Although junior Eva Goldfarb felt nervous speaking in front of many people at a rally, she said youth standing up and having a voice is necessary for change in gun control.

Goldfarb said she spoke at a rally at the State Capitol in the rotunda Feb. 22 advocating for gun reform.

“(The rally was) through Protect MN, and it’s about gun control. I think a big theme in it is about youth taking action and kind of how we are heading this movement because a lot of people have failed to do so, so we are kind of taking it into our own hands,” Goldfarb said.

Senior Anna duSaire said she also spoke at the rally to initiate change with gun laws.

“We are tired of hearing about our classmates and our friends and our generation being killed because of weak gun control and we’re not going to back down,” duSaire said. “(We’re) urging for our congressmen, congresswomen and lawmakers to do something about the situation, to take action to do their job and protect us.”

Goldfarb said the rally was successful because of the great attendance and motivating tone people carried with them.

“Everyone had really good speeches, and it was just a really good tone out of everyone, of this feeling of just being done and really being motivated until we get gun control,” Goldfarb said.

Junior Nyah Johnson said she attended the rally because she thinks it’s important to protest MN gun laws.

“People are dying and there was another school shooting just a mere week ago, and that’s once again too many kids that are dying for no reason. It’s easy to stop this,” Johnson said.

Johnson said having students present at rallys is important to show the presence of youth taking a stand on issues like gun control.

“I feel like it means more coming from the youth itself rather than coming from the adults because we’re starting to realize that this is a problem when we’re not feeling safe going to our own school,” Johnson said.

According to duSaire, the event was a success and inspired participants to continue to promote change.

“Overall I think (the rally) was good and it brought up a lot of emotion and thoughts,” duSaire said. “People got really excited about it and about taking action. Overall I thought it was a good event and it brought awareness to where I think it needs to be.”