NEW ORLEANS — A mother and father who lost their son in the Parkland school shooting are pushing for change. Traveling across the country in a yellow school bus they're stopping in cities in a bid to end gun violence.
An Artificial Intelligence-generated voice of Joaquin Oliver says, “Hello, I’m Joaquin Oliver. Six years ago, I was a senior at Parkland. Many students and teachers were murdered on Valentine’s Day that year by a person using an AR-15."
The AI voice goes on to say, "I'm back today because my parents used AI to re-create my voice to call you, other victims like me will be calling too, again and again to demand action."
His father Manuel Oliver says the loss of a child is the greatest pain a parent can endure. Oliver said, "We lost our beautiful son Joaquin almost seven-years ago."
He went on to say, "Joaquin was one of the unlucky ones, he was shot four times with an AR-15."
Manuel and his wife Patricia Oliver chose to be part of the solution, he said, "Yes I lost my son but there are ways to bring him back to send a message, there are ways to make him part of his own fight."
Another AI-generated voice of Uzi Garcia says, "I'm a fourth grader at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas or at least I was when a man with an AR-15 came into my school and killed 18 of my classmates, two teachers and me."
The voices aren't just of school shooting victims, there are adult voices too. Their initiative uses artificial intelligence to recreate the voices of people killed by gun violence. People can then pick a message and the corresponding voice and send it to their local representative.
A partnership with Lush Cosmetics, Monday the Olivers parked their school bus on Magazine Street to educate people on their campaign. The bus tour will stop in: Orlando, New Orleans, Austin, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Buffalo, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Raleigh and Washington, D.C.
Caroline Stoops a survivor of gun violence attended the event, she said, "I was attacked in a drug store parking lot in Dallas in 2020." She went on to say, "I was shot in the face, I have fake teeth, I have been through multiple countless surgeries, so it's an important cause for me."
Stoops said the community needs to keep the conversations going, saying, "From every facet of life people are affected by gun violence and it's sad that there hasn't been drastic drastic change."
Middle school teacher Dante Monier says we as a city need to work together to curb the violence.
"You don't get to hear their voice afterward, that's one of the things that [are] life-changing," he said. "I've had to bury students...You never know when is the last time you are going to talk to one of your students, when is the last time you are going to teach one of your students."
According to the CDC, firearms are the leading cause of death for kids and young people.
According to Oliver, more than 150,000 messages have been sent to lawmakers so far. The couple hopes more families will get on board and allow them to use their voices to fight for change.
Here's the link to get involved.