Parkland School Shooting Survivor Speaks In Dallas

DALLAS – The conversation about gun rights and school safety continued over the weekend, well after the nationwide march.

One Parkland school shooting survivor, 17-year old Justin Irwin, spoke at the Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas.

Justin said he stands by the second amendment, but he also wants to see new laws put into place, including raising the age of purchase to 21, tightening red flag laws, stronger background checks and banning bump stocks.

A couple of years ago, Justin lost a grandfather who served in the Vietnam war, and it helped him realize just how important fighting for the country is… that`s why he plans to join the ROTC or a military academy, and to own a gun when he`s legally able.

“The main thing I want to do is I want to be able to help people,” Irwin said. “And I love America, I want to protect my country, fight for the people who can’t fight, protect them, do whatever I can do to help out people… I’m not against guns at all, like if you want guns, I believe you should be able to get them as long as you have no issues in your background, and no mental illnesses and you know how to use it right and you’re trained, and once you have all the background checks, which need to be improved upon, the ones that we have now, but as long as you pass on that, I think you should be able to use the guns that you want.”

Saturday`s March for Our Lives took place in many cities around the country, and the other speaker at the event took part in a march in Fort Worth.

Anden Suarez spoke about what she feels Christians and communities of faith need to recognize, when it comes to gun violence in the U.S.

“We live in a country that is in the middle of a devastating culture of gun violence,” Suarez said. “The number of deaths is unprecedented. And as a community we need to recognize that, we need to address that culture, we need to address it with legislation but we also need to give it our attention, but we also need to give it our vote, we have to give it our time, our prayers, our thoughts, and our action. And that’s what it comes down to, is recognizing that it’s not just about one law or one bill, as much good as that will do, and as much as we should advocate for legislation reform, we have to look and reflect on our culture, why it is like that and how we can amend it.”

Justin is on the swim team at marjory stoneman douglas And he lost one of his best friends in the shooting, team co-captain, 17-year old Nicholas Dworet, who would have turned 18 on Saturday.

At the march in D.C., the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to him out of respect.

Article Originally appeared on CW33

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