March For Our Lives’ #RoadtoChange tour made a stop in Poli Pix Co.’s hometown of El Paso last month, sharing its vision for gun-sense communities and to usher in a new generation of voters into the political process.
Perhaps one of the most significant moments from the event for Poli Pix came from speaking with a local Republican, military veteran, and 2nd Amendment supporter about ways to come together and make progress on ending mass shootings. While he admitted that certain gun control laws don’t seem applicable to every community (in fact, El Paso is routinely rated as one of the safest cities in the U.S., so we get it), he understood the value of attending the event to hear the other side’s perspective. As a father, he found agreement with us that schools should be a safe place while respectfully disagreeing on the general access to guns in our society. We’re of the opinion that more conversations like this – underpinned by decorum and respect – should be happening; everywhere and all the time.
By our own account, the Parkland students and others have been pretty moderate in voicing their their policy goals. They’re looking for political leadership on establishing mandatory waiting periods to obtain firearms, on reconciling red flag laws to keep guns out of dangerous domestic environments, and on keeping guns out of classrooms. To that point, while there may be individuals in schools with concealed carry permits, it’s insane to us that the need for threat-neutralizing skills should ever hold more political importance than cultivating the next generation.
Here’s a sample of the full gallery we provided to the organization (32/102 images):
