Alea Bates was finishing her last Uber Eats delivery of the night when a stranger shot her seven times at close range.
Miraculously, she survived. But after major surgery, she couldn’t get out of bed or walk to the bathroom without help. Her left leg was entirely numb, shooting with intense pain. She didn’t even have the strength to drive a car, let alone return to work.
Four days later, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare told her it was time to go.
They didn’t run further scans to see why her leg was numb. They just told her it would go away. Because Alea lost her job and her health insurance just two months before the shooting, the hospital refused to send her to a rehab center.
Alea’s story is part of a systemic pattern. In Florida, uninsured gunshot victims spend significantly less time in the hospital than those with insurance — sometimes cut down to half the time. Among the most severely injured, uninsured patients are pushed out an average of three days earlier.
Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers are pushing to make guns cheaper and easier to get, completely ignoring a 19% increase in gun deaths over the last decade. They flood our streets with weapons, and then the system treats the survivors like bad investments.
We refuse to accept a culture that abandons people when they are most vulnerable.
March for Our Lives was founded by young people who know that true safety means more than just passing laws — it means shifting our entire culture. It means building a world where survivors are met with community, dignity, and the time they need to heal, not a hospital bill and a pair of crutches.
We are organizing on the ground, training high school and college activists, and forcing accountability from both the politicians who profit from guns and the systems that neglect the victims. We know a better world is possible because we are building it together. But we need your help to keep up the fight.
Will you donate today to support our youth-led movement and help us fight for change?
Thank you for being the breath of fresh air this movement needs. Together, we are turning our grief and our hope into unstoppable power.
— March for Our Lives
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Email us: info@marchforourlives.com