Dantrell Blake grew up in Chicago, surrounded by gun violence and gangs. “Every day you’re either getting shot [or] shot at,” he recalled while talking to Sean Rameswaram for a new episode of Today, Explained. “You see in broad daylight people shooting at each other. It was our lifestyle. We thought it was cool.”
What comes after the March for Our Lives
Three survivors of gun violence reflect on their trauma and what actions should be next.
But after surviving a gunshot wound to the leg — where the bullet remains — Blake’s perspective on the issue changed. He joined the March for Our Lives in downtown Washington, DC, on March 24. “I came to be a part of something big,” he explained. “I’m tired of gun violence. There’s gonna be a way to start something, to lead on to another change. I want to be a part of it.”
Blake was further inspired by Trevon Bosley, a 19-year old from Chicago who lost his brother to gun violence, who also attended the march and led a chant: “Everyday shootings are everyday problems.” He underscored the point that the movement has to be about more than just school shootings and should spark a larger conversation that includes places like Chicago, which has seen 487 deaths from gun violence so far this year.
Listen to Blake experience his first march, followed by a conversation between a Parkland survivor and Columbine survivor, on Today, Explained:
Related reading:
- Why the March for Our Lives could win (German Lopez/Vox)
- “I hope you know it’s not that we didn’t try”: a Columbine and Parkland survivor talk (Vox First Person)
- What students really think about school shootings (A.J. Chavar/Vox)
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