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students demand action
'Our Blood, Your Hands': Students Stage National Walkout to Demand Gun Control
"We're determined to be the last school shooting generation," asserted protest organizer Students Demand Action.
Apr 05, 2023
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 claimed more than 10,000 lives in a little over three months this year.
Wednesday's National School Walkout followed a smaller demonstration Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, where six people including three 9-year-old children were shot dead last week at the Covenant School.
"We've grown up in the midst of America's gun violence crisis. In fact, we've been called the 'school shooting generation,'" protest organizer Students Demand Action explained. "Now we're rising up and organizing in our high schools, colleges, and communities across the country to demand action to end gun violence."
\u201cWe\u2019re determined to be the last school shooting generation. \n\nRight now, thousands of students nationwide are walking out of class to demand action from our lawmakers and gun makers on gun violence. We need ACTION, not hollow thoughts and prayers.\u201d— Students Demand Action (@Students Demand Action) 1680712703
Among those participating in Wednesday's 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 massacre at Robb Elementary School.
The teens chanted slogans including "our blood, your hands" as they walked off campus and marched downtown.
\u201cA group of Uvalde High School students walked out of school at noon today to participate in a National walkout against gun violence. #Uvalde\u201d— Sam Owens (@Sam Owens) 1680718257
"If people do not start walking out, do not try to start making change, nothing will, and we want change," one student told the San Antonio Express-News. "We're tired of being scared."
Javier Casares, whose 9-year-old daughter Jackie was murdered at Robb Elementary School, told the Express-News he thinks Wednesday's walkout was "something awesome."
"I think we should be seeing this here all over the world," he said, "and I wish more students would have the courage to do so."
\u201cAll across the country, students walked out of their classrooms today in protest after the school shooting in Nashville. They're scared to go to school for fear of another shooting.\n\nOur children deserve a safe learning space\u2014and lawmakers who listen.\u201d— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS) 1680729984
In New York City, one student protester said that "it's unfair for little kids to be paranoid all the time coming to school when school's supposed to be... a safe space for you to learn."
Another New York demonstrator said that "it's not fair how people are banning some books and not guns."
In Memphis, Tennessee, students shouted "no more silence, no more gun violence" as they rallied outside White Station High School.
\u201c\u201cWe cannot have academics if we are not safe,\u201d says 12th grader Presley Spiller, an organizer of the walkout at White Station High School.\u201d— MLK50: Justice Through Journalism (@MLK50: Justice Through Journalism) 1680714484
"We have to stand up. We have to change the legislation. We have to have safety," said White Station 12th grader Presley Spiller, an organizer of the rally. "We cannot have academics if we are not safe."
In Boulder, Colorado—where a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle massacred 10 people in a supermarket in 2021—students rallied outside of the county courthouse and chanted, "Hey, hey, NRA, how many kids did you kill today?"
"We don't want to be killed. We don't want to be a face in the newspaper," Boulder High School sophomore Alex Berk toldThe Denver Post.
\u201cStudents at Boulder High School are participating in a state and national walkout today to raise awareness for gun violence. Here they are in front of the Boulder County Courthouse @dailycamera\u201d— Olivia Doak (@Olivia Doak) 1680720407
Eliana Monahan, another Boulder sophomore, told the paper that "we shouldn't be afraid to go to school and get killed."
"We had a scare a few months ago where we thought there was going to be a school shooting," Monahan added, "and that shouldn't be a fear that we have, that our friends and teachers are gonna get shot."
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Bernice King Urges Permanent School Strike Until Assault Weapons Ban Is Passed
"It should not have to take this kind of effort, but we're living in times where what my father did, which was to really sacrifice their very lives, sacrifice their job, sacrifice their home, sacrifice everything—we're right back at that place."
Apr 04, 2023
Rights advocate Bernice King, a daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, expressed hope on the 55th anniversary of her father's assassination Tuesday that U.S. students leading gun control demonstrations will take inspiration from civil rights protesters who forced change through prolonged direct action.
King applauded more than 7,000 students in Nashville who marched to the Tennessee State Capitol on Monday, condemning Republican lawmakers who have claimed anti-LGBTQ+ laws will "protect" the state's children while refusing to take up gun control legislation after the mass shooting last month at the Covenant School, which killed three children and three adults.
"This issue that they're standing tall in is well past being addressed," King toldThe Hill on Tuesday.
The group Students Demand Action is also organizing a nationwide school walkout for Wednesday.
"The only thing that I wish, and I've said this before across the nation as I've talked to different audiences, I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons," King said.
"I wish there was a way to really organize them in a way that their walkout is not a day, but it's the Montgomery bus protests, that we refuse to return to school until there is some significant legislation that bans assault weapons."
King's father was one of the leaders of the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott that lasted from December 5, 1955 until December 20, 1956, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the city to integrate its buses.
Public pressure from groups including Students Demand Action and March for Our Lives has been credited with pushing legislators to pass the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which included "enhanced" background checks for gun purchasers under age 21, funding for states to implement red flag laws, and provisions to stop interstate gun trafficking.
States have also passed dozens of gun control laws in recent years, but gun violence nonetheless surpassed car accidents last year as the leading cause of death for American children.
Researchers at New York University calculated last year that the risk of a person dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower when the 1994 federal assault weapons ban was in effect until 2004.
"My father was assassinated with a rifle that would be the equivalent of what we call assault weapons today, and 55 years later we're just increasing the access to these instruments," King told The Hill. "The issue is, these are deadly instruments, and we should not have them in society."
King's call for permanent school walkouts until lawmakers pass far-reaching gun control came as Highland Park High School in Highland Park, Illinois—the site of another mass shooting last year—went into lockdown due to reports that a student had a gun. The student body had participated in a walkout in solidarity with Nashville children earlier in the day.
After a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two adults in Uvalde, Texas last May, Atlantic editor Gal Beckerman also urged a permanent school strike until the demands of the 63% of Americans who support an assault weapons ban are met.
"I'm left with one conclusion: The children and parents of our country need to take the summer to organize locally, build a set of national demands, and then refuse to go back to school in the fall until Congress does something," Beckerman wrote, explaining how the strike could force action:
One thing we've learned from the pandemic is that when children aren't in school, society strains. This would make a strike an extremely powerful form of leverage. A walkout with enough students involved and taking place over days, not minutes, puts concrete pressure on officials, from the municipal level all the way up to Washington. When students aren't in school, parents have difficulty getting to work. Suddenly understaffed services—hospitals, subways—suffer the consequences. Politicians and local officials have a mess on their hands—children falling behind in learning, parents overloaded—and a strong incentive to accede to a demand.
Republican policymakers this week have shown little tolerance for direct action by rights advocates. The Tennessee GOP filed resolutions to expel three Democrats who joined young protesters on Monday, and two Florida Democratic leaders were arrested for protesting a proposed six-week abortion ban.
"It should not have to take this kind of effort, but we're living in times where what my father did, which was to really sacrifice their very lives, sacrifice their job, sacrifice their home, sacrifice everything," said King. "We're right back at that place."
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Nashville Students Rally for Gun Control Ahead of April 5 Nationwide Walkout
One organizer said that if Tennessee lawmakers "actually cared about protecting kids" they would "address what kills kids every single day" instead of banning books and drag shows.
Apr 03, 2023
A week after six people including three 9-year-old children were shot dead in a Nashville elementary school and two days before planned nationwide protests, thousands of students walked out of classrooms across the Tennesee capital on Monday to demand gun control laws.
The advocacy group March for Our Lives (MFOL)—founded after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida—organized Monday's protest to urge state lawmakers pass gun control legislation including better background checks and a ban assault weapons.
"The purpose of the rally is to show that the community has had enough and we are demanding change from the Tennessee Legislature," MFOL national organizer Ezri Tyler explained to WKRN.
"It's not drag queens. It's not books. Children are dying because of guns."
"The message overall is we know that right now, Tennessee is engaging in this culture war, where they're harming our communities by banning drag, by banning books, banning gender-affirming care," Tyler added. "But if they actually cared about protecting kids, as they claimed they would address what kills every single day, which is guns."
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for U.S. children.
\u201cWe\u2019re #FedUp with the gun industry putting profit over our safety. We\u2019re #FedUp with lawmakers offering thoughts and prayers without meaningful action. And we\u2019re #FedUp with guns being the #1 killer of our generation.\n\nIt\u2019s time for change.\u201d— Students Demand Action (@Students Demand Action) 1680539401
MFOL organizer Brynn Jones toldWKRN that "it hits closer and closer, the longer and longer that you're, you know, hearing these stories just being like that it's the same story over and over again.
"But then hearing it on Monday that it was in Tennessee, it was in Nashville, 20 minutes from where I grew up, 20 minutes from where I go to school, hit incredibly close to home and felt personal in a way that it usually doesn't," Jones added.
Thousands of students marched to Legislative Plaza near the Tennessee State Capitol chanting "stop gun violence, we will not be silenced" and other slogans. Video recorded inside the Capitol showed demonstrators confronting state Rep. William Lamberth (R-44) and asking him why lawmakers won't "ban assault rifles."
\u201cHappening Now: Students are filling the halls of the legislature. (and @WilliamLamberth is talking down to Rep. @brotherjones_)\u201d— The Tennessee Holler (@The Tennessee Holler) 1680542981
The LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD tweeted: "It's not drag queens. It's not books. Children are dying because of guns. GLAAD stands with all of the students during today's walkout at the Tennessee State Capitol. Ban assault weapons—not drag performers, books, or lifesaving care for trans people."
However, Tennessee's Republican-controlled Legislature and GOP Gov. Bill Lee have gone in the opposite direction.
As The Associated Pressreports:
Already this year, Republican lawmakers have introduced bills that would make it easier to arm teachers and allow college students to carry weapons on campus. Democratic-led efforts to strengthen gun safety measures have faltered. On Tuesday, lawmakers delayed taking up any of the contentious gun-related bills, saying they wanted to offer respect to the community.
The most significant movement involves the state’s permitless carry law. In 2021, Lee led the charge to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without first obtaining a permit that requires clearing a state background check and training. Thereafter, gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson announced plans to relocate its headquarters to Tennessee due to the state's "support for the 2nd Amendment."
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones (D-52) said that three Democratic lawmakers were kicked off their committees and threatened with expulsion for standing with their constituents and demanding gun control legislation.
Monday's protest in Nashville came before another youth-led gun control group, Students Demand Action, is set to lead nationwide student walkouts on Wednesday.
"Being a student shouldn't be a death sentence but once again, gun violence has forced its way into our schools, leaving nothing but pain, trauma, and tragedy in its wake," the group said in a preview of Wednesday's action. "We need more than thoughts and prayers. We demand action from our lawmakers now."
\u201cWe can\u2019t keep living and dying like this. We won\u2019t accept school shootings as normal. Organize a walkout at your school on April 5th: https://t.co/t34Zgo8PKS\u201d— Students Demand Action (@Students Demand Action) 1680445921
Students Demand Action continued:
School shootings like this are not acts of nature—no other peer nation allows students to be shot and killed in schools like this. And it's not just gun violence in our schools. In America and in Tennessee, guns are the number one killer of American youth, and Tennessee lawmakers have done nothing but gut gun safety laws, putting gun industry profits ahead of the safety of our children.
"We won't accept a country where gunfire can ring out at any moment, whether it's while grocery shopping at a supermarket, hanging out at a park in your community, attending a party, or going to a restaurant for dinner," Students Demand Action added. "We deserve more."
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