'ENOUGH': U.S. student walkout sends message on gun violence

[webfact]

'ENOUGH': U.S. student walkout sends message on gun violence

By Bernie Woodall

 

Students from Washington, DC-area schools protest for stricter gun control during a walkout by students at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

 

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. students spilled out of classrooms by the tens of thousands on Wednesday, chanting slogans like "No more silence" and "We want change" as part of a coast-to-coast protest over gun violence prompted by last month's massacre at a Florida high school.

 

The #ENOUGH National School Walkout was intended to pressure federal and state lawmakers to tighten laws on gun ownership despite opposition by the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful gun rights advocacy group.

 

With some students dressed in orange, the colour adopted by the gun control movement, the walkouts began at 10 a.m. local time in each time zone and were scheduled to last 17 minutes. Many rallies went longer.

 

The duration was a tribute to 17 students and staff killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14. It was the latest in a series of shootings that have plagued U.S. schools and colleges over the past two decades.

 

While many school districts gave their blessings to the walkouts, others said anyone who participated would face discipline. Many students defied the warnings and left school anyway. They included over two dozen at Lindenhurst High School on New York state's Long Island, who were at first suspended, then had their punishment reduced to detentions, according to a senior and the school superintendent.

 

In Parkland, thousands of students slowly filed onto the Stoneman Douglas school football field to the applause of families and supporters beyond the fences as law enforcement officers looked on. News helicopters hovered overhead.

 

Ty Thompson, the principal, called for the "biggest group hug," and the students obliged around the 50-yard line.

 

"We want change!" students chanted on the sidewalks outside the school. "Can you hear the children screaming?" read one of the signs.

 

But not all students in Florida were in favour of gun control. About 80 miles (129 km) north of Parkland at Vero Beach High School, chants of "No More Silence, end gun violence," were countered by shouts of “Trump!” and “We want guns” from other students, according to video posted by local newspaper TCPalm.

 

At New York City's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, crowds of students poured into the streets of Manhattan, many dressed in orange, symbolic of the bright colour worn by hunters to avoid being shot by accident.

 

"Thoughts and prayers are not enough," read one sign at LaGuardia, a jab at a response often uttered by lawmakers after mass shootings.

In Akron, Ohio, hundreds of students wearing orange t-shirts with black targets on the front walked out of Firestone High School.

 

At Granada Hills Charter High School in Los Angeles, students laid prone on the field of a football stadium to form a giant #ENOUGH, symbolizing the thousands of youth who die of gun violence every year in the United States.

 

Students at Columbine High, Colorado remembered the 1999 massacre at their school that began an era in which mass shootings became common in U.S. schools.

 

"I grew up in a community still haunted by the tragedy from 19 years ago," said 16-year-old sophomore Abigail Orton.

 

LOBBYING LAWMAKERS

 

The walkouts were part of a burgeoning, grassroots movement prompted by the Parkland attack and came 10 days before major protests planned in Washington and elsewhere. Survivors have lobbied lawmakers and President Donald Trump in a push for new restrictions on gun ownership, a right protected by the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment.

 

"We don't feel safe in schools anymore," said Sarah Chatfield, a high school student from Maryland, standing with hundreds of other protesters outside the White House.

 

Chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go!" students, many of whom will be able to vote in 2020, marched to the U.S. Capitol, where Democratic lawmakers emerged from the white-domed landmark to praise them.

 

The student-led initiative helped bring about a tightening of Florida's gun laws last week, when the minimum age of 21 for buying any handguns was extended to all firearms. But lawmakers rejected a ban on the sort of semiautomatic rifle used in the Parkland attack.

 

In Washington, however, proposals to strengthen the background-check system for gun sales, among other measures, appear to be languishing.

 

After protests began on Wednesday, the NRA tweeted a picture of a semiautomatic rifle with the caption "I'll control my own guns, thank you."

 

SCHOOLS VARY IN RESPONSE

 

Students from more than 3,000 schools and groups joined the walkouts, many with the backing of their school districts, according to the event's organizers, who also coordinated the Women's March protests staged nationwide over the past two years.

 

In Newtown, Pennsylvania, more than 100 students walked out of Council Rock High School despite warnings they would face discipline if they left the building.

 

But after the walkout, Superintendent Robert Fraser said “the level of maturity and sincerity was amazing” among protesters, and the school district waived any punishments.

 

At Norton High School in the rural-suburban district in northeastern Ohio, a small group of students, including a teenage boy with an American flag draped over his shoulder, stood apart from a larger gathering of nearly 300 students who walked out of class. One of the students also flew a large Trump flag at the end of his truck.

 

Ryan Shanor, the school's principal, said the small group wanted to honour the victims but disagreed with sentiment they considered to be against the Second Amendment.

 

“They did not agree with everything they thought the protest was about,” he said.

 

(Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus, Jonathan Allen and Alice Popovici in New York; Suzanne Barlyn in Newtown, Pennsylvania; Joe Skipper in Parkland, Florida; Scott Malone in Boston; Kim Palmer in Cleveland; Susan Heavey, Richard Cowan, Sarah N. Lynch and Ian Simpson in Washington; Lindsey Wasson in Seattle; Keith Coffman in Colorado; writing by Jonathan Allen and Andrew Hay; editing by Frank McGurty and Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-15

[Samui Bodoh]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

"Thoughts and prayers are not enough," read one sign at LaGuardia, a jab at a response often uttered by lawmakers after mass shootings.

Thoughts and prayers, while welcome, ARE NOT enough.

 

Kids should be able to go to school without being shot at. Period.

 

I am not sure precisely how to to achieve that, but anything less isn't good enough.

 

[Scott]

Troll post removed.

 

[selftaopath]

I am proud of these young people. I hope their energy persists, and they send irresponsible (to the wishes of Americans) politicians away from their NRA financed positions. 

 

This liberal redneck makes sense. 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2018 by selftaopath
Wanted to include video.

[DoctorG]

Good to see a reasonably balanced report for a change.

[utalkin2me]

I think they should all just stop going to school altogether. I’m all for the day trip but that’s not going to get anything done. Band together and stop going to school until the change you want is enacted. 

[StreetCowboy]

16 minutes ago, utalkin2me said:

I think they should all just stop going to school altogether. I’m all for the day trip but that’s not going to get anything done. Band together and stop going to school until the change you want is enacted. 

Like so many of their late classmates across the country, who sadly won't be coming back to school when the problem is solved

[jackh]

1 hour ago, selftaopath said:

I am proud of these young people. I hope their energy persists, and they send irresponsible (to the wishes of Americans) politicians away from their NRA financed positions. 

 

This liberal redneck makes sense. 

A liberal is a liberal. This is just no fixing stupid. Sad

 

 

[IAMHERE]

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

[spidermike007]

The NRA is the enemy of the average American, in their continued support of terror, and mass murderers, and their purchase of senators, congressmen, and the deflector in chief is corruption, pure and simple. The age for owning a weapon must be raised to 21, regardless of what the constitution or the ridiculous declaration of independence says. All men are created equal? What a load of crap. Easy for a plantation owner, who owns 800 slaves to make such a ridiculous and false statement. It is all outdated, and the US is facing a national emergency. There are alot of cowardly gun owners, who are hiding behind the 2nd amendment. Meanwhile, 3% of those gun owners own 97% of the guns in civilian hands. Does any of this make sense, to anyone other than the die hard 2nd amendment advocates, who are willing to die, and have their nation torn asunder, before altering that law one iota? America is the new Kabul. Get used to it.

[DM07]

14 minutes ago, IAMHERE said:

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

You are aware, that these 17 year olds are soon 18 or 21 and able to vote?!

Change will come, if you like it or not!

And I assume, you better like your rights decided by bought politicians and lobbyists?

'Muuuuurica!

 

[maximillian]

30 minutes ago, IAMHERE said:

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

Considering that 17 year olds aren't yet as corrupted and greedy...

they might be the better choice.

[lannarebirth]

8 minutes ago, maximillian said:

Considering that 17 year olds aren't yet as corrupted and greedy...

they might be the better choice.

Well, they don't know everything.

 

This one who is a friend of my daughter's is 21and I guarantee you she doesn't even know what 1/2 the stuff she posts even means. But she knows all about clicks.

 

Edited March 15, 2018 by lannarebirth

[milwaukeeboy]

"Shall not be infringed"

Get it?

They don't.

[selftaopath]

2 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

Did you see what Judge Scalia said a/b the 2nd amendment?

https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/justice-scalias-gun-control-argument/

[RPCVguy]

2 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

Some already did. Look at the ages of those who signed the Declaration of Independence - as of the time they signed.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/08/how_old_were_the_founding_father_the_leaders_of_the_american_revolution.html

[samran]

1 hour ago, milwaukeeboy said:

"Shall not be infringed"

Get it?

They don't.

 

It’s called an amendment. 

 

If you can’t change something called an amendment, then you need a thesaurus more than you need a constitution...

 

Get it? 

Edited March 15, 2018 by samran

[samran]

2 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

Why not? They are citizens. Or are they lesser than you? 

[Grouse]

2 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

Why not? You people are clearly not competent to do the job yourselves.

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, selftaopath said:

I am proud of these young people. I hope their energy persists, and they send irresponsible (to the wishes of Americans) politicians away from their NRA financed positions. 

 

This liberal redneck makes sense. 

 

 

 lmao... some of this guy’s comments are so funny

 

”you shall reinsert the NRAs penis in your mouth” ?????

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, utalkin2me said:

I think they should all just stop going to school altogether. I’m all for the day trip but that’s not going to get anything done. Band together and stop going to school until the change you want is enacted. 

I’m for a walk out on the anniversary of every school shooting (which may be the same thing!)

[StreetCowboy]

4 hours ago, IAMHERE said:

I don't want seventeen year olds writing my Constitution or deciding what rights I should have.

Why not? They're the ones that will have to live with it.

They're the ones that are going to have to defend it.

[chainarong]

The younger generation are showing the way , the amendment is broken, simple, fix it ............................

[Jingthing]

13 minutes ago, chainarong said:

The younger generation are showing the way , the amendment is broken, simple, fix it ............................

Almost impossible to kill the amendment. Don't even try. Just focus on the well regulated part. Strict regulations DO NOT violate the amendment! 

[boomerangutang]

After protests began on Wednesday, the NRA tweeted a picture of a semiautomatic rifle with the caption "I'll control my own guns, thank you."

 

That quote by the NRA rather sums it up, as if to say, "we've got the guns, so guess what's gonna happen if you try to take them away."

 

leading up to the Opium Wars in China, English traders were bringing opium from India to trade for Chinese goods.  After a decade or so, Chinese (who weren't addicted) at the port cities where opium addiction was rampant, decided to get stern with the British, and told them, "who can bring silver to trade, but no more opium!" 

the Brits said, "ha ha ha, you're people are addicted, that's your fault, not ours.  We're gonna keep on bringing opium as long as your people want it."

 

As a comparison, the NRA is acting like the Brits, "ha ha ha, America.  We found a way to twist the interpretation of a 230 year old Amendment to the Constitution.  Now gun owners are addicts, and they don't want to give up their guns or ammo.  No types, nada.  Maybe they're addicted, but that's their choice, ha ha ha, America, we've got you by the short & hairies. 

 

If you even try taking any guns away, we're gonna blow you guys away because we've got more firepower and will be happy to show you it.   You want blood in the streets? Fine. Bring it on, we'll show you blood in the streets.   Oh, and by the way, don't look in to the Russia-NRA connection.  Pay no mind to the millions of dollars going back and forth between us and Russia.  There's nothing there.  If you start looking, you may find some people get mysteriously shot dead."

[boomerangutang]

15 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Almost impossible to kill the amendment. Don't even try. Just focus on the well regulated part. Strict regulations DO NOT violate the amendment! 

I half agree with you.  Trying to fix the mis-interpretation of the Amendment is the easier route. 

 

However, if lawmakers really wanted what's best for the safety of Americans they would repeal the 2nd Amendment - similar to how Congress repealed the Amendment which prohibited alcoholic drinks.  If it a faulty or badly-written amendment, repeal it!  

[riclag]

Gun violence,police violence, murder,mayhem,rape, drugs,executions,armed robbery,sex trafficking,movie's depicting violence,music depicting hate.suicide, crime, it goes on and on.

 

How easy it is to blame a piece of metal !  

 

But nobody talks about morality

[rgraham]

Nice view of a few trees, move away a bit and take a long look at the forest. We as US citizens arm ourselves for a reason based on history, based on the reason our ancestors ended up here, and how we have remained free.

[utalkin2me]

4 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

Why not? They're the ones that will have to live with it.

They're the ones that are going to have to defend it.

I’ll tell you why for me. Because they aren’t showing enough balls. They don’t deserve it yet. Do something like organizing a walk out of schools until the govt does something, and then I’m starting to get to the point where I’m truly comfortable with this group making major decisions, because they’ve shown they are dedicated, organized and up to the task. 

 

Im a big fan of the walkout, don’t get me wrong I think it’s a great message. I just believe you’ve gotta push things about 100 times further than that if you ever even hope to compel change. The walkout as it stands is just a day off of school. No sacrifice. Muck with your futures, screw up your exams and chances to go to the college you want. Show me you want it. Anything that doesn’t show a major sacrifice is just a wank off. 

Edited March 15, 2018 by utalkin2me

[samran]

1 hour ago, riclag said:

Gun violence,police violence, murder,mayhem,rape, drugs,executions,armed robbery,sex trafficking,movie's depicting violence,music depicting hate.suicide, crime, it goes on and on.

 

How easy it is to blame a piece of metal !  

 

But nobody talks about morality

 You are right, it isn’t the guns which is the issue, it’s clearly something else? Maybe no school prayer? Abortion? Women’s rights? Emancipation? All those violent video games and people not going to church on Sunday. 

 

Of course so close to the time of a tragedy it isn’t the appropriate time to be talking about this (and with so many tragedies there will never be an appropriate time).

 

It can’t be just the easy access to a piece of metal can it? Of course not!! Don’t be silly...

 

In the meantime, let’s have thoughts and prayers that someone might point to the solution!! 

 

 

Edited March 15, 2018 by samran