‘Parents promise to Kids’ aims for change at the polls.

Adam Buchwald’s school in Connecticut was locked down after 26 were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He was inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when 17 were killed.

Now, Buchwald and his friend Zach Hibshman are starting a national movement to get semi-automatic rifles — like the AR-15 — used in both school shootings off store shelves.

To start, the Stoneman Douglas juniors are asking adults, especially parents, to sign a contract agreeing not to support pro-gun politicians. For Buchwald, the promise has a very specific aim.

“Our goal is for parents to promise … to vote for ethical legislators who will put chil- dren’s safety first by making certain laws that can ban ARs [automatic rifles] from getting in the hands of citizens,” Buchwald said.

The 16-year-olds believe it’s more than a coincidence that Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 when he killed 17 people at their school and Adam Lanza used a Bushmaster XM15 rifle, which is functionally and aesthetically similar to the AR-15, to kill 26 people at the school in Newtown, Conn.

“What parent breaks a promise to their kids?” Hibshman said.

Hibsham said he hopes that as each adult puts up their picture with a signed contract, more will be spurred to check out how politicians voted when gun issues came up. But they are

also preparing to dig into voting records and share what they find.

They launched their Parents Promise to Kids movement on Twitter and got retweeted by the #NeverAgain account started by Stoneman Douglas students. Ten days since their first post, they’ve gained more than 3,000 followers, and more than 100 people from around the country have tweeted pictures of themselves holding a signed contract.

James Leech, of Fort Lauderdale, doesn’t have any biological children but said he signed it for the neighborhood kids and all those at Stoneman Douglas.

“It blows my mind that these kids have been terrorized and dealt with this tragedy and they are turning around and doing something about it,” Leech said.

Lisa Elrafei, of Ripley, Tenn., saw the post and immediately signed the contract — for her son, a sophomore, and her grandchildren, one who is not yet old enough to go to school. She said she told her son change needs to happen at the ballot box before she saw the Parents Promise to Kids tweets.

“I said I would absolutely not be voting for the NRA lobby Republicans and I will vote for everyone who is ready to get rid of these assault weapons,” she said.

Buchwald and Hibshman said they plan to post legislative voting records as the mid-term election approaches, so people can see who voted for pro-gun policies and who didn’t.

Buchwald remembers finding out, as a sixth-grader, the reason for his school lockdown.

“It was emotional,” he said.

It’s been an emotional three weeks, he said, but he wants one thing to change.

“Right now the politicians can’t hear the children’s voices,” he said. “They will hear those voices through their parents.”