George Clooney, wife donate USD 500,000 to march for strict gun laws

Hollywood actor George Clooney and his barrister-wife Amal Clooney have donated around USD 500,000 in the name of their eight-month-old twins, Ella and Alexander, to a march calling for stricter gun laws in the United States

Actor and director George Clooney waves next to his wife Amal as they leave the hotel before the red carpet for the movie Suburbicon at the 74th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy September 2, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Washington: Hollywood actor George Clooney and his barrister-wife Amal Clooney have donated around USD 500,000 in the name of their eight-month-old twins, Ella and Alexander, to a march calling for stricter gun laws in the United States. The couple has also announced taking part in 'The March for Our Lives' event. 'The March for Our Lives' event, announced by the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, is scheduled to take place on March 24, The People reported. In a statement, Clooney praised the survivors of the Florida mass school shooting for their bravery. "Amal and I are so inspired by the courage and eloquence of these young men and women from Stoneman Douglas High School. Our family will be there on March 24 to stand side by side with this incredible generation of young people from all over the country, and in the name of our children Ella and Alexander, we are donating USD 500,000 to help pay for this groundbreaking event. Our children's lives depend on it," he said in a statement. Survivors of the Florida mass shooting rallied in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday and called for tougher gun laws. One of the survivors named, Emma Gonzalez, demanded the lawmakers to take steps to prevent mass school shootings in the future. "What we're trying to do here [with] 'March For Our Lives' is say, the adult politicians have been playing around while my generation has been losing our lives," said Cameron Kasky, an 11th-grade student of the high school. "At the end of the day, this isn't a red and blue thing. This isn't Democrats or Republicans. This is about everybody and how we are begging for our lives. We need to make real change here and that's exactly what we're going to do," Kasky added. The incident happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a town about 50km north of Fort Lauderdale in Florida, shortly before the school session was getting over on Wednesday. Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz, the shooter, who was a former student and was expelled from the high school for disciplinary reasons, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.