Three days after the first anniversary of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 and wounded 14, and two days after a workplace shooting in Aurora, Illinois, that killed five and wounded five police officers, Sen. Joni Ernst launched a fundraising effort based on her support for a top NRA legislative priority. On […]
March for Our Lives
‘This fight isn’t over’: Iowa City’s student-led gun reform movement, one year after Parkland
Before news of the shooting in Parkland, Florida started to spread through City High on Feb. 14, 2018, I was mostly worried about the flower I was giving to my newly minted boyfriend, Theo, for Valentine’s Day. That’s what my teenage life feels like: Every little thing is the decision of a lifetime, until something […]
Local high school students are energized to vote, and principals and teachers hope to stoke it
The 2018 midterm election, widely regarded as one of the most important elections in recent history, is underway. Candidates nationwide have focused less on swaying voters and more on mobilizing them, particularly those who have never voted before. And one of the biggest pools of first-time voters is young people. Many 18-year-old high school students […]
Months after March For Our Lives, local students continue gun control fight
Although school is out for the summer, Students Against School Shootings Iowa (SASS) isn’t taking a break. The Iowa City-based organization was founded in February after 17 people died in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. When a group of City High School students heard that students at South East […]
‘You can make a difference’: March for Our Lives comes to Marion
Even before the Road to Change Tour town hall meeting started at Linn-Mar High School in Marion on Thursday night, members of the audience that packed the school’s gymnasium knew the importance of voting was going to be stressed. To get to the gym, you had to pass by multiple groups trying to help people register to vote. […]
‘I am not separating myself from the NRA’: Sen. Joni Ernst responds to questions about March for Our Lives
Sen. Joni Ernst reaffirmed her support for the NRA on a CBS news program on Sunday, while claiming she is not beholden to the NRA for the almost record-setting amount of money it has spent supporting her since 2014. […]
Letter to the editor: An open invitation from Students Against School Shootings
That’s why I march. I’m not the only one; hundreds of thousands of students across the U.S. walked out on March 14, united under the same message: not one more. It might seem like we’ve already done a lot in protest, but we still haven’t seen significant changes — or even any attempts at reasonable, logical change — on a state or federal level. […]