Parkland students flown to DC on Patriots plane

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were flown to Washington, D.C., on Thursday on the New England Patriots’ official plane ahead of Saturday’s March for Our Lives.

The Boston Globe reported Friday that team owner Robert Kraft sent the plane to fly survivors and the families of victims of the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Fla., to the nation’s capital.

Kraft’s decision came at the behest of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, the Globe reported.

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Giffords and Kelly are among the country’s most prominent advocates for stricter gun control laws. They founded Giffords, a gun violence prevention group, after the former congresswoman was nearly killed in a shooting in 2011. 

The March for Our Lives, set to take place in cities across the country on Saturday, was organized in the wake of a mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas, which left 17 people dead and 14 others injured.

Since then, students and parents from the high school have emerged as vocal advocates for strengthening gun control laws and have pressed lawmakers to take swift action on the matter.

Kelly told The Washington Post that he wanted to help the students get to the march on Saturday.

“Not only did their friends and teachers get shot and killed, other friends shot and injured … most of them they had bullets flying over their heads,” he said. “This is not fair that they have to deal with something like this at their age. They wanted to go to Washington and be heard, and so I felt it was our obligation to help them.”

According to the Globe, the plane departed from Fort Lauderdale on Thursday and will bring the students back to Florida after the march.