Bill Murray writes op-ed comparing Parkland students to Vietnam War protesters

Veteran actor Bill Murray wrote an opinion piece for NBC News' Think vertical Thursday comparing Parkland, Florida, students to the students who protested against the Vietnam War.

What did Murray say about the students?

Murray said that the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who have been outspoken for gun control since the Feb. 14 deadly mass killing, weren't all that different from the high school students who protested the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s.

"We are living in interesting times, and people are becoming politically activated who weren’t previously," Murray, 67, wrote.

The actor went on to explain that the Parkland students could very well effect substantial change in gun policy as a result of their determination.

"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," Murray added.

What else did he say?

He later went on to compare mass school killings to the Vietnam War itself.

"Ending the Vietnam war was not a simple thing," he explained. "You had to make sure that all our people were safe; we had to make sure that they were as safe as you could be. And, you might remember, people thought it was going to be the end of the world if we lost Vietnam. But that war had to stop."

Further in the piece, Murray explained that he believes these students — who are speaking out for gun control and reform — are exhibiting their purest form of self-expression.

"The thing that’s so powerful about students is that, when you haven’t had your idealism broken yet, you’re able to speak from a place that has no confusion, where there is a clear set of values," he explained.

He concluded: "Idealism is a voice that’s inside of you; it’s your conscience. That can really deteriorate along the way, depending on the road that you follow, and it can become almost dysfunctional, but it’s there. Everyone has it. Sometimes it’s just a whisper, but, in some people, it’s a shout."