Midtown’s March for Our Lives club has organized a district-wide gun safety pledge for parents, officially sent out through the Principal Newsletter on Feb. 27, Issue 6 of The Student Advisory Council Chronicle and Infinite Campus.

“We decided to create this mass pledge after witnessing the unintentional shootings that children in Georgia were committing,” MFOL co-president Mariam Darb said. “Children as young as two are old enough to pull a trigger, and they are also not in the right mindset to comprehend what a gun can do. It is also the responsibility of parents who are firearm owners to know the constant consequences of leaving an unlocked, loaded gun. In the last year, eight deaths were as a result of unintentional shootings by children in Georgia.”

Georgia is ranked 10th nationally in unintentional shootings by children. Georgia also has some of the weakest gun laws in the country, ranking 46th nationally for strength of gun laws. MFOL co-president Avery Frank said the pledge is not meant as a community ban on guns, but instead as an attempt to increase gun safety and decrease accidents.

“We wanted to make this first as a district and then hopefully statewide, to just help promote gun safety,” Frank said. “We’re not necessarily saying to ban guns. We’re saying if you do own we want to make sure that you know the consequences of owning a gun and how to refrain from those consequences happening. Our pledge contains keeping guns safe and unloaded, keeping ammunition separate from the weapons, and keeping it away from minors or someone who isn’t a gun owner, someone who isn’t registered on that firearm.”

Program Director of Student Engagement and Student Advisory Council Co-Advisor Dr. Kyra Caldwell Templeton believes the pledge is a necessary step towards responsible gun ownership.

“It’s important because this message needs to get out across the board, especially in light of the recent school shootings, injuries and thefts that have occurred,” Dr. Caldwell Templeton said. “A lot of it could have been prevented if accessibility to firearms were limited or even nonexistent. They should not be accessible to anyone who is underage or unable to use them appropriately and responsibly.”

Frank said that while gun safety is most often associated with gun owners, it is essential for everyone to understand.

“We want to include everybody,” Frank said. “Even if parents don’t own a gun, we still want them to promote gun safety with their children. If kids go over to a house that does have guns and they are not safe, we want kids to know what to do. We also want parents to educate everyone. We want to make sure kids aren’t put in a situation where they are not safe, but if they are in that sort of situation, we want them to know what to do. We want everyone to sign the pledge, not just gun owners.”

Dr. Caldwell Templeton assisted MFOL in drafting the pledge and spreading the message.

“I gave them a couple of recommendations to spread the message more widely,” Dr. Caldwell Templeton said. “One recommendation was for them to sign up to participate in public comment at the board meeting. I gave them the information on how to do that, and they made it happen. That was really cool to see.”

Darb spoke in front of the Atlanta Public School board in a public comment at their meeting on Feb. 3. The two-minute comment was meant to raise awareness and support for their initiative from district leaders. Darb said she felt more prepared to speak after her experience speaking at the MFOL school wide walkout in Sept.

“[Speaking in front of the board] was definitely nerve-wracking,” Darb said. “But speaking at the walkout that happened in September helped ease up my nerves because I am not a very big public speaker, but after the walkout, I’ve had a lot more confidence speaking in front of crowds. Overall, the experience was very mind-blowing.”

Frank believes the pledge could have massive impacts on the community if it is recognized and followed by parents and students.

“I hope parents and students recognize the pledge as something beneficial to our community,” Frank said. “I hope it helps them understand how important the pillars of our pledge are in the current state of our country. We are pushing this pledge to go through APS and even statewide which would be amazing for our team and for the March For Our Lives program as a whole.

While Dr. Caldwell Templeton helped send out the message, she credits MFOL for creating and initiating the pledge.

“Anything that a student is willing to stand by, take initiative, and create for adults takes a lot of courage,” Dr. Caldwell Templeton said. “I wanted to make sure that they felt that support because I have access to all the schools I can help spread the message, and it’s an important message to spread, so definitely in support of that, personally and professionally. [We did not put the APS logo on it] because it was not created by APS. It was created by students. We wanted that power to still lie with them.”

Darb said she is excited to be part of such an impactful club, where she can make a difference in her community.

“It’s amazing that I’m a part of such an amazing club and chapter to bring safety and promote gun safety to my district and hopefully to the state of Georgia,” Darb said. “I got a lot of support after I finished speaking from the audience members and some school board members. It was just an eye-opening experience to be able to present right at the core of APS.”

Mariam Darb is an editor on the Southerner