US student anti-gun activists not letting up

Leaders of the studentled 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.

Last week’s protests 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 signalled the emergence of a growing national campaign led by young people to lessen gun violence and toughen laws on firearms sales.

But the movement faces a major early challenge as the traditional three-month summer break approaches for most US public schools at a critical moment in their bid to be heard by politicians in their home states and Washington, DC.

“The reason why this has been so huge [is that] we’re in school, we talk to our classmates, we spread it around, everybody’s around so it’s kind of easier to show up,” said Vivian Reynoso, 17, a junior at Tucson High Magnet School in Tucson, Arizona, who helped organise rallies for both nationwide demonstrations in the past month.

“Of course you fear [losing the momentum],” said Reynoso, who like her peers in the campaign was born a year or more after the Columbine shootings.

“I’m pretty sure even the Parkland victims are afraid of that. That’s why we need to be pushing, even if it’s summer, to keep telling people to keep talking about the issue and not to forget to about it.”

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 US.

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.