March for Our Lives New York State was founded in the summer of 2018 as one of the first regional chapters to emerge from the national March for Our Lives organization.

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The national arm of March for Our Lives (MFOL) was founded by students from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in the weeks following February, 14th 2018, the date of the mass shooting at Douglas that took seventeen precious lives. 2018. The shooting devastated not only the Parkland community, but the nation as a whole. Indeed, MFOL's first major action consisted in a national march on Washington demanding national gun violence prevention legislation on March 24th, 2018. With over 850 sibling protests around the country and the world, attracting approximately two million Americans, the March for Our Lives is one of the largest protest movements in American history. 200,000 Americans marched on New York City that day.

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After the march, MFOL's work only strengthened. MFOL's organizers participated in a Road to Change tour across the United States during which they brought on gun violence prevention activists of all identities from around the nation. Around this same time, organizers of the New York City protest came together to centralize a state chapter. 

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As the fall of 2018 came around, March for Our Lives New York State (MFOLNYS) solidified a state Board of Directors with activists from around the state, and had already brought on its first local and regional chapters.

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In the two years since our founding, March for Our Lives New York State has hosted all sorts of events ranging from meetings with legislators, to phonebanks, to in--person and virtual protest actions, and so much more.

 

Our work is first and foremost in service of a safer future free from gun violence. In carrying out this mission, we also focus our efforts on voter registration and other social justice issues that intersect with the gun violence epidemic.