Eight years ago, 17 of my classmates and teachers were killed in a matter of minutes.
In the weeks that followed, we did something none of us had planned for. We organized March For Our Lives. At the time, it felt urgent and immediate, something we had to do because no one else was moving with the speed or clarity the moment required.
What I remember most about March 24, 2018, is not just the scale, though it was enormous. It is the feeling of that day. The sense that something fundamental had shifted. Young people were no longer being told to wait, or to prepare, or to come back later. They had stepped fully into public life, and they were not asking for permission.
Across Washington, and in cities and towns around the world, millions of people showed up. Not as spectators, but as participants. There was a shared understanding, even then, that the march itself was not the end goal. It was a beginning. A signal of what was possible when people decided to act together.
In the years since, that feeling has stayed with me, even as the headlines have changed. The underlying reality has not. Gun violence continues to shape daily life in this country, often in ways that never make national news, but are no less devastating to the people living through it.
If anything, the distance from that day has clarified what it meant. Not just as a moment of visibility, but as a turning point in how a generation understands its role. Once people experience themselves as participants, rather than observers, it becomes much harder to return to the sidelines.
The assumption, in many places, was that time would quiet this movement. That the urgency would fade, that people would move on, that the moment would pass.
It didn’t.
March For Our Lives continues to carry forward the work that began in those early weeks, organizing, advocating, and building the kind of sustained pressure that makes change possible. That work is not abstract. It is daily, often unglamorous, and entirely necessary.
If you’re able, I hope you’ll consider contributing $8 to support that effort:
What happened eight years ago cannot be undone. But what we do with it still matters. The future of this issue, and of the communities it affects, is not fixed. It is something we are still shaping, together.
Thank you for being part of that.
Delaney Tarr
Co-Founder
March For Our Lives
Join the Movement Fund 💌💙
Gun violence is relentless. Our response has to be just as persistent.
Recurring donations power our organizing, rapid response, youth training, and everything it takes to win.
Email us: info@marchforourlives.com