Anti-gun violence activists who survived a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, earlier this year had breakfast on Saturday with “hero” James Shaw Jr., who disarmed a gunman during a deadly shooting inside a Tennessee Waffle House last month.
Shaw, who is credited with saving lives during the shooting in Antioch, said the meeting in South Florida was “a great joy.”
“Meeting the young adults of the Parkland incident so much fire and inspiration in their eyes was a great joy,” Shaw, 29, wrote on Twitter alongside a photo showing him gathered with students outside of a Denny’s restaurant.
Emma González, who has helped lead the March For Our Lives movement after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, called the meal the “Most Legendary Breakfast I’ve ever had in my life.”
She had tweeted out a photo of Shaw last month, calling him her “hero.”
Shaw seems to feel similarly about González. He referred to her as one of his heroes when he tweeted a picture on Saturday that showed him and González holding a teddy bear she apparently won for him from a claw machine.
Shaw also took a photo with Parkland student David Hogg, who tweeted that there was “Lots of work ahead but the young people will win.”
The survivors of both shootings have campaigned for positive change over the last several weeks.
The Parkland students led a nationwide rally for gun control and inspired kids across the country to stage walkouts to protest school shootings. Their March For Our Lives movement advocates for universal background checks, the modernization of firearm databases, increased funding to research gun violence in the U.S., and a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons.
Shaw has also advocated for the victims of the Waffle House shooting, and as of Monday had raised more than $241,000 for their families.