At noon today 28 people – most of them high school students – laid silent and motionless on the sidewalk in front of the Federal Building in downtown Tampa. The demonstration in front of the building where Senator Marco Rubio’s office is located is part of a nationwide series of die-ins to protest inaction on gun violence.
Before the twelve-minute die-in, those students and a dozen others held signs and chanted slogans like:
What do we want? Gun control!
Thoughs and prayers? No! Policies and change!
Enough is enough!
Hey, hey, ho ho. Rubio has got to go!
You are responsible!
No more silence. End gun violence!
Isabella McKnight goes to Palm Harbor University High School. WMNF News spoke with her after she wept lying crumpled on the sidewalk for twelve minutes.
“I’m here because I’m fed up about going to school scared. I’m tired of seeing it on the news. Every time I look on the news. Why? Why do I see somebody got shot? 49 shot [two years ago at Pulse]. Even people injured – there was just recently one where there was only a couple of injured. Why? A middle school – a middle school! It’s ridiculous. We have a family friend, he committed suicide with a gun. And I just think it’s ridiculous. We don’t need it. It causes problems. We need to change this.”
What were you thinking about during those twelve minutes?
“That could be me! The people that got shot at Pulse. I was thinking about Pulse, the victims. If they didn’t die right away, they were laying there just thinking next to all the people that they love. Next to their lovers, their friends, strangers that they may have just met. We need to change. We will make a change. We will vote them out and make a change.”
Listen:
Another die-in participant, Catherine Donald, goes to Countryside High School and will be a senior in the fall.
Listen:
Only two media outlets covered this die-in — the other was the blog Ybor City Stogie.
Previous WMNF story: https://staging.wmnf.org/tampa-bay-students-will-die-in-to-protest-gun-violence/
Watch the die-in here [ if it doesn’t load, try a different browser ] :
2 Responses to “28 students “die-in” outside Marco Rubio’s Tampa office to protest inaction on gun violence”
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GREEDY FLORIDA LEGISLATORS, especially Marco Rubio:
LISTEN TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO HAVE WATCHED AS THEIR FRIENDS WERE SHOT .,..AND DIED!
? How well do you sleep at night, Rubio ?
[Here’s another way he is The Problem:
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2016/09/22/rubio-says-women-dont-need-the-era/
What IS he thinking to diss women and have the gall to Decide For Them what they need ?!! We are tired of violence at home, on the streets, at work, on college campuses.
…and He has DAUGHTERS AND A WIFE! Do they Know what nightmares he inflicts upon them and All when the US Constitution is dismissed because Rubio might anger his monied campaign Donor$ who refuse to harken to the real and cruel needs of his Constituents?
WE ARE MOST TIRED OF RUBIO IGNORING FLORIDA’S NEED TO MAKE RAPE, ETC., AS SEX DISCRIMINATION, A VIOLATION OF THE US CONSTITUTION VIA VOTING FOR/ RATIFYING THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT that women have Died for over the past nearly 100 years
It is Time the Republican Party split with greedy ambitious legislators, male AND female, who live only for their next elective position IF The Party is to Survive.
A preponderance of American citizens are made to laugh at Marco Rubio and all this ego-focused buddies in Congress and in his home state, Florida. Just that None of Us is laughing along with Rubio. Incomprehensible that he had complained about his “US Senate job” and missed far too many meeting to be considered for Senator again, but then switched gears and dug in to be Trump’s sycophant.
Well, wake up, Rubio….you are now Nobody’s darlin’ except those who do not bother to check out your past and your waffling future.
SHOULDN’T WE BE ELECTING ADULTS ?
a bunch of soros paid shills with nothing in their brains.