Students Who March for Gun Control Plan to Vote for It, Too

Students across the country walked out of classes last week in solidarity with the victims of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and they'll march again this Saturday to push for stricter gun laws.

But many teens say marching won't be enough to bring about the change they want to see. And even though they aren't eligible to vote themselves, they're organizing to make sure young people head to the polls as soon as they're able to cast a ballot.

"If we just show up to march and we walk out of school once or twice," 17-year-old Joshua Eiger told WNYC, "and then nobody goes to vote, and the same representatives have the same stances on gun control legislation and it remains stagnated, like, then it doesn't matter, right?"

Eiger, who helped organize the upcoming "March for our Lives" in his hometown of Freehold, New Jersey, said there will be be a voter registration booth at the event.

Aicha Cherif, a junior at School of the Future in Gramercy Park, who volunteers with a group called "Y-vote," told WNYC that she aims to get young voters involved in the political process. 

"With this movement and with everything that's been going on," said Cherif, "I think teenagers are ready to start using their voices, and want to vote."

Saskia van Horn, a 17-year-old student at Energy Tech High School in Astoria, Queens, said she tried to convince her peers to vote with a social media campaign on Instagram and Snapchat.

"It was basically like little snippets, or like even memes to basically encourage people who are 18, or who are about to turn 18, to register to vote," van Horn said.

She believes there's a simple reason why her peers should gear up to vote now. "At the end of the day, we are the next generation of this country, and we get affected by these policies."