Students Across the US Stage Walkouts, Demanding an End to Gun Violence
Students across the United States walked out of their classrooms Wednesday to take part in a nationwide protest demanding gun control legislation amid relentless shootings that have already\u00a0claimed more than 10,000 lives\u00a0in a little over three months this year.
Wednesday\u2019s National School Walkout followed a\u00a0smaller demonstration\u00a0Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, where six people including three 9-year-old children were\u00a0shot dead\u00a0last week at the Covenant School.
\u201cWe\u2019ve grown up in the midst of America\u2019s gun violence crisis. In fact, we\u2019ve been called the \u2018school shooting generation,’\u201d protest organizer Students Demand Action\u00a0explained. \u201cNow we\u2019re rising up and organizing in our high schools, colleges, and communities across the country to demand action to end gun violence.\u201d
Among those participating in Wednesday\u2019s walkout were a group of students from Uvalde High School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and three adults including the shooter were killed during a May 2022\u00a0massacre\u00a0at Robb Elementary School.
The teens chanted slogans including \u201cour blood, your hands\u201d as they walked off campus and marched downtown.
\u201cIf people do not start walking out, do not try to start making change, nothing will, and we want change,\u201d one student\u00a0told\u00a0the\u00a0San Antonio Express-News. \u201cWe\u2019re tired of being scared.\u201d
Javier Casares, whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie was murdered at Robb Elementary School, told the\u00a0Express-News\u00a0he thinks Wednesday\u2019s walkout was \u201csomething awesome.\u201d
\u201cI think we should be seeing this here all over the world,\u201d he said, \u201cand I wish more students would have the courage to do so.\u201d
In New York City, one student protester said that \u201cit\u2019s unfair for little kids to be paranoid all the time coming to school when school\u2019s supposed to be\u2026 a safe space for you to learn.\u201d
Another New York demonstrator said that \u201cit\u2019s not fair how people are banning some books and not guns.\u201d
In Memphis, Tennessee, students shouted \u201cno more silence, no more gun violence\u201d as they rallied outside White Station High School.
\u201cWe have to stand up. We have to change the legislation. We have to have safety,\u201d said White Station 12th grader Presley Spiller, an organizer of the rally. \u201cWe cannot have academics if we are not safe.\u201d
In Boulder, Colorado \u2014 where a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle\u00a0massacred\u00a010 people in a supermarket in 2021 \u2014 students rallied outside of the county courthouse and chanted, \u201cHey, hey, NRA, how many kids did you kill today?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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