U.S. youth protest on need to end gun violence

In the one month since the Parkland school shootings in South Florida, students across the nation protested on Wednesday in mass walkouts for 17 minutes, one for each victim that was shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

These events, billed by youth organizers as National Walkout Day, underscored a united push for political action to address the seemingly “relentless outbreak of mass shootings in the U.S.” said HuffPost Politics in their coverage, and also reported that, “Participants in the National School Walkout, a massive protest organized by Youth EMPOWER, a branch of young activists affiliated with the Women’s March, called on Congress to pass stricter gun laws.”

Soon after the shootings, last month, a youth response began from the surviving students and has quickly spread across the country, calling for change in gun laws, to help protect students from gunman like Florida shooter, Nicholas Cruz, who was able to buy a gun under the age of 21, a change that students want along with expanded background checks.

From coast to coast, this movement has garnered not only national attention but an increasing grassroots movement that hopes to effect change in  what many see as an inadequate response from President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association, which is opposed to additional measures such as the banning of bump stocks; a device that was used by the Las Vegas shooter to “bump” up his ability to fire round after round of ammunition into concert goers at a country music event this past summer.

Some students may face disciplinary issues for the walkout -- and some are being told that they will be marked absent in response, but they have also been advised by the ACLU that being given punitive discipline for the walkout beyond, being marked absent, would be wrong..

Support has also come from Black Lives Matter leaders who tweeted: “Salute to students walking out today despite consequences imposed by educators who failed Civics Class! Salute to Black and Brown students reminding folks today that they want to be safe as well and want all students to be safe, just not in ways that criminalize them.”

They are referring to those student protests that have been expanded to those black and brown students whose lives are endangered every day, living and studying in urban areas, such as Chicago, New York City and Baltimore.

In response, students in Wisconsin marched to their capital, Madison in protest. And in Chicago, students marched in solidarity with the others and in a statement by organizers, said: “A new collective of Baltimore and Chicago students who call themselves GoodKidsMaddCity and use the hashtag #BmoreChi. 

Over 1,500 students and teachers from schools across Baltimore and Chicago, who have lost loved ones to gun violence . . . recently met with Parkland students," and it seemed that the intersection of class and privilege is also being crossed.  Acknowledging the lived reality of these students, organizers also said: “Students of color from cities that have been impacted by gun violence will be adding their voices to the national call to action to address root causes of gun violence that impact their lives on a daily basis”

Noting that there have longstanding calls “for increased investment in health, education, youth employment, and other community resources as proactive solutions to decrease gun violence, yet these demands have largely fallen on deaf ears the local, state, and national levels” the organizers expanded their concerns.

When Parkland students survivors met last week with Chicago youth, Emma Gonzalez acknowledged, “Those who face gun violence on a level that we have only just glimpsed from our gated communities have never had their voices heard in their entire lives the way that we have in these few weeks alone.”

Much of the continuing disinvestment has seemed to have increased under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the result is that  “. . .  over the past 8 years communities which have been impacted by high unemployment and violence have only seen divestment of critical resources; for example during his first term, “Chicago saw the closing of almost half the city’s mental health clinics, in addition to ongoing cuts to social services and after school programming as a result of a lack of State budget for almost three years,” not to mention closing 50 schools in mostly black neighborhoods.

The recent school closings in the Englewood neighborhood have also faced mounting criticism, to the seeming gentrification and the change in an award winning elementary school, the National Teachers Academy, on the city’s near South Side, transitioning to a high school seems to underscore the point of  anger. And, as many sociologists have emphasized schools anchor a neighborhood, in addition to their dedicated task of educating and training a new generation.

Some glaring statistics: “In Chicago, the unemployment rate for African-American youth was at 43 percent in 2017, and according to data from the Chicago Tribune, 1,619 young people under the age of 17 have been shot since 2011.”
  

Student-led demonstrations around the country and the dozens of separate events at Episcopal cathedrals and churches coincided March 14 to mark one month since the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“This is the only nation in the world that has a gun death problem at the rate we do,” New Jersey Bishop Chip Stokes said in his sermon at Eucharist held at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Trenton. “Those of us who oppose it need to get in the face of the problem and cry out in the name of the Lord.”

On the religious front, “Episcopalians gathered in Springfield, Massachusetts, outside a Smith & Wesson facility to rally behind protest signs that asked the gun manufacturer to “Stop Selling Assault Weapons, noted Episcopalian News Service, who also reported that, “Students of Episcopal schools from New York to Florida walked out of class to participate in a nationwide call to action.”

The largest, or at least the most visible, of the protests was the one that took place in Washington, D.C where a student said: “Their right to own an assault rifle does not outweigh our right to live. The adults have failed us. This is in our hands now, and if any elected official gets in our way, we will vote them out.”

Returning to Illinois, the Chicago Sun-Times reported “Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday he and his aides were “working feverishly” to study the gun dealer licensing bill before he decided to veto it because “it was going to create a big layer of burden and bureaucracy, and really not keep our communities safer.”

Belying his critics that said the decision had to do mostly with political posturing, the governor said in defense while,” Speaking after a campaign stop in Naperville, the governor insisted his decision had nothing to do with trying to shore up conservative support a week before the primary.

“Not at all,” Rauner told the Chicago Sun-Times. “What we are focused on is winning in November against Pritzker and Madigan, and our message is a unifying message. It’s the right policy that everybody wants.”

Going even further Rauner stated, “Our team has been working feverishly, studying, talking, doing our due diligence on what other states have done, what’s the law here, and what it would do to our small shop owners,” further expanding on a campaign stop, to say: “And we just decided it was going to create a big layer of burden and bureaucracy, and really not keep our communities safer. And so we decided let’s go ahead and veto the bill.”

With the powerful National Rifle Association fighting hard against proposed changes, “One of the bill’s chief sponsors, State Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, on Tuesday accused Rauner of being a “lap dog” for the National Rifle Association “rather than listen to the people he represents.”

Utilizing their age-old defense “the NRA in turn said the bill created “dramatic overreaches specifically designed to close as many Illinois federally licensed firearm dealers as possible.”

Ramping up the rhetoric was NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide, who said, in another statement: “Now it’s up to the law-abiding gun owners of Illinois to let their lawmakers know this type of infringement on their Second Amendment Rights is completely unacceptable,” and “Punishing legitimate businesses for the criminal actions of others is a prime example of why communities continue to suffer as their elected officials focus on headlines instead of the real problem; actual criminals.”

Backing up these claims the Illinois Rifle Association said, partly, in a statement, that “Bloomberg and his henchmen have now enlisted an army of impressionable children to do his anti-constitutional dirty work.  Too old and tired for trench warfare themselves, the likes of Schumer, Harmon, and Pelosi are exploiting the energy of our young people to fulfill the aging anti-gunners’ bucket list.

Using the fear that gun owners would lose their guns, under any changes, they said: “Cynically titled the “March for Our Lives,” Saturday’s events would be more properly dubbed, “March for Your Guns.”  Organizers of these events are demanding legislation that would ban and confiscate nearly every gun you own, repeal concealed carry, and leave you with nothing in your safe but your grandma’s silverware.”

They then urged supporters to attend any, all local rallies to counter protest to the threat to Second Amendment Rights.

In response, State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) defended the protests and said,  in a statement from her office: “I strongly condemn the incendiary, misleading rhetoric of the Illinois State Rifle Association regarding the March for Our Lives this weekend. As anyone following the news over the last several weeks knows, these nationwide marches are a result of high school kids after Parkland being unwilling to sit back and watch politicians do nothing when their schools are shot up by battlefield weaponry.”

“It is ridiculous bordering on disturbingly paranoid to pretend that Michael Bloomberg and Nancy Pelosi are somehow behind these actions. The kids are not trying to repeal concealed carry. They’re not trying to raid anyone’s gun safe. They just want to go to school without fear that a disturbed teenager can buy a weapon designed for war at the corner gun shop and commence the kind of slaughter we’ve seen repeatedly.”

Cassidy also called for a retraction, saying that “They must retract their statement and issue another reminding [their] members that if they attend a march, their actions must be confined to speech alone.”

In a related move, north suburban Deerfield, Ill, recently passed legislation approving a unanimous “ban on certain types of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, amending a 2013 ordinance that regulated the storage of those items,” the Tribune also reported.

“The new ordinance prohibits the possession, sale and manufacturing of certain types of assault weapons and large capacity magazines within the village, according to the ordinance,” and “Violations carry a fine of between $250 and $1,000 per day, according to Matthew Rose, the village attorney. He said the fine is levied each day until there is compliance.”

Echoing the sentiments of her national peers, “Ariella Kharasch, a Deerfield High School senior who favors the legislation, said she wants more action both on a local and national level. “This is our fight,” Kharasch said. “This is our generation’s fight. We’re going to keep fighting and this is part of it. Change happens gradually step by step. The fight does not end at the borders of our village.”