The Whitman chapter of the National Association of Students Against Gun Violence began passing out over 300 orange $1.18 price tags May 18 to protest against the lack of a legislative response to recent school shootings. Students have attached the tags to their backpacks in hopes that it will start a conversation about how the government is handling gun violence.

The tags represent how much students feel they are “worth” to their legislators. The club leaders divided the amount of money the NRA donates to politicians in the U.S. per year by the number of students in the country. The club used the national ratio because in Maryland, students would cost a lot more—Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st District) has been the only Maryland politician to accept a donation from the NRA in 2018, receiving $2,000.

Junior Rachel Zeidenberg, co-founder of the Whitman NASAGV chapter, said she got the idea from her friends at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, where a shooting February 14 killed 17 and led to the creation of the March for Our Lives movement. Students from Florida originally used price tags to demonstrate their frustration with Gov. Marco Rubio’s support of the NRA, claiming that each Florida student is only worth $1.05 to the Republican politician.

“I thought it was really powerful to physically show how little value our lives have to politicians,” Zeidenberg said.

Although most Maryland representatives do not currently accept monetary donations from the NRA, some receive benefits in other ways. Larry Hogan has stopped accepting donations altogether, but he has been endorsed by the NRA who gave him an A-minus rating.

Many students have been vocal about the need for stricter gun control in general, but the price tags allowed some to specifically show their frustration with the NRA.

“This is demonstrating how the NRA is valuing money over student lives,” freshman Chloe Lesser said. “There’s all these school shootings, and the NRA isn’t held accountable.”

Many students noticed the price tags, but since NASAGV didn’t spread information about the tags aside through social media before they were distributed, not everybody knew what they represented, club sponsor Sheryl Freedman said.

Zeidenberg said the club plans to put up flyers explaining what the tags represent.

Once the price tags are more publicized, the club hopes that they will pick up media attention and eventually force politicians to reconsider their loyalty to the NRA, Zeidenberg said. In order to get more people involved with the movement, students have to be informed about the issues, junior Bella Young said.

“It’s important for kids to know the influence the NRA has on our so called ‘representatives,’” Young said.