Shooting at school as US students rally

Students demanding tougher gun laws walked out of classes across the United States on Friday, the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School that left 13 people dead.

As thousands of teenagers held rallies from coast to coast, a shooting at a high school in Ocala, Florida, left one student wounded.

The Ocala Star Banner newspaper said a 19-year-old former student of Forest High School fired a blast from a shotgun into a locked classroom door, wounding a 17-year-old student in the ankle.

The Marion County Sheriff ’s Office said the suspect, who was not identified, was quickly arrested.

Around the country, students marked the anniversary of the April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine in Colorado, a massacre seen as the harbinger of an era of school violence.

“I feel like things have gotten worse these last few years,” said Emma Corcoran, 15, from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland, at a rally here. “Change needs to happen.” The protests had been galvanised by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 14 teens and three adult staff members were shot dead on Feb 14 by a troubled former classmate.

“So proud of the #NationalSchoolWalkout and all of the students around the country who are standing up for positive change and demanding what we deserve,” tweeted Cameron Kasky, a Parkland student leader.

In Parkland, Florida, David Hogg, a Stoneman Douglas student, said he hoped the walkout inspires people to “get out and vote”.

“That’s what this country needs,” David said. “We just have to get out there and make our voices heard.”

“I hope it inspires people to make a change. I hope it shows people that although we’re not old enough to vote, we’re old enough to have a voice,” added David’s sister, Lauren.

In the capital here, hundreds of students from area high schools rallied outside the White House, and then marched on Congress to demand action on gun control.

Carrying signs reading “Enough Is Enough” and “Books Not Bullets”, they chanted “We will vote” as they marched.

“A lot of people from my school came to show support for increasing safety at schools and better gun control legislation,” said Matt Compton, 15, from BethesdaChevy Chase High School.

“I will vote for someone who I think will help solve this issue when I’m old enough.”

Former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot and seriously wounded by a gunman in 2011, sent a series of tweets supporting the students.

“After Columbine, America’s politicians said, ‘never again’. But after nearly two decades of inaction, it’s clear they’ve failed in their basic duty to keep our kids safe,” Giffords said.

“They are warning politicians to show the courage to address our gun violence or get voted out.”

A group of Parkland students, activists and celebrities sent an open letter to the National Rifle Association (NRA), pledging to take on the powerful gun lobby.

The “NoRA Initiative” said it was aimed at “counteracting the influence of NRA money in the American political system”.

Among those who signed the letter were actors Alec Baldwin, Amy Schumer, Ashley Judd, Alyssa Milano and Julianne Moore and activist Michael Moore.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll published on Friday showed that support for a ban on assault weapons had risen sharply in the past few months.

Sixty-two per cent of those polled said they supported a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, up from 50 per cent in mid-February and 45 per cent in late 2015.

Seventy-one per cent said Congress was not doing enough to prevent gun violence and 59 per cent said President Donald Trump was not doing enough.