After [17 people were killed](https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/d3wdzz/snapchat-instagram-twitter-showed-horror-of-stoneman-douglas-mass-shooting-in-parkland-florida) last month in Parkland, Florida, Republicans came up with some creative solutions to America's school shooting epidemic, like [praying them away](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article203468999.html), doing [absolutely nothing](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wj4gqy/why-mass-shootings-keep-happening-republicans), and suggesting we [start arming teachers](https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/neqqwk/trump-proposes-arming-teachers-while-meeting-with-parkland-survivors), days before one [opened fire at a school in Georgia](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/armed-georgia-teacher-custody-after-report-shots-fired-high-school-n851986). Their latest attempt to avoid the gun control conversation? Fire extinguishers, apparently.

[Shawn Moody](https://www.shawnmoody.com/), a leading Republican candidate for governor of Maine, told local radio station [WVOM](http://www.wvomfm.com/episode/ghrt-rewind-03-05-moody-pph-gun-comment-1045/) that fire extinguishers "can be a great deterrent" in an active shooter situation. He suggested that teachers could arm themselves with the frothy cannons the next time someone decides to go on a rampage with a military-grade assault rifle at a school, because, apparently, covering a gunman in white foam will stop him right in his tracks.

"When you think about commonsense things, practical things we could do like, right now, there are fire extinguishers, dry chemical fire extinguishers in every commercial building, school, almost within a hundred feet of wherever you are," Moody said. "If anything happens, a teacher, anybody can break that glass, set the alarm off, grab that chemical fire extinguisher and spray it towards somebody. And I&#x2019;ll tell you right now that could put them to their knees."

Level-headed guy that he is, Moody suggested that there was no need to pass new gun control measures&#x2014;with fire extinguishers pretty much all over the place, what's the point? When neutralizing a school shooting is as easy as turning a classroom into a foam party, who needs [expanded background checks or an assault rifle ban](https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne7ky7/the-gun-laws-america-should-pass-but-wont)?

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**_Related: Teens Tell Us Why They're Protesting After the Parkland Shooting_**

Generation Z have grown up in a world where active shooter threats and lockdown drills are the norm, and they’ve had enough.

In the wake of the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead and 14 injured, it’s the student survivors whose voices — angry, exasperated, heartbroken — have emerged as forces of change.

Now, high school students across the country are organizing in solidarity with their peers in Parkland. Frustrated by what they say is the older generations’ failure to keep them safe in their schools, Gen Z are taking matters into their own hands. VICE News spoke to students across the country — from Parkland, to nearby Boca Raton, Florida, to Pittsburgh, to Washington D.C., to the suburbs of Chicago, to Iowa City, Iowa, and to Decatur, Georgia — who are determined to ensure that another mass shooting never happens.
This week, some of the Parkland survivors boarded buses and traveled six hours to Tallahassee to rally on Wednesday outside of the state capitol, where they were joined by local high schoolers.

On the same day, other Parkland students joined survivors of other school shootings for a listening session with President Donald Trump at the White House.

Students are also trying to ensure that renewed anger over the issue doesn’t fade. High schoolers from West Boca Raton, for example, have launched an initiative called “535 Letters for Change,” which entails writing to members of Congress demanding reforms to gun laws. The Women’s March’s “Youth Empower Group” is working with local activists and high schoolers to coordinate a nationwide school walkout on March 14 at 10 a.m. in all time zones. The walkout will last for 17 minutes — one minute for each Parkland victim.

Student survivors from Parkland, meanwhile, from their parents’ living rooms, have organized a march on Washington, D.C., for March 24, called “March for Our Lives.” And another movement, called #NationalStudentWalkout, is being organized and coordinated by a high school student in Connecticut for April 20. They chose that date because it marks 19 years since the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado that left 13 dead — the first school shooting of the modern era.

Some students said they could be reprimanded by their schools for staging walkouts, but they’re willing to face the consequences. VICE News spoke to three seniors in Pittsburgh who all received detention for their protest on Feb. 21. Anyah Jackson, 17, said in a Twitter message that she feels they didn’t do anything wrong.

“I am so proud of what we did yesterday,” Jackson said.

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

One Republican's Plan to Stop Mass Shootings: Fire Extinguishers

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

One Republican's Plan to Stop Mass Shootings: Fire Extinguishers

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