Overview

Newtown, Orlando, Las Vegas—each represents a mass murder in the US, with at least 28 lives lost, using legally acquired weapons. These tragedies seem to occur more frequently, with politicians seemingly inactive. This changed on Valentine’s Day 2018, when a shooting at MSD High School in Parkland, Florida, killed 14 students and three faculty members. In response, young people organised the largest gun violence protests since the Vietnam War, demanding stricter gun laws and a ban on AR-15 rifles. Director Sebastian Bellwinkel documented this movement. While mass shootings are a significant issue, they account for only 1% of the 30,000 gun-related deaths annually. Some states have altered gun laws due to the protests, but the conservative Trump administration’s stance on making firearms harder to access remains unclear.