Feb. 14, former student Nicholas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School of Parkland, Fl. and set off the fire alarm. The students were confused, having already had a fire drill earlier that day, but they rushed outside their classrooms as they were supposed to. It was then that Cruz opened fire with his AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle. Before it was done, he murdered 17 students and faculty members, and traumatised the rest for life.

The Parkland shooting isn’t the deadliest mass shooting in America. It’s barely in the top ten, resting now at ninth place. The deadliest shooting, at the Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas, had 58 victims. There are lot common factors in these mass shootings, and one of the most major ones is the semi-automatic rifle.

In American modern history, there have been hundreds of mass shootings with hundreds of victims, as well as the thousands who were left traumatized. A chilling cycle has formed in the aftermath, one which the nation watches unfold like clock work. The nation grieves, the left argues for gun control, the NRA and the right resist, and then the nation moves on.

This time, it feels as if the cycle has been disrupted. The young victims of the Parkland shooting- children who’ve seen their friends and classmates murdered- are using their voices in a way that hasn’t been seen before.

Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, gave an emotional speech two days after the shooting, calling for gun control to prevent any more tragedies. “Every single person up here today, all these people should be home grieving. But instead we are up here standing together because if all our government and President can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it’s time for victims to be the change that we need to see,” she said.

New protests, marches, and lie-ins have occurred and been planned for the future, both by the victims and teenagers across the country. Gun control and regulation is the goal of all.

“They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred,” said Gonzalez. “We call BS.”