That silence was extremely powerful, and one of (if not the) most powerful moments there. Emma didn’t call for a moment of silence; she just went into it after going through and naming all of the victims, and just prior to that mentioning the amount of time that the gunman was active for. I also very much got the impression that other people up on stage with her didn’t know that she had this planned. The fact that she didn’t announce a moment of silence or anything, but just went quiet, stopping talking and staring forward was brilliant and part of what made it so powerful. In the audience it left everyone unsure, questioning what was going on or happening. Was this a moment of silence for the 17? Was this to represent the amount of time the gunman was active for? Or was it something else? Personally, I felt that you could tell from the look in Emma’s face that this was intentional; but no one at the time could know for sure. Because no one knew what was going on, there were even a few people that tried to start a chant of “never again” a few times during the silence (did not get picked up). Towards the end of the silence, someone even came up and was whispering to Emma looking concerned (which is what makes me think that the other people on stage mostly had no clue.) The guy hadn’t been next her trying to figure out what was going on very long when her phone alarm on the podium went off, and she instantly began speaking again.
“Since the time that I came out here,” she said, “it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds. The shooter has ceased shooting and will soon abandon his rifle, blend in with the students as they escape and walk free for an hour before arrest.”
“Fight for your lives before it’s someone else’s job,” she said, and left the stage.
(quote from CNN article linked below)
The silence wasn’t even 6 minutes long (6 minutes 20 seconds being total time on stage, not length of silence), but about 4 minutes 25 seconds roughly; yet it felt like an eternity that just stretched on. An eternity where the crowd had no idea what exactly was going on or when it would end. That uncertainty, the lack of control or knowledge of what was going on; that’s what made this moment so profound and powerful.
In respect to accuracy and having multiple sources:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/emma-gonz-c3-a1lez-spends-6-minutes-20-seconds-in-silence-to-remember-parkland-shooting/ar-BBKEdCV