Young gun control activists end their summer tour

Chjristian Science Monitor - After traveling to more than 20 states to speak with fellow young people about gun control and voting, student activists ended their summer tour in Newtown, Conn., on Sunday. The tour – featuring students from Parkland, Fla. – started in Chicago and ended in Newtown, highlighting other cities that have been affected by random or daily gun violence. Despite having different connections to such violence, teens from the three cities say they are doing what has never been done before: creating a unified front against the National Rifle Association. Central to these efforts is young voter registration, a goal of the summer tour and something some polls show is on the rise. Hope Hottois, who attended the rally on Sunday, was planning to register anyway, but she chose to do so with the gathered community. “When [the school shooting at] Sandy Hook happened here I was only 12. It was hard to process what was going on,” she says. “But now I’m 18. I’m coming into my own and I’m finding my own voice.”