THE ACTIVISTS

When a gunman murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Valentine’s Day, the shooting at first seemed like one more entry in a gruesome log. For years, each gun massacre in the U.S. has spurred the same grim routine: the shock and grief of survivors; the thoughts and prayers from politicians; the calls for change from gun-control groups. Each time the story would fade and the nation would move on, at least until the next tragedy.

But this time something was different. The nation didn’t move on, because the Parkland students didn’t let it. In the days after the shooting, an ordinary group of high school kids demanded that America confront the epidemic of gun violence more forcefully than it had in years. They ridiculed politicians’ platitudes and confronted Senators on live TV. Their voices became a rallying cry for their generation and a rebuke of the one that came before it: a reminder