On the 19th anniversary of the deadly Columbine shooting Friday, students, teachers and parents around the state and country participated in another wave of walkouts to demand stricter gun control.
Just a few months after a mass shooting at a school in Parkland, Fla. and the major protests that accompanied it, 2,700 more walkouts, including 30 across Wisconsin, were reported in remembrance of the school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, which left 12 students and one teacher dead.
“We stand together in solidarity to continue the message of our children and students: we need gun safety reform. Now,” said Madison East High teacher Steve Somerson. “For our students’ safety. For our children’s safety. For our own safety. If not now, when?!”
Madison East students marched from their school to the Capitol steps to demand gun reform from legislators to ensure the safety of students in school.
After the Parkland shooting, Gov. Scott Walker called a special legislative session to pass new safety reforms, which mostly took the form of grant money for increased security, mental health training
“Everyone has acted and done their part, but Republican policy makers in charge in Madison and Washington, D.C.,” state Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, said in a statement. “They refuse to consider what the research very clearly shows is the most effective way to prevent gun injuries and deaths — preventing individuals who will do harm from getting access to deadly firearms in the first place.”
