Courtesy of Marissa Ford

After being concerned by the effects of gun violence on young people, junior Marissa Ford decided she needed to make a change. When searching for the perfect way to get involved, Ford decided to create awareness around gun violence as the president of Students Demand Action.

The national organization is run by teenagers across the country, and since its creation in 2016, many high schools have adopted their own chapter including Grosse Pointe North.

“The overall organization definitely helped pass some good laws in Michigan,” Ford said. “I actually got to go to two of the bill signings last year, Governor Whitmer signed the Extreme Risk Protection and Red Flag law and universal background checks, and those were all Students Demand Action people advocating for that.” 

Through the organization’s progress over the past 7 years, Ford believes members of North’s club will also have opportunities to work outside of school to alter laws regarding guns and bring awareness to the local community.

“We have advocacy events, we work with legislators for laws, poster waving events and stuff like that,” Ford said. 

Although the club has offered many contributions to advocacy against gun violence, Ford is still eager to continue making changes both locally and federally. 

“I really hope we get an assault weapon ban at the state level or national level,” Ford said. 

With ambitious plans for the future, Ford hopes to have new members and encourages all to join in their effort to put an end to gun violence. 

“I would say like 6-10 people [attend each meeting], but at other events, we have a sign-waving event for ‘Wear Orange’ last year in June and we had like 11 people because we all just told our friends and stuff,” Ford said. “Hopefully, we will get more people. It’s super low commitment of a club and we always make the meetings fun.”