hear us and helped us push S55 through the house. Worked to be done, but yesterday was truly a testament to the power and resilience we bring when we stand in solidarity and say enough is enough. Thank you. We're a gun violence that has been an advocate for changes in gun legislation and for the right of survivors to be heard. She is honored to be working in Vermont. Please welcome her to stage. And with truth tellers. Truth tellers that are demanding action for their lives as they like thousands and thousands of survivors across this country are demanding to be listened to. Even though I have been fighting for gunsense reforms for a long time, it has not been until this moment that there is a change starting to happen across this nation. Stepfather shot me when I was 13 years old on a cold winter January night. That bullet cut and it sliced its way through my back leaving shrapnel that still leaves my body. The force ruined the kidney and shocked the nerves of my spine so that I could not walk for months. My truth of domestic violence starts with being shot. In an average month, 50 women are killed by firearms across this nation. I am called the survivor and because I did survive. I have, and because of that, I have learned to become someone who has determined at all odds to try and make change. It is not even a conscious choice. It is a calling that I want to stop having. But what pushes me each day to try just a little harder no matter how frightened or tired or alone I may feel at times is that I know on an average 96 people are killed in this country each day. Every day in America, there is a mass shooting which is defined as four or more people. And those shootings are mostly in two categories, intimate and domestic violence and multiple shootings with communities of color. I have been honored to have stood beside women of color who have had their children murdered because of the color of their skin. While the nation quickly recognizes mass shootings as mostly white children, they often forget children of color. They feel forgotten and they feel voiceless. So as a survivor and for all survivors, we will stand to speak about racism and gun violence and we will speak about women in America not being safe. And then we will speak of the children. 20 children are shot each day. What kind of a nation allows its children to be shot? What kind of state are we if we do not do everything by passing every law we can to protect one child? I have had to listen to lawmakers who tell me that he and she are in a tough district and might lose an election. I have had to listen to Republicans and Democrats tell me that if lawmaker X loses a district that someone might not be elected and someone worse might be elected. What could be worse? I along thousands upon thousands of survivors see a dead child every time someone says that. We imagine because I know what it feels like to be shot where I should have been safe and in the most real sense. We see blood on the floor and blood that covers a room and we see blood on mother's clothes and father's clothes as they go to try and identify their child. I see a generation of brilliant hopeful children dead and I see a country with few gun violence heroes. It seems that for the past six months I cannot get through testifying in front of lawmakers without crying. I have stood with parents who have cried not one more. I am not alone anymore. Madison is with me and she knows my heart and I know hers, Jacob is with me, Alec is with me, Mackenzie is with me, Olivia is with me and Nathan is with me. Zoe is with me and Nadia is with me and Patty and Auburn and Gabrielle are with me and the board of gunsense Vermont who has been at this work in Vermont since Newtown hired a survivor to be a director are with me and Vermont lawmakers have stepped up to be with me. We are one and we will work harder every day and we are working long hours. I love you, Vermont. You are my first date, my coming home state and thank you for giving us hope and change and be mindful to be kind to people who do not agree with you in this fight. They need to feel welcomed. Go well, let's be in peace. Before I begin, I would like to thank all of you once again for coming out and speaking up for what you believe in. It always astonishes me to see what my generation can truly accomplish and how confident we all are to fight for what we believe in. On August 24th, 2006, my grandfather, Alicia Changs, was killed in a school shooting at Essex Elementary School. I was six years old at the time, just a kid. I was too young to understand how and why she was taken from us. And to this day, I still can't comprehend the reality of the situation. I pushed the idea of her death out of my mind because I don't want to come to terms with the fact that I've been negatively affected by gun violence. I don't want to come to terms with the fact that my family still weeps over her grave the same way that the families of the parking victims do. I don't want to think about it, yet I must. We must. We can't look the other way any longer because gun violence is everywhere we look. Before 2011, mass shootings excluding gang violence and terrorism occurred every six months or 200 days on average. Since then, the average has shortened to every two months. It should have stopped at Parkland. It should have stopped at Sutherland Springs. It should have stopped at Las Vegas. It should have stopped at Orlando. It should have stopped at San Bernardino. It should have stopped at Charleston. It should have stopped at Sandy Hook. It should have stopped at Aurora. It should have stopped at Virginia Tech. It should have stopped at Essex Elementary School. It should have never happened. We simply cannot look the other way any longer. I urge everyone to continue speaking on the importance of gun regulation. Go out and vote for sensible leaders who are not supported or in support of the NRA. And if you are not eligible to vote, if you are not eligible to vote, make the promise to vote. There are countless tragedies that occur in the U.S. every year that flood the news for about a week, but are soon after forgotten. Whether it's cases of mass shootings, police brutality, or natural disasters, the number of victims increase and increase, but no one can remember all of their names. We can no longer sit back and wait for the next tragedy to occur. We must put a stop to potential mass shootings because no one is safe from gun violence. Please continue making a positive change and don't ever let anyone take your voice away. Thank you. I felt unsafe in school because someone vandalized my homework. It was crudely scratched and hasty, but a deliberate asian across my math. I didn't want to go back, but I did. The second time I felt unsafe in school was Sandy Hook. All I could think about was the children screaming and crying, wanting to know what was happening and why it was. I thought of how they wanted their parents or didn't understand why people were screaming. I didn't want to go back, but I did. I still didn't understand the weight of it until February 14th, 2018. I had a new water bottle, new socks, and a package of mints that I opened that morning. I remember the cute red and pink power plastered bag my mom proudly presented to me. I remember the headlines. High schoolers like me shot dead fleeing. Stoneman Douglas High students, dead. Stoneman Douglas High faculty, dead. I remember sitting in my bedroom, staring out of screen because God, it didn't sound right. I remember the flag at half-mast and the conversations at the table and the conversations in the car and the conversations at school. The only time the threat really felt real was February 21st. Second period AP biology, we spent 80 minutes sitting and writing letters to students of Stoneman Douglas. Lunch passed. I spent the day telling people about the fire drill at 1 p.m. because they wanted to test our reaction times. Sixth period had to secure the school. We all laughed it off because medical emergencies happened frequently because secure the school happened frequently. A lunch bell rang. Kids didn't eat. That wasn't right. The period was almost over. Somebody mentioned there was police. Another mentioned there was a threat. I looked out the window and there were cars and police in uniform. That's an assault rifle, somebody said. The bell rang. Stay in the class, my teacher yelled. Don't leave, the chorus teacher shouted. Red faced and wide-eyed as he looked out the classroom door. The school evacuated us shortly after. No locker. I had no keys, no phone, no wallet, no coat. I was panicking and now I had to run home in the rain with no keys, no phone, no wallet and no coat. I agreed with friends to go to my mom's work. We didn't have rides, but they had their phones. My old boss asked what was happening. I remember the fear. I get the preschoolers out, a friend texted me. I thought about how I could shield their bodies with my own if there were shots fired. She's 17. My school wasn't the only school. Nearby, I knew friends who went into lockdown and cried in the previous two days. Enough is enough. I had to establish a web of did everyone make it home all right? I texted my team, if you have nowhere to go, and this happens again, go to my mom's workplace. The police said everything is clear, but part of me is still scared. I don't want to go back, but I have to. I want the lawmakers to know that guns in public places or anywhere should not become morality and the fear should not keep children from learning. Please welcome her to the stage. How many days since the Charleston church massacre? Dealers can still sell guns to anyone at a gun show without a background check. We need more and we need it now. 650. That's how many days since the Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida. The NRA spent over $5 million bribing our politicians in 2017. We need more and we need it now. 73 more kids have been shot and killed since Parkland. We need more and we need it now. For decades, been drilled to protect themselves from the unthinkable. We have learned to slip into corners to be silent, to hide from potential gun violence, to practice clear the halls or lockdown drills again and again and again. The elementary schools tell their children a lie that they hide in case of a wild animal coming into the school. We need to make reasons to prevent the children from being scared to go to school, but all kids will grow up and learn the fear. When I was in fifth grade, I heard about a horrible shooting at a school not far from here. I drew a picture of 20 little angels surrounded by flowers during read aloud that day. That was when I first realized there were no wild animals. In fifth grade, I went to school to read books and play tag, not to have the fear that someone would come and kill me like they killed those other kids. What made me different? Luck, 1,926 days since the Sandy Hills school shooting. Teens of Vermont can still buy handguns without parental permission. 186 additional school shootings without legislative action. What will it take? We need more and we need it now. Now on January 16th of this year, I never dreamed that anyone would be shot at my own Montpelier High School. That morning, I packed my bag and went off to school. At about 9.45, I entered my classroom and spent 15 minutes there. That's what I expected anyways. But I remained in that small yellow room for over two hours. Slowly, the truth seeped in. A man with a gun was on our soccer field. There were nine kids and one teacher in that room, all frantically trying to sort truth from lies. It was so scary to me. The fact that even my teacher didn't know what was going on. On the west, the west wing of the school was evacuated to the auditorium. I wrote my parents and they reassured me, but even through the text, I could tell they were worried. We all were. At 11, they shot him. We heard the echoes of every one of those gunshots. Nine officers shot at him. This man had been our kindergarten teacher's son. He died that afternoon. In nine shots, my school had become yet another statistic. We need more and we need it now. The ones who walked away alive. 38 days ago in Parkland, they gave their lives just for going to school. Closer to home, my peers in Fairhaven were slated to die. Who will be next? Do not underestimate the fear and the impact that this has on every child and every family in Vermont and the rest of America. If people were coming into federal and state buildings every other week and trying to shoot adults, I bet the legislators would have all put their feet down. In 1996, in response to the Port Arthur massacre, brave politicians in Australia took measures to protect their citizens. There hasn't been a single massacre their since. The rise of American massacres grows and now it is our most vulnerable, our children getting gunned down. Australian children live as they should, but we, the kids of America, we are targets. The children of your community have this ever-present threat hanging over them. It makes sense that youth who aren't allowed to drink alcohol shouldn't be allowed to buy guns. Safety is more important than owning an assault rifle than the convenience of someone who wants to buy a gun without the hassle of a battle check. Our next speaker. I'm from St. Johnsbury Academy. Please welcome her to the stage. 2016, a watch list for connections to terrorist groups and threats made when he lost control of his temper. And yet, to obtain an AR-15, a weapon modeled on the M-16s used on the battlefield that in 2016 had already been used in far too many massacres, including the slaughter of first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School. As a young queer woman, this event shook me to the core, especially after the statements that came out alleging that what set off one of the worst massacres in U.S. history was the sight of two men kissing. A dangerous, unstable, violently homophobic man who could be set off by something as beautiful as an innocent act of love between two people had easy access to weapons that enabled him to murder 49 people as they danced the night away in the one place that should have been safe. The one place that they did not have to hide, the one place where they did not have to look over their shoulders in fear before kissing their partners, a place named for the pulse of life itself. My community was targeted in an act of horrific violence that could have been stopped by the common sense regulations that had been and still are long overdue. Of mass gun violence, and we saw 427 just in the year 2017. Not inevitable, no act of mass gun violence is inevitable and watch the slaughter take place. No longer hold our breath when we step onto the street, enter our schools, churches, temples, concert arenas, nightclubs. This is our moment. We're here and will not be dispelled by empty promises, meaningless promises of thoughts and prayers that will do nothing to shield us from a hail of bullets, a massacre that I still cannot properly form words for. When the first responders entered the police nightclub after the massacre in Orlando, they walked through the horrific scene of bodies and called out, if you are alive, raise your hands. I was sleeping in a hotel in the Midwest at the time, but I imagine in that exact moment, my hand twitched in my sleep, some unconscious part of me aware that I had a pulse, that I was alive. The next day, I woke to the news that an assault rifle had fired 202 bullets into a Gava and one of the most massacres in US history, the massacre of people who did not leave the dance floor when they heard gunshots because they thought they were just the beats of a song. Everyone around me spent that day grieving and every tear tasted like someone's dance sweat or drying in the morgue. Later that night, I was performing for an audience that had spent two hours in line waiting to get through the bag checks and metal detectors on stage. I couldn't keep my hand from covering my heart. I kept scouting the club for the fastest route to every exit. I knew the person working security was in a text war and wasn't keeping his eyes on the door. I knew there was a man in the fifth row picking at the seams of a duffel bag. Every few seconds, I added the balcony for the glint of water for my aim to tear the bodies off the spirits of the boys or the hands, but the girls with hair cut short as my temper raged to what decimal I could actually get to. And I did not just grieve sick and ruined watching history, not be history, watching the music, not be music, knowing someone having the best night of her whole life. So this is my favorite song and then a rifle lifted over a bathroom stall and emptied a magazine into the kidneys of a grown man texting mommy I'm going to die. His hand prints and blood on the wall reaching for people dying in the fetal position. People covered in their friend's blood sobbing too hard to hide from their own deaths. People outside pushing bandanas into bullet rooms. It's true what they say about the gaze being so fashionable that ghosts never go out of style. Even life, it's like funeral practice. Half of us are already dead to our families before we die. Half of us on our knees trying to crawl into the family photo that night on stage. I kept remembering being 15 at Disneyland wearing my best friend's hoodie. It was my boyfriend's class ring. For many years it took me just to touch her face. So many years I spent praying my heart could play dead till the threat was gone, till the world changed. So history was history, but history just keeps coming for the high shooting up bodies, throwing up reasons to have metal detectors. Poetry readings, when the poems aren't just poems but answered calls to people who claim that God or their apathy is willing to accept the charges. Dear God, how broke do you have to be? Do you have to buy people time to get out the door when the song goes to hell and this world drunk on hate decides the blood is wine and drinks it's foam? The only place they ever thought was safe and the only place they ever thought they did not have to hide and the only place they were wanted because of who they loved and how they loved and how they loved to someone walk into the bodies and ask to a still alive. Hardly anyone put their hand up. They will be performing a song, they will be performing the song Shine that was written by two student survivors of the majority Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Please welcome them. Support lawmakers that back done reform. Together we will shine the light. Welcome her to the stage. I'm here to show you an inside of you on gun violence at in schools effect on HMS. After the recent school shooting in Florida, everything was loud. Both students and teachers, things got quieter as people realized what happened. 17 dead ranging from 14 to 49. Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Paizio, Martin Duke Anguilina, Nicholas Dorot, Aaron Feis, Jamie Gutenberg, Chris Hickson, Luke Hoyer, Kara Luegrin, Gina Maltalto, Joaquin, Nina Petty, Meadow Pollock, Helena Ramsey, Shatter, Carmen Sjenop and Peter Wing. Some asked, will we be next? Others said the probability is low. While others responded, but there's still a chance. Some of my peers busied themselves researching the topic and walkouts. Some worried about their safety in school. Some said it can never happen to us. All through this, I'm thinking, we shouldn't have to worry about being shot down in our classrooms because we might not come back. It was being gunned down daily and thinking that could have been me when I left my home because of it. But do you want to know what the funny thing is? School saying, I'm gonna shoot up in here. I'm gonna kill everyone. On a daily basis, kids say this in thinking it's cool and hip, but it just makes you an ignorant fool. This nation has been kneeling down old because Trump gave someone a gun. She is a member of her school. One day she hopes to work for Emily's List or another organization focused on the empowerment of women and girls. Please welcome her to the stage. I was born and raised in Vermont and I am a proud Vermonter and a proud American. I am deeply concerned and angered with the lack of action from our leaders. Will lawmakers only wake up when it is their child killed in a school shooting? Will their child killed by gang violence or their child who picks up a loaded gun? In this country, the right to bear an AR-15 overshadows the right for you and me and for all of us to live. I've been in public school for 13 years now and in those 13 years, there have been 187 school shootings across this country and every day, I am acutely aware of the danger I face walking into school. While my worries about my own safety will decrease once I graduate, my brother still has four more years of high school and my dad, an elementary school teacher, will be in schools until his retirement and be expected to shield his fifth graders from the line of fire. But schools aren't the only places that are unsafe. Gun violence is growing more prevalent in every corner of America. Homes, theaters, places of worship and these acts of violence are affecting children of color at an even higher rate than white children. Gun violence is an epidemic plaguing this country and us, the children are caught in the crossfire. Researchers have found that millions of children in the US live in homes with loaded, unlocked firearms. It's no surprise that out of all children accidentally killed by a gun, 89% of them were killed at home. Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that requires individuals to securely store firearms. Our Vermont lawmakers are unable to put two and two together. Guns in the wrong hands, whether it be a criminal and angry teenager or child, causes death. These tragedies are preventable. Implementing policies that would close the gun show loophole, establish more stringent background checks or simply require that guns be locked up in homes are all easy common sense policies that will save lives who are elected officials in this state house and in Washington. You have a duty to protect our children. The opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. And to children across this country whom the system has failed, we stand with you today, not just in solidarity, but in action. We are not backing down. We are persisting. But they didn't know we were seeds. Thank you. Brennan is a young man who started writing poetry about a year ago. He finds it's the best tool he has to address important issues that should not fade away silently. Being a part of youth, he has witnessed firsthand the fear that takes hold of young people when tragedies like school shootings are happening more and more frequently. He will be performing his poem when a black boy meets the sun, which is an attempt to describe the fears and signal around being a young man of color in America. Please welcome him to the stage. I would start off, I want to start off by thanking all of you guys for coming out to this important historic event. You're all, you're all amazing and your voices matter. I hope my poem can resonate with you. It's called, When a Black Boy Meets the Sun. When a black boy meets the sun, when his lungs taste the air for the first time, when his fingers first curl around his mother's, when he first looks at you with those big round eyes, when he is cute as hell, when he can be spotted on Instagram with Angelina Jolie, when every single woman wants him in her arms, when he still wants him, when he's still clueless. You see, when a black boy meets the sun, the same sun responsible for his chocolate skin, his nappy hair, the fearful eyes that watch him, the unreported harassment that follows him, the same sun that taught him to take every punch of beating, a black boy who radiates sunshine, even in his blackest moments, a black boy always smiles. You see, when the black boy still gets to be a boy, his mama tells him to never stop smiling, not even when he meets the bookie man in his closet. She will say, listen to me, don't you ever stop smiling, I never want to see you found, not even when you see the bookie man, the man in blue, I don't want to see you found it in your casket, you will leave this world with a smile on your face, don't you dare cry. You best put a tie in your pocket because you never know when you're gonna need it, never know when you're gonna have to meet the sun. Because when a black boy meets the sun, it's the most important day of his life. The same sun that gave this black boy everything, the pigment in his cheeks, the beauty stitched into his skin, gave him his smiles, gave him the ability to teach those who aren't informed, gave him a voice so he can tell them, tell them black is beauty, black is magic, black isn't something to run from because you can't run from the sun. And this black boy knows it, even when this black boy is still clueless, when he is still wanted, when he still gets to be a boy, before his innocence is stolen from him, before he is mislabeled due to the streets that erase him, before he is a threat, before he unarmed is more dangerous than a white man with a semi-automatic, when he's still young and gets a warning shot, when he'll still get the chance to meet a jury, when he'll get to live long enough to get a... Wait, I'm sorry. When he'll still get the chance to get a... One second, one second. When he still gets the luxury of being questioned before the execution, you see when a black boy meets the boogeyman, the man who trust exactly how his mama said he would be, covered in blue with a star on his chest, gun drawn, aiming for him, trigger already pulled, sending this black boy to go meet his son. He won't be remembered as a black boy, but an English man, a danger, a threat. He'll be able to answer no questions, but at least his mama will see him smiling. At least he'll look nice when he meets the son. Just please remember, this black boy had a name. Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, McCoy McDonald. Time will not swallow our black boys. We can't let it. Thank you. My speaker is James Shanti Shrother. James is a graduate of Governor's Institute of Vermont for current issues and youth activism, and is an active member of Youth for Change. Please welcome him to the stage. I'm so proud of everyone who came out here today and proud of everyone who came to protest all over the country. We have lots of issues as a country. We have issues with equality, issues with poverty, issues with government, but right now we have an issue with basic safety. Americans are 10 times more likely to be killed by guns than people in any other developed country in the world. Out of these people, black Americans are eight times more likely to be killed by a firearm than white Americans. This statistic is from the CDC, our own government. We make up 5% of the world's population and 31% of the world's mass shootings. There have been shootings at concerts, churches, nightclubs, workplaces, and schools. We the youth are here to tell the government we do not feel safe at school. We do not feel safe with anyone being able to walk into a store and purchase guns. We do not feel safe putting guns in our classrooms. We are not safe. We feel even more at risk than other youth. We have been targeted systemically by gun violence for ages and school is no longer one of the safe havens for us. People of color and youth have been oppressed for a long time. Youth have been historically ignored. People use young and ignorant synonymously. People of color have faced unnecessary violence for the way they look. Well today, let's stand in solidarity to tell our government that we will be heard, that we will not stop fighting and that our voices matter just as much as anyone else's. Demand gun control, thank you so much. Educators and a 30 year veteran teacher in Vermont's public school system. Please welcome her to the stage. Madison, I hope I can make it through this without crying. Can you imagine what these kids are going through? It's just amazing. Anyway, good afternoon. I am one of the few adults speaking to you today. And I was invited because I represent 14,000 educators, teachers and support staff in our public schools. I represent those who could be asked to carry a gun to school along with their lunchbox and lesson plans. I am here today to tell you that this notion is absurd. The answer to making our schools safe from guns is not to honor our teachers. If you want to honor our teachers, arm them with books and support courses to teach our students, but certainly not with a gun. I can't think of anything more frightening for students and staff than knowing a loaded weapon was somewhere in the classroom. No guns for teachers, no way. Common sense gun laws. And I'd like to thank those in the Vermont House for their amazing work yesterday. I think that we can get this job done next week. The second amendment was not written with sophisticated weapons of war in mind. It wasn't written with the idea that citizens should have the right to massacre innocent people. It wasn't written to allow someone to murder a family member in a fit of anger. We need to use common sense and realize that times have changed. This particular amendment has value, but it should not be misinterpreted and lead to the loss of innocent lives. As a 30 year veteran teacher here in Vermont, that the youth of Vermont are amazing people. You are seeing it here today for sure. Not full, energetic, hopeful, ambitious, driven, and most definitely full of surprises. Unfortunately, it has taken an unimaginable tragedy for the adults in this country to sit out and pay attention to them. Today, we are hearing from these articulate young Vermonters who are tired of watching the adults around them do nothing to prevent another mass killing. Today, it is time for the adults to really listen to our children and act. It is time for us to pay attention to what these kids are saying because they are right. We need to behave like grownups and put personal biases and misconceptions aside to make positive changes in our society. We must listen to our children so that their futures are bright and promising and safe. Come on, adults, listen to the kids, then get out of their way, future, thank you. Olivia is a Vermont early college student studying political science and international relations. She serves as the events coordinator for her colleges, model the United Nations team, and has volunteered locally and abroad. Please welcome her to the stage. You're open, Vermont, and have come into this movement because my generation has endured adults taking no action. I am deeply disturbed and upset that the adults in power have undermined and belittled the youth and their allies. Yes, I'm afraid, but no, I am not going to obey the problem at hand. Today we gather on the Statehouse launch to support common sense gun laws. But what is next? Call and email your legislators. Tell them you support common sense gun laws and that you support gun safety measures. If you do not know who your representative is, that's okay. You can find your local representative at legislator.vermont.gov. Since you probably won't remember that link, just Google who is my representative in Vermont? Jam the phone lines and make it a priority to tell Governor Sot that you support all gun safety bills that arrive on his desk to support background checks in Vermont, the extreme risk protection order, making guns unavailable to domestic abusers, a ban on bump stops, raising the minimum age limit to 21, limiting magazine capacity to 10 bullets, and felony to carry a weapon on the school grounds with the intent to cause bodily harm. Dear legislators, we're continuing to pass bills that prioritize our safety and well-being. When you return to your communities, initiate respectful and meaningful conversation with your neighbors. Join a group or organization that works for gun reform in champions gun safety, such as Gun Sense Vermont, the grading campaign in Giffords. There is work to accomplish on not just a state level, but a federal level. But when these actions are not enough, go out to the polls and vote. Ups your values and makes it priority to protect your safety. Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for coming from all over Vermont and the country to stand in solidarity with those who could not be here today in defiance for gun reform, that creates a different environment for students and people from all walks of life. Thank you. The country's survivors are same, and we thought we would like to share it with you. And it's called March For Our Lives. We kind of lose it. My name is Claylasher Summers. My name is Madison New. I march for my sister's life. I march for all our lives. I march for Chicago, Columbus, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, Las Vegas, and Indianapolis. I march for America. I march for all victims and for their families of everyday gun violence. I march for all survivors. This to gun violence. For the first responders. From gun violence means waiting in line to speak with your member of Congress, not watching your member of Congress learn to speak again. It's about celebrating who someone has become and stand up mourning who they could have been. About our shared belief and our right to live free from fear of a bullet. If you love one, get easy access to mental health care they need instead of easy access to a firearm. I'm a survivor during this difficult period and yesterday I'm here. So here's the administration table here. You can write to Governor Scott. You're to tell them you support the Extreme Risk Protection Bill. Call and email your letters later to tell them you support the removal of guns in domestic violence situations. Call and email your letters later to tell them you support universal background checks. Letters later for all the hard work they've been doing on this issue. And gun laws. Together we can throw out politicians who are not going to act. Together we can take on gun lobbyists. Together we can remember the victims and support the survivors.