Social media movement after Florida school shooting has students asking: #MeNext?

A new hashtag called #MeNext is demanding gun control laws. (Photo: Getty Images)
A new hashtag called #MeNext is demanding gun control laws. (Photo: Getty Images)

In the aftermath of the Florida school shooting Wednesday, which left 17 people dead, the #MeNext movement has sprung up, predicting further tragedy if lawmakers don’t prioritize gun control.

The hashtag appears to stem from a Friday tweet and Facebook post by Liz Massie, (which has since been deleted, but was shared by others on Twitter), an executive producer at Discovery Communications, who shared a photo of her young daughter holding a handwritten sign that read, “MeNext?”

Massie wrote in the caption, “Today, Violet led a student walkout from her high school to protest the inaction of lawmakers at every level of government on gun control legislation and school safety. Please show your support by joining us on Facebook MeNext. We are asking all students in the US who agree to post photos of themselves with #menext. Please share as widely as possible.”

Massie also linked to the #MeNext Facebook page, created Friday, which asks all U.S. students demanding gun control to post similar photos.

Massie did not respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment, but a former teacher on Facebook identified the high school as Pelham Memorial in New York, an institution that in March organized a protest in support of tolerance, which organizers said was threatened under President Trump‘s administration. Yahoo Lifestyle could not reach a representative from the school for comment.

On social media, support for the hashtag is growing.

#MeNext?

A post shared by Jeremy Driesen (@jeremydriesenphotography) on Feb 16, 2018 at 7:15am PST

Since Wednesday’s tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, young people have become hugely vocal on social media when it comes to gun control. Carly, a student at the school, went viral after responding to Tomi Lahren on Twitter. “I was hiding in a closet for 2 hours. It was about guns. You weren’t there, you don’t know how it felt,” she wrote. “Guns give these disgusting people the ability to kill other human beings. This IS about guns and this is about all the people who had their life abruptly ended because of guns.”

Similarly, Sarah Chadwick’s takedown of Trump took off. “I don’t want your condolences you f***ing price of s***, my friends and teachers were shot,” she said in a tweet that’s since been deleted. “Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers won’t fix this. But Gun control will prevent it from happening again.”

On Friday, students at South Broward High School in Hollywood, Fla., staged a walkout, calling for a ban on assault rifles, specifically of the AR-15, which was used by gunman Nikolas Cruz.

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