June 12 (UPI) — A number of gun control activists, including students from Parkland, Fla., showed up at President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida Tuesday for a “die-in” protest.
The protest coincided with the second anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., where 49 people were killed on June 12, 2016.
Pulse survivors were joined by survivors from Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and teachers died in an attack in February.
About 50 people demonstrated near what Trump calls the “Winter White House” in Palm Beach, Fla.
“The point of the die-in is to physically inhabit spaces that represent that our lives are in danger,” recent high school graduate and organizer Jenni Corwin, 17, told The Palm Beach Post.
Student Marcus Pincus said although the protest was “a little morbid,” it’s a way of holding elected officials accountable.
The protesters laid on the ground for 12 minutes to represent the statistic that someone somewhere in the world is killed by gun violence every 12 minutes.
“Action needs to be taken,” MSD student Caspen Becher told The Sun Sentinel.
“I am sick and tired of [politicians] not doing anything,” the 15 year old added. “We are done dying. We don’t want to die anymore. I am done being shot at. I am done being victimized.”
The protesters said they want common-sense gun reforms, LGBT protections and increased mental health funding.
Monday night, Pulse survivors were joined at Orlando City Hall by MSD survivors and about 200 other demonstrators.
“Six hundred and twelve days,” Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf said at the rally. “That’s how long it took for Pulse headlines to become Parkland headlines. … That’s how long it took for 49 lives lost to become 17 more. And in those 612 days, nothing changed.”
