Less than a year ago, Delaney Tarr was a student journalist at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, reporting on football games and digging into the dangerous popularity of e-cigarettes on campus. But ever since a former student gunned down 17 of her fellow students and faculty, committing one of the most deadly school shootings in U.S. history, Tarr's entire focus has shifted to activism.

On "Salon Talks," Tarr explained how she and her peers mobilized and built a movement against gun violence and in support of gun reform, known as the March for Our Lives. A book of essays, "Glimmer of Hope: How Tragedy Sparked a Movement," Tarr and others at the center of the movement's foundation share how they created one of the largest youth-led movements in history.

"I've never seen a community so unified in the way that it was after the shooting. It's not just that something horrible happened, it's that it's a shared experience that we've all had," Tarr told SalonTV's Rachel Leah. "We get it. We get not only going through this tragedy, but the huge weight of activism, the pressure of it."

Pressure doesn't mean the activists from Parkland, Florida are backing down. After hundreds of thousands of students swarmed to Washington D.C. for the March for Our Lives, and after students in classrooms across the country walked out in protest of gun violence for National Walkout Day, Tarr and others have turned to mobilizing young people to vote.

"We are a huge group of the voting population, but only one in five people in our age demographic votes," Tarr said. "If we were to change that, than we could sway pretty much every election in our favor. We could control who has the power in this country."

Watch the video above to hear Tarr address midterms, voter suppression, the NRA and why, through all of the trauma she's experienced, she still has hope for America.


Photography by Jill Greenberg. Watch Jill's TedxTalk on the Female Lens and the problem with only seeing the world from a man's perspective. And find out more about Jill's initiative Alreadymade., a mission to hire more female photographers and content creators.