A Pasco County teen who traveled to Washington D.C. last week to march alongside thousands of other teens in the national "March for our Lives" rally called the experience "life-changing," and is ready to keep pushing for change at the local level.
- Rachel Buksbaum a student at Wiregrass Ranch High
- Buksbaum marched in honor of friend who died at Parkland
- Other teens met with Rep. Castor, Sen. Nelson on gun safety reform
Wiregrass Ranch High student Rachel Buksbaum, 14, marched in Washington D.C. in part to honor a friend who died in the Parkland shooting in February.
"All I kept thinking was, 'I will never see her again. She will never play soccer again. She will never go to camp again. She won't annoy her little brother again,'" Buksbaum explained. "I just kept thinking about her the whole day."
Now home, Buksbaum said she's ready to turn her grief into action.
"I came back more inspired and more moved and more willing to make a difference," Buksbaum said.
She's not the only one. On Monday, more than a dozen teens took part in a roundtable discussion with Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Senator Bill Nelson. The students wanted to know what they could do to bring about a change in current gun legislation.
"I'm sad to say that I think it's going to be a limited ability to get things passed until some folks are changed at elections," Nelson said at one point in the meeting.
Buksbaum said she's ready to work on that by using her voice to urge other young people to vote.