At noon on Tuesday, thousands of teenage bodies will blanket the U.S. Capitol lawn. For 12 minutes, they will remain motionless in honor of Americans who have been killed or wounded in mass shootings since the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, exactly two years before, reports The Trace. The student-led demonstration is part of the National Die-In Day, the latest gun-reform protest after the Valentine’s Day massacre in Parkland, Fl. In Washington, D.C., in addition to the die-in, organizers are holding a rally and voter registration drive. They hope to attract tens of thousands of participants. At least 20 sister protests are scheduled at state capitols across the nation. The National Die-In Day was organized by students Amanda Fugleberg, 18, and Frank Kravchuk, 21, both of Orlando, and Nurah Abdulhaqq, 14, of Douglasville, Ga. The three met in a text-messaging group after the Parkland shooting, where they began talking about ways to build on the activism started by survivors.
It wasn’t until they were introduced to each other on Twitter by survivor David Hogg that the idea for a nationwide die-in solidified. Hogg signed up as an advisor to the demonstration, helping the organizers access resources and promoting it on social media. While Hogg and many of his fellow Parkland survivors are advocating for a specific set of gun reforms — including universal background checks and bans on high-capacity magazines — the National Die-In organizers said they have no policy platform. Instead, they say the purpose of the event is to draw attention to what they see as political inaction in the face of escalating gun violence.
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Oh David Hogg is probably not going to be happy because he’s not the main focus of this event.