Samuel Zeif,

an 18-year-old Stoneman Douglas student, came close to tears as he addressed the president. “I was on the second floor in that building, texting my mom, texting my dad, texting three of my brothers that I was never going to see them again. “And then it occurred to me, my 14-year-old brother was directly above me in that classroom where [teacher] Scott Beigel was murdered. Scott Beigel got my brother in the class. He was the last kid to get back into that class . . . “No brothers or sisters or family members or anyone should ever have to share those texts with anyone. I lost a best friend who was practically a brother and I am using my voice because I know he can’t. And I know he is with me cheering me on to be strong. But it is hard . . . I can’t feel comfortable in my country . . . knowing that people are ever going to feel like this . . . . And I don’t understand why I can still go into a store and buy a weapon of war. I was reading today that a person 20 years old bought an AR-15 in five minutes with an expired ID. How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How do we not stop this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook? I’m sitting with a mother that lost her son. It’s still happening.

“In Australia there was a shooting at a school in 1999. After that, they took a lot of ideas, they put legislation together and they stopped it. Can anybody here guess how many shootings there have been in a school since then in Australia? Zero. We need to do something. That is why we’re here . . . Let’s never let this happen again.”