On March 24th, 2018, students across the nation took to the streets for the “March for our lives” to demand gun reform in response to the recent shooting in Parkland, Florida. In Omaha, the protest took place at the Lewis and Clark landing. Thousands gathered for the march and for the speeches in frigid temperatures that dropped as low as 34°. In spite of such conditions, one of the march’s organizers, Sabina Eastman does not believe that the turnout was affect at all by the temperatures. The protest was entirely student led, with ten students giving speeches for an hour before the march commenced. They each told stories of their experiences with mass shootings and their fear of more occurring. Of the ten students, three were from Central, Sabina Eastman was one of these three, she spoke with Molly Ashford on their concerns of gun violence. According to her she was “really impressed with the turnout, as the march was organized solely by students,” she also claims that the “were not expecting over 1,000 people,” the estimated turnout according to KETV was 2,500 students. “I’m so amazed of how many people came out to support us,” Eastman says.
The march itself began at 1:00 the thousands who were gathered marched across the Bob Kerrey pedestrian bridge to the Iowa side. Once there, students gathered and began chanting for greater gun control. After this, they began their march across the bridge to Nebraska, after which the crowd dispersed. Eastman believes that “the message of the march has definitely been heard,” she believes that “the fight for gun reform is long overdue,” and said that “our hope is that the students draw enough attention to this and create enough change to help every single community in need of this gun reform throughout the country and world.”