{"id":12601,"date":"2018-04-27T14:04:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T18:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=12601"},"modified":"2019-10-10T07:09:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T11:09:24","slug":"u-s-student-anti-gun-activists-to-keep-momentum-alive-over-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=12601","title":{"rendered":"U.S. student anti-gun activists to keep momentum alive over summer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY .<\/p>\n

An article from Reuters<\/a> (reprinted by permission)<\/p>\n

Leaders of the student-led anti-gun movement, who inspired classroom walkouts across the country on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, say they plan to maintain their activism through the long summer break.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s protests [on April 20] marked the second mass student walkout since a 19-year-old man opened fire at a Parkland, Florida high school in February, killing 17 people. It signaled the emergence of a growing national campaign led by young people to lessen gun violence and toughen laws on firearms sales.<\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/a>Youths take part in a National School Walkout anti-gun march in Washington Square Park in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 20, 2018. REUTERS\/Brendan McDermid<\/center><\/p>\n

But the movement faces a major early challenge as the traditional three-month summer break approaches for most U.S. public schools at a critical moment in their bid to be heard by politicians in their home states and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why this has been so huge (is that) we\u2019re in school, we talk to our classmates, we spread it around, everybody\u2019s around so it\u2019s kind of easier to show up,\u201d said Vivian Reynoso, 17, a junior at Tucson High Magnet School in Tucson, Arizona, who helped organize rallies for both nationwide demonstrations in the past month.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course you fear (losing the momentum),\u201d said Reynoso, who like her peers in the campaign was born a year or more after the Columbine shootings. \u201cI\u2019m pretty sure even the Parkland victims are afraid of that. That\u2019s why we need to be pushing, even if it\u2019s summer, to keep telling people to keep talking about the issue and not to forget to about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the nearly two decades since Columbine seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting rampage in 1999, killing 12 students and a teacher before committing suicide, school shootings have become almost commonplace in the United States.<\/p>\n

(Article continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question related to this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\nDo you think handguns should be banned?, Why or why not?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(continued from left column)<\/p>\n

Students at Columbine, which has not held classes on April 20 since the massacre, did not take part in the walkout, and were encouraged to do community service instead.<\/p>\n

Even as students prepared for Friday\u2019s protests wearing orange, the color of the anti-gun movement, news began trickling out that a 17-year-old student had been wounded in a shooting at a high school near Ocala, Florida, some 225 miles northwest of Parkland.<\/p>\n

SECOND AMENDMENT<\/p>\n

The debate over guns in America, where the right to bear arms is protected under the Second Amendment of the Constitution, has raged nearly since the nation\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n

The students hope to succeed where other activists have failed in enacting stricter legislation on gun ownership, either at the state or federal level.<\/p>\n

As anger fades over the Parkland shootings, the test for students will be in organizing for gun reform. Many of the protests featured voter registration drives, with students aiming to make it a major issue for midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho knows whether they maintain the energy or not but there are historic examples of student-led movements that have played an important role in moving things forward, (for example) the Civil rights movements,\u201d said Adam Winkler, a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen these kids take a real leadership role on this issue,\u201d said Winkler, author of a history of the debate over gun control in America. \u201cWhether they can sustain it not remains to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The March 24 \u201cMarch For Our Lives\u201d rallies in cities across the United States were some of the biggest U.S. youth demonstrations in decades, with hundreds of thousands of young Americans and their supporters taking to the streets.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s walkouts, though smaller in scale, signaled the determination of the students to press on with their movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way we\u2019re viewing the summer right now is it\u2019s really an opportunity to put in a lot of work on some really big plans we have going for the return to school in August,\u201d said Gavin Pierce, 21, a college junior studying film in Los Angeles and an organizer of the \u201cMarch for Our Lives\u201d pro-gun control group.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cEveryone is really eager to keep this going and to keep on organizing until we see real change,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Ben Klayman in Detroit, Zach Fagensen in Miami, Edgar Mendez in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, Karen Dillion in Mission, Kansas and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Richard Chang<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DISARMAMENT & SECURITY . An article from Reuters (reprinted by permission) Leaders of the student-led anti-gun movement, who inspired classroom walkouts across the country on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, say they plan to maintain their activism through the long summer break. This week\u2019s protests [on April 20] marked the second … Continue reading U.S. student anti-gun activists to keep momentum alive over summer<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,91],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-12601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disarmament","category-north-america","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}