Students Stage Walkouts Across U.S. to Protest School Massacre

WASHINGTON (KI) - Thousands of students have staged walkouts at schools and college campuses across the country to demand stricter gun control in the wake of the Texas school massacre that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
Starting at noon ET, waves of students — some wearing orange, the color of the gun violence prevention movement — abandoned their classes and headed outside to protest, often accompanied by their teachers and cheered on by their parents.
Outside Los Angeles, more than 150 students at Crescenta Valley High School walked out of their classes at noon.
“Unfortunately, this has not been the first time we students have been forced to act,” said senior Roan Thibault, 17, who remembered being in middle school the first time he took part in a walkout to demand more gun control after the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The nationwide protests were organized by a group called Students Demand Action, which is affiliated with the pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.
“Enough is enough,” the students group said on the internet “toolkit” it used to organize the nationwide protests. “Once again, gun violence has forced its way into our schools. … We need more than thoughts and prayers. We demand action from our lawmakers now.”
The student group noted on its website that gun violence was the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S.
In Michigan, one of the most poignant demonstrations took place Thursday at Oxford High School.
Four students were killed and seven other people — including a teacher — were wounded in November at the high school about 45 miles north of Detroit by a 15-year-old sophomore who police said used a gun his parents bought him to wreak havoc.
Meanwhile, America’s biggest gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, pressed ahead with preparations for its annual gathering started on Friday in Houston, just 280 miles (450 km) from the scene of the country’s worst school shooting in a decade.
The NRA gathering took place this year in the shadow of not one but two gun-driven massacres in recent days. An avowed white supremacist who was also armed with a semi-automatic rifle shot and killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, earlier this month.
In a country where gun rights are enshrined in the Constitution and gun sales in the millions are surging, the NRA was likely to shrug off new calls for more gun control measures despite the latest shootings. The Republican Party, which has thwarted Democratic Party efforts in Congress to legislate stricter gun measures, is closely aligned with the NRA.
A page on the NRA’s website dedicated to the gathering is dominated by a message offering its “deepest sympathies” to the victims of Tuesday’s school shooting. The rest of the page promotes the annual meeting, where Republicans including former President Donald Trump are scheduled to speak.