A Toronto high school student with dual Canada-U.S. citizenship, whose father and grandfather are life-long members of the National Rifle Association, is planning to join a rally in Washington to demand tighter gun controls.
Kat Schamel told CTV’s Your Morning that improving safeguards against gun violence in U.S. schools is an issue that “strikes close to home,” having spent half of her life south of the border.
“The idea that children are going to school every day scared for their lives, scared that they won’t come home to their families, that really is a human problem, not just an American problem,” Schamel said on Friday.
The March for Our Lives demonstration, set to take place on Saturday in the U.S. capital, was created and organized by #NeverAgain, a group of students who survived the Feb. 14 shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Schamel said she hopes the demonstration will bring an end to an era of gun violence in U.S. schools that began nearly two decades ago in Columbine, Colo.
“We’re not asking to completely change the gun laws in America,” she said. “All we are asking for is some reform and a little bit more safety.”
