The students pictured in this yearbook never made it to their high school graduations.
The legislative advocacy group New Yorkers Against Gun Violence put the online yearbook together to commemorate young victims of gun violence — 30,000 of whom have been killed since 2001, according to the group.
The yearbook is racking up signatures on SignMyYearbook.com, but it isn’t just a symbolic gesture. Activists will present a printed version to Congress to petition for swift action on universal background checks for gun purchases.
Even after mass shootings in Charleston, South Carolina and Newtown, Connecticut -- which brought President Barack Obama to tears earlier this year -- the movement for stricter gun laws seems to have stalled. In 2013, following the violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Obama urged legislators to pass gun reform, but the bill failed in the GOP-controlled Senate. Since then, no meaningful legislation on guns has passed at the federal level, leaving states to tackle the issue individually.
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence hopes to buck that trend and spur concrete change with its powerful campaign.
Learn more in the video above.
Before You Go
