| Date | May 2, 2018 |
|---|---|
| Location | United States |
| Type | Demonstration (protest) |
| Theme | Support of gun rights |
| Cause | School shootings in the United States |
| Organized by | Will Riley Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund |
Stand for the Second was a student-led demonstration in support of the United States Second Amendment held on May 2, 2018. The demonstration was in response to the March for Our Lives protest held on March 24, 2018.
Will Riley, an 18-year-old high school senior from Carlsbad High School in Carlsbad, New Mexico, organized the event with the help of the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund. [1] Riley stated in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, "I'm watching the news and I see they're saying, 'We have to do something about this. We have to enact some sort of gun control legislation because this is what the kids are asking for.' And I'm thinking, 'I'm not asking for that. I look at my friends and I think 'They're not asking for that.'" [2]
Riley wrote an op-ed for the Carlsbad Current-Argus on April 11, 2018, where he wrote about the walkout to garner interest. [3]
The event's website stated "We have not ignored the huge movement of our peers against these fundamental human rights and liberties, but the American people must know not all of our generation shares in the shortsighted destruction of our Constitution." [4]
The protests started at 10:00AM and lasted for 16 minutes, one minute less than the March for our Lives protest. [5] The official website listed over 500 schools in 40 states across the U.S. participating in the event, but the Los Angeles Times wrote those numbers could not be independently verified. [6]
The Washington Times reported no celebrities endorsed or attended the event and it received much less media attention. [7]
Kyle Kashuv, a survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, tweeted "I will not be walking out today. I don't believe it is the correct thing to do. Disrupting 1000s of classrooms around the country isn't the answer. There's a time and place for civil disobedience, I just don't believe that time is now. Instead, let's all #WalkUp!#FIXIT" [8]
Riley was commended for the protest by the Eddy County Sheriff Mark Cage on April 25, 2018. Riley was sworn in as an honorary sheriff's deputy for his efforts. It was the first time Cage had presented the honor. [9]
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is a public high school in Parkland, Florida, United States. It was established in 1990 and is part of the Broward County Public Schools district. It is named after the writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas and is the only public high school in Parkland, serving almost all of the limits of that city as well as a section of Coral Springs.
West Boca Raton Community High School (WBRCHS) is a magnet high school in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. It was established in 2004 and is part of the School District of Palm Beach County. The school primarily serves students from the western unincorporated part of Boca Raton known as West Boca Raton.
Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund is an American super political action committee formed by the Tea Party Patriots in February 2013.
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Miami suburban town of Parkland, Florida, United States, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others. Cruz, a former student at the school, fled the scene on foot by blending in with other students and was arrested without incident approximately one hour and twenty minutes later in nearby Coral Springs. Police and prosecutors investigated "a pattern of disciplinary issues and unnerving behavior".
X González is an American activist and advocate for gun control. In 2018, they survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, and, in response, co-founded the gun-control advocacy group Never Again MSD.
Never Again MSD is an American student-led political action committee for gun control that advocates for tighter regulations to prevent gun violence. The organization, also known by the Twitter hashtags #NeverAgain, and #EnoughIsEnough, was formed by a group of twenty students attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD) at the time of the deadly shooting in 2018, in which seventeen students and staff members were killed by the alleged gunman, who was a 19-year-old former student of the school and was armed with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle. The organization started on social media as a movement "for survivors of the Stoneman Douglas Shooting, by survivors of the Stoneman Douglas Shooting" using the hashtag #NeverAgain. A main goal of the group was to influence that year's United States mid-term elections, and they embarked on a multi-city bus tour to encourage young people to register to vote.
March for Our Lives (MFOL) is a student-led organization which leads demonstrations in support of gun control legislation. It took place in Washington, D.C., on March 24, 2018, with over 880 sibling events throughout the United States and around the world, and was planned by Never Again MSD in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety. The event followed the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting a month earlier, which was described by several media outlets as a possible tipping point for gun control legislation.
Cameron Marley Kasky is an American activist and advocate against gun violence who co-founded the student-led gun violence prevention advocacy group Never Again MSD. He is notable for helping to organize the March for Our Lives nationwide student protest in March 2018. Kasky is a survivor of the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Kasky was included in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2018".
In 2018, protests against gun violence in the United States increased after a series of mass shootings, most notably at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14 that year. An organized protest in the form of a national school walkout occurred on March 14. March for Our Lives was held on March 24. Another major demonstration occurred April 20, 2018.
Alexander Blake Wind is an American student activist against gun violence. A survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and a founding member of the Never Again MSD movement, he is a critic of politicians who are supported by the National Rifle Association of America. Wind was one of five Stoneman Douglas students featured on the cover of Time magazine in 2018.
David Miles Hogg is an American gun control activist. He rose to prominence during the 2018 United States gun violence protests as a student survivor of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, helping lead several high-profile protests, marches, and boycotts, including the boycott of The Ingraham Angle. He has also been a target and scapegoat of several conspiracy theories.
Jaclyn Corin is an American activist against gun violence. She survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018. She is one of the co-founders of March for Our Lives and the organizer of a student protest to Tallahassee, Florida. She has also been a vocal critic of politicians funded by the National Rifle Association.
Lauren Hogg is an American author and activist against gun violence. She survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018 and after became a co-founder of March for Our Lives and advocates against gun violence. She is the younger sister of gun control activist and former Marjory Stoneman Douglas student David Hogg. She graduated from MSD High School in 2021, three years after David.
Naomi Wadler is an American student and activist against gun violence. She has made speeches advocating for victims of gun violence in the United States, especially black female victims, most notably at the pro-gun control protest March For Our Lives. She attends The Field School in Washington, DC.
Kyle Kashuv is an American conservative activist. He survived the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and subsequently advocated for gun rights, notably in opposition to his fellow survivors' March for Our Lives movement.
Ryan Blaine Petty is an American school safety activist. His 14-year-old daughter Alaina Petty was murdered in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. Petty is credited with helping to pass the "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act" Florida Senate Bill 7026 just three weeks after his daughter Alaina was murdered. At the federal level, Petty worked with Senators Orrin Hatch, Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson to pass the STOP School Violence Act and the Fix NICS Act of 2017. He has met frequently with former Florida governor Rick Scott, and many federal lawmakers.
Ryan Deitsch is an American student activist against gun violence, and a survivor of the Parkland massacre. He is a founding member of the Never Again MSD movement.
Matthew Bryan Deitsch is an American writer, gun violence prevention advocate and political advisor. Before entering politics, he worked in broadcast media and was a freelance photographer, film director and music producer. After the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in which his siblings witnessed, Deitsch became chief strategist for the March For Our Lives protests and began advocating for gun violence prevention. He is the older brother of activist Ryan Deitsch.
The National School Walkout was a national student-led protest on April 20, 2018, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre. The walkout was one of many protests against gun violence in the United States that erupted in response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting on February 14, 2018.
Aalayah Eastmond is an American activist and advocate for gun violence prevention, social justice, and racial equality. After surviving the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Eastmond began her activism during the 2018 United States gun violence protests. She has testified multiple times to the U.S. Congress. Eastmond is an executive council member of Team Enough, a youth-led gun violence prevention organization which is part of the Brady Campaign. Eastmond co-founded Concerned Citizens of DC in the wake of the murder of George Floyd to organize protests supporting social justice issues in Washington, D.C. She supports Black Lives Matter and protests against police brutality.
