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Bill Murray Thinks Parkland Students Are Similar To Vietnam War Protesters

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Jena Greene Reporter
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Bill Murray says the students demanding stricter gun control in the US remind him of prominent Vietnam War protesters.

In an op-ed for NBC’s “Think” column Thursday, Murray said the Parkland students in particular are emblems of social justice.

“I was thinking, looking at the kids in Parkland, Florida who have started these anti-gun protests, that it really was the students that began the end of the Vietnam War,” he wrote. “It was the students who made all the news, and that noise started, and then the movement wouldn’t stop. I think, maybe, this noise that those students in Florida are making — here, today — will do something of the same nature.”

He went on to say that the students protesting gun violence today have an uphill battle, but “ending the Vietnam war was not a simple thing, either.” But he says it’s possible, given the momentum and extensive coverage of students like David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez – who are both on the cover of TIME Magazine this week – have gotten.

But, as Murray says, change is possible.

“And now, well, Vietnam is one of the most wonderful places to go in the world,” he wrote. “People love going there; they love the people. And we all survived: they survived, we survived. People will survive. If you can just stop shooting at them, they really do pretty well.”

I’m skeptical that Vietnam is one of the most wonderful places in the world and I’m fairly certain that we did not “all survive” the conflict. But he makes his point by encouraging “idealism” in people over 18 and urges readers to get behind the movement and demand lasting change.

Murray is modestly involved in politics. In 1988, he donated $1,000 to Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey’s campaign for US Senate and has been a vocal supporter of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader .

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