Students Demand Action Volunteers and Gun Violence Survivors Walked Out of School Last Week, Now They are Focused on Advocating for Gun Safety at the Local, State and Federal Level
5.31.2022
Last week, Students Demand Action, part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots networks, organized thousands of students to hold walkouts at over 200 schools in at least 34 states across the country and the District of Columbia to call on lawmakers to pass common sense gun safety measures, in the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas — a predominantly Latinx community. The shooting, which killed at least 21 people, including 19 students, comes less than two weeks after a white supremacist targeted a grocery store in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo and shot 13 people, killing 10, as they shopped.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States. Prior to last week’s shooting, so far this year, there have been at least 77 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 14 deaths and 45 injuries nationally — 6 of these incidents took place in Texas.
Read More on the Students Demand Action Walkouts:
Rolling Stone: ‘Enough is Enough’: Students Demand Action on Gun Violence Epidemic
“Organized by Students Demand Action, a national organization against gun violence, more than 200 events were planned across the country for May 26, according to a representative for Students Demand Action, though the representative said that may be an undercount as students are still walking out of classrooms this afternoon. There are also a slew of protests planned for this weekend as well as walkout events planned for June 3, which is National Gun Violence Awareness Day.”
HuffPost: “Thousands Of Students Walk Out Nationwide To Protest Lawmakers’ Inaction On Guns”
“Thousands of students across the country walked out of school Thursday in protest of
lawmakers’ inaction on gun control, two days after 19 children and two teachers were killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Students Demand Action, a grassroots group that is part of the organization Everytown for Gun Safety, organized walkouts at more than 200 schools in at least 34 states to call on lawmakers to take action against gun violence.
From California to Rhode Island, students chanted ‘Enough is enough’ and held homemade signs that read ‘Thoughts and prayers are not enough,’ ‘How many more kids’ and ‘Fuck the NRA.’”
Los Angeles Times: “Angry over Texas school shooting, students stage walkouts protesting gun violence, again”
“In Los Angeles, students demonstrated on campuses from Los Feliz to Woodland Hills. Ashley, who founded the Students Demand Action club at her school, said she believed it was important to walk out Thursday to honor the students killed in Texas and the people whose lives were cut short by gun violence, including the people killed May 14 at a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.
On Thursday, Ashley, with the support of her school administration, gave a speech during which she spoke about the shooting in Texas and named the victims. The school had a moment of silence and she told the school the walkout would be held at 11:30 a.m.
When the time came, she was joined in the campus quad by hundreds of other students, some who held signs. She told her classmates that they can call elected officials and register to vote. And again, she listed the names of the victims in Uvalde as well as those in Buffalo.”
CBS News: “Protesters demanding gun legislation march from Hell’s Kitchen to Times Square”
“‘Earlier in the day, the group Students Demand Action staged walkouts from schools in Wisconsin to Washington D.C. Teens in New Jersey did the same, leaving school and marching in Maplewood and Ridgewood.
‘We want universal background checks. We want emergency risk protection orders, which allow judges to remove guns for temporary periods of time from at-risk individuals,’ student John Fishkin said.”
“When Maddie Ahmadi, 17, got home Tuesday afternoon and heard the news of the
Uvalde, Texas, school massacre, she knew she had to do something, and she knew she needed to do it quickly.
Ahmadi, a junior at Essex High School in Vermont who serves on the national advisory board of Students Demand Action, decided a walkout was the only option: ‘Our lives are more important than schoolwork,’ she said. Ahmadi blasted out calls to action on social media and notified her school’s administration.
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‘School is the last place where kids should have to worry about gun violence, but thanks to our weak gun laws and the gun lobby’s relentless ‘guns everywhere’ agenda, nowhere is safe,’ Students Demand Action wrote. ‘Students deserve to learn and live without fear.’
Students at more than 200 schools in at least 34 states plus the District of Columbia walked out in response to the Uvalde massacre, according to the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, the parent organization of Students Demand Action.”
To speak with Students Demand Action volunteers, please don’t hesitate to reach out.