As we reflect on the four years that have passed since the tragic school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, I am inspired by the courageous activism of the student survivors who have become national gun violence activists in the immediate aftermath of experiencing such trauma. 

Across the nation and here in Maryland, diverse groups of young people are stepping up, walking out, sitting in, raising their voices, and working together to make real positive change. Schools should be a safe place for our students, and we owe it to our kids to deliver on the promise of a brighter future where every kid can feel safe at school. 

But to do so, we need more effective gun laws in our state and that starts with the banning of ghost guns. I have spent years working to protect our children and fighting to end the scourge of gun violence through my work as an educator and on the board of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence, and I am committed to continuing that work as the next governor of our state. 

In 2019, I penned an op-ed with Jaxon O’Mara, the head of March For Our Lives in Maryland and a former student of Great Mills High School, to call for stronger gun laws here in Maryland. We came together – one of us a traumatized student, one of us an educator who has lost students to gun violence – to write this piece in the Baltimore Sun, and I hope you will take a moment to read it and learn more about the ways in which we can make schools safer and protect our kids’ future.

In the words of my oldest daughter Amina in the midst of her high school activism around gun violence: “Sometimes, we might seem a little hopeless, but those are in the moments when we feel the tragedies going on, and we see how much of a change is needed." Tragedies like those at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Great Mills High School cannot be the status quo.

Maryland’s future, our kids’ future, depends on our actions. We owe it to them to march toward equity and justice because if we fall short, we will have failed their future.

Thank you for reading and for being a part of this movement,

John King