Father Of Parkland Shooting Victim Sculpts Haunting Image Of Child Hiding Under Desk
Manuel Oliver created “The Last Lockdown” partially using 3D printing
Artist Manuel Oliver, who lost his 17-year-old son Joaquin during the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has created a striking sculpture depicting a child hiding under a desk to signify when a school is on lockdown.
The statue is one of 10 being shown across the country during voter registration drives, specifically in congressional districts where politicians back the gun lobby. The title of the project is “The Last Lockdown.”
The figures were created using 3D printers, an intentional reference to the debate over guns potentially being 3D printed.
The desks are real school desks. “We want you to feel unsettled,” the project’s co-creator Sean Leonard said.
Oliver and Leonard teamed up with Giffords, the gun reform group founded by former congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
Giffords is a mass shooting victim herself, being left partially paralyzed after a lone gunman opened fire at a meet-and-greet in Tucson, Arizona, in 2011.
She’s learning the tactics some people (men and women) will take in order to rationalize disregarding your message.
They’ll criticize your hair – because valuable women should have beautiful hair. They’ll talk about your sexuality – because anytime they don’t like your message, your sexuality is fair game. They’ll talk about your clothes – because valuable women dress a certain way.
And anything bad that happens to women is the result of the clothing they choose. They’ll criticize you because you don’t wear makeup because women, valuable worthy women, wear lipstick.
They’ll deride your tears – because women are so emotional. Never mind the fact that, had the strongest among them gone through what you have, they would cry too. They’ll talk about the patch on your jacket – as if it’s relevant – because they can’t comprehend that a flag belongs, not to a country, but to the people.
They’ll talk about how you should’ve been nicer to the unpopular kid – because, as always, it’s your responsibility to prevent violence against you. Men aren’t expected to behave but women are expected to soothe them and not provoke them. You must behave a certain way and, if you don’t, you deserve to suffer violence or even death.
When you ask for, demand, safety and protection, they’ll tell you that you don’t deserve it.
(They’ll tell you that the real threat to you is texting and driving and that you should just give up your cell phone. As if you wouldn’t gladly give up that and more to change what happened to you and your friends. The real threat is shoot-em-up video games. The real threat is violent movies and television shows like The Walking Dead. Seriously??)
They’ll criticize you if you show strength and they’ll criticize you if you show weakness. If you’re proud, they’ll say you’re arrogant. If you’re vulnerable, they’ll mock you. They’ll show contempt for your intelligence, the fact that you’re well spoken. When you stand up and speak as a woman, they’ll call you a child. When you cry, they’ll tell you to grow up.
Nothing you do or say or become will ever be enough for them. But that’s alright. Keep speaking up and out.
Keep standing true to yourself – wear what you like, love who you love.
Shout, cry, laugh.
Because you, baby girl, are already MORE THAN ENOUGH.
And there are millions of us, who are so proud of you.
Ever since Valentine’s Day 2018, the day the Parkland, Florida mass shooting happened, this phrase has become ingrained in my mind.
These teenagers are taking over this sad American reality.
Like Emma, there are plenty others. There are those we know already by name who have been thrust into adulthood too soon. They have taken their role as serious as the reality is.
They are claiming their future as they should.
Here’s one of the many examples seen on March 24, 2018 …
Emma González honored the Parkland shooting victims at the March for Our Lives with six minutes of silence, the amount of time it took for the shooter to kill 17 people.
WOULD NEVER …
~~Emma Gonzalez’s POWERFUL March For Our Lives Speech~~
~~Published on Mar 24, 201 ~~
Emma González’s powerful six minutes of silence speech at the Washington DC March For Our Lives rally
The Dunblane school massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School near Stirling, Stirlingshire, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.
Twenty-two years after the deadliest mass shooting in British history, survivors of the Dunblane Primary School massacre are sharing words of compassion – and caution – to students in Parkland, Florida.
The British survivors sent their letter on the 22nd anniversary of the school shooting in Dunblane, Scotland, where 16 first-grade students and one teacher were killed. They expressed sympathy for the students in Parkland, Florida, and urged them to keep up their fight for stricter gun control.
“We have watched and listened with tremendous admiration as you have spoken out for what you believe should happen now,” they wrote.
“We want you to know that change can happen.”
The Dunblane and Parkland shootings bear striking similarities: Both were carried out by one man with a gun, and both resulted in 17 deaths. Both sparked outrage in their respective countries, as well as calls for gun safety reform.
In Scotland, at least, those calls were effective:
Just over a year after the shooting, the UK banned all private handguns completely. There has not been a single school shooting since.
“Continue to remind everyone of exactly what happened at your school and of the devastation caused by just one person with one legally-owned gun,” the letter reads. “Never let anyone forget.”
The Parkland students’ activism has already sparked some reforms, including the passage of a modest gun control bill in the Florida state legislature. The students have also met with Drumpf for a listening session in the White House, and organized two nationwide protests in favor of gun control.
Parkland shooting survivors talk gun control and conspiracies on The Ellen DeGeneres Show
~DAVID CANFIELD~
February 23, 2018
Three survivors of the mass shooting last Wednesday, February 14, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, joined Ellen DeGeneres on Friday. February 23, to continue spreading their advocacy of stricter gun laws.
DeGeneres was joined by Emma González, Cameron Kasky and Jaclyn Corin, all of whom have made major public appearances over the past week, to discuss the conversation that the Parkland tragedy (wherein 17 people were killed) has sparked and what’s being done to keep it going and to turn it into real policy change. “You all are amazing,” the host said to them at the beginning of the segment.
The students touched on a variety of topics, including their widely-watched CNN Town Hall on Wednesday evening in which, among other highlights, Kasky confronted Senator Marco Rubio and asked him directly whether he’d continue accepting money from the National Rifle Association.
As DeGeneres continued to praise the students’ efforts, González clarified that it was her school that gave her the tools to make sense of and respond to the tragedy.
“We are thankful to have been in a school that educated us almost perfectly to handle this situation,” she said.
Kasky added that he’s felt some guilt for what it took to spur him to activism.
“I wish I had been able to be a part of this before I had to feel it at home,” he said. “I almost feel guilty … It took us feeling that anguish for us to get involved, but we’re here now. But we just have to keep going and realize that we’re here to fight the good fight.”
He later quipped, in regard to the conspiracy theorists accusing students like González and Kasky of being paid actors on behalf of anti-gun efforts, “If you’ve seen me act in school productions, you know I’m not somebody who deserves any money for acting.”
~Stoneman Douglas Activists Discuss the School Shooting with Ellen~
~Published on Feb 23, 2018~
Emma González, Cameron Kasky, and Jaclyn Corin talked with Ellen about their experience during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and their activism in the days following the horrific event.
~Parkland Student Activists Talk Gun Control~
~Published on Feb 23, 2018~
Emma González, Cameron Kasky, and Jaclyn Corin, survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, sat down with Ellen to talk about the gun control regulation they’re hoping to bring about with their movement.
~Parkland Shooting Survivors on the ‘March for Our Lives’~
~~Published on Feb 23, 2018~~
Emma González, Cameron Kasky, and Jaclyn Corin survived the recent shooting at their high school in Parkland, Florida, and now they’re organizing the March for Our Lives, an event in which people from all over the country will take to the streets to demand that their lives and safety become a priority.
~~February 23, 2018~~ 
Kasky added that he’s felt some guilt for what it took to spur him to activism.
It Is What It Is 