Celebrities applaud Parkland students' activism: 'Beyond inspirational'

After the Florida legislature's refusal on Tuesday to consider a ban on assault rifles, reported in the New York Times, celebrities including Ben Platt, Judd Apatow, Jenna Fischer, and Nick Offerman are applauding the efforts of student activists from Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — where 17 people, including students and adults, were killed and several others injured in a shooting last week — pushing them to not give up.

"Seeing these incredible high school students speaking out and taking immediate action for gun control is the only truly encouraging thing I've seen in this country since that time we had a real president," Dear Evan Hansen Tony winner Platt wrote on Twitter, while Offerman said in refusing to do anything about guns, legislators also "voted to be replaced."

"In the days since last Thursday's shooting, many of the surviving students have spoken up on behalf of their murdered friends and classmates to argue fiercely for stronger gun control laws. Aside from spreading their message via news networks and social media, several students took a seven-hour bus ride to the Florida state capitol in Tallahassee this week, where they hoped to implore lawmakers to consider legislation that could prevent a similar incident from happening again.

In addition to watching their hopes get dashed by lawmakers, the Parkland students have also had to deal with right-wing smears from news sites and political officials alike. Conspiracy theorists, including one Florida lawmaker's aide, have claimed the students are "crisis actors," or people who have been hired to simulate a shooting that never actually occurred just so they can promote gun control laws. (That aide was fired.)

Sympathetic celebrities pushed back against this fear-mongering, defending the students' integrity and encouraging their activism.

Check out a selection of such tweets below.