Civic Register
| 2.21.18

Students Walkout Nationwide to Call For Gun Control

Join us and tell your reps how you feel!

UPDATE February 21, 2018: Students around the country are walking out of school in response to an online call to mobilize for gun control.

Hundreds of students in Broward County, FL, the location of the Parkland shooting, are currently in the streets.

And many others, being joined by adults, are marching on the Florida state capitol.

Marches are also happening in other locations, including Iowa City, Iowa.

Students at Montgomery Blair High School, in Silver Spring, MD, a suburb of D.C. walked out this morning and are marching for the Capitol Building.

In Texas, a school superintendent has threatened to suspend students for three days if they walkout of school to protest gun violence.

Below is our original story on student mobilizations from February 19, 2018.

What’s the story?

A new sense of movement seems to be emerging in the long, stagnant national conversation on gun control in the wake of the mass shooting at a Florida high school. It is being fueled largely by the voices of students at the Parkland high school where the shooting occurred, who are demanding change.

Students took to Twitter to speak forcefully against tweets by President Trump and other lawmakers. Senior Emma Gonzalez gave a fiery speech at a gun rights rally in Fort Lauderdale Saturday that went viral.

And on Sunday a group of students including Gonzalez spoke to Meet The Press, stating that they are mobilizing for a national march in Washington, D.C., with sister marches around the country, on March 24th to demand gun control.

In addition to the March 24 marches, there is a nationwide student walkout being organized by youth affiliated with the Women’s March on March 14, and a nationwide student and teacher walkout is being called on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

President Trump will be holding a "listening session" with some of the student and teachers who survived the Parkland shooting on Wednesday, though whether any of the students who have risen to prominence in recent days will be included is not yet clear. He will also meet with state and local officials about school safety issues on Thursday.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) came under fire from students following the shooting due to his acceptance of $3 million in campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association. Though he has yet to speak up on behalf of federal gun control measures of any kind, he did state support on Sunday for a the Florida legislature considering legislation to enact a "red flag" law.

"Red flag" laws allow authorities to temporarily seize firearms and strip gun rights from an individual who is showing warning signs of violence while their risk is professionally assessed. Only five states -- California, Connecticut, Indiana, Oregon, and Washington currently have red flag laws on the books.

What do you think?

Do you support the efforts of the Parkland students? Do you think the national conversation on gun rights and gun control is changing following this most recent mass shooting? What, if any, changes to current state or federal gun laws would you like to see enacted?

Tell us in the comments what you think, then use the Take Action button to tell your reps!

— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: Raw Story via Twitter)

  • 174
    Polardoom
    09/21/2021

    I graduated high school in 2007. As I was then, I’m so tired of ignorant shouting about removing the rights of people because there are issues with mental health and societal harmony as a whole in this country. 1st off - some people are bad people with no morals. No amount of gun or knife or fork bans are going to stop a killer from finding the means to perform their heinous actions. 2nd - banning guns has happened in other places and there is plenty of data out there that’s proven how bad / ineffective bans are. Bad people continued finding the means to do bad things. 3rd - to say anyone is “brave” for mobbing into the streets and shouting incoherent complaints with vague demands for restrictions of other people because kids are afraid is negligent at best. This behavior shouldn’t be reinforced at this point. Complaining without providing any kind of affective or realistic solutions other than “remove inanimate objects from law abiding people’s hands / homes”. It’s tired old rhetoric and it’s affected no useful changes. The definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over and over again - expecting a different result. I think this should absolutely be something of discussion - figuring out the problems in society and in schools that keep triggering these types of tragic things to happen, however, I refuse to believe that removing guns from law abiding citizens will do anything but create “fish in barrel” situations to become more frequent. Kids should be kept safe. I went through school constantly having to do “active shooter” drills. Even had my school put on a lock down several times in middle school because of escaped prisoners nearby at least twice. It’s not healthy for children to grow up around this sort of fear. To be constantly reminded the world around them is volatile and unsafe.. and to feel completely helpless. I refuse to believe that banning guns and making more citizens helpless against bad people will not solve anything at all. So again. Let’s look for solutions that involve lifting people’s spirits out of the depression and loneliness and isolation and pain that fosters the sort of terrible behavior that causes human’s not to value life anymore. But no. Screaming kids in the street should be heard, but banning guns is off the table. Train and arm yourselves, and come up with a better solution. Personally, I’d like to see Constitutional Carry here in FL. As a 32 year old woman, I would feel much safer in the drug infested / violent neighborhoods I have to travel in.