US students stage pro-gun walkout

Some young people in New Mexico are in support of gun rights and the 2nd Amendment

When tens of thousands of high school students across the country walked out of class last month to protest gun violence, many expressed relief that their voices were finally being heard.

Will Riley felt like his voice was being drowned out.

And so the 18-year-old senior at Carlsbad High School in New Mexico set out to organise another walkout — in support of gun rights and the 2nd Amendment.

On Wednesday morning, he led “Stand for the Second.” Riley said in an Facebook video that the demonstration included 300 schools in roughly 40 states, but those figures could not be verified.

“Unlike the previous walkouts, these are for the Constitution and for the 2nd Amendment,” Riley said.

“What we’re asking for is that we have equal representation to the other side on this issue,” he said.

“The best way we can make our voices heard is to do this in the same platform.”

The demonstrations were significantly smaller than the National Student Walkouts March 14 and the March for Our Lives 10 days later, with participation in the hundreds rather than the tens of thousands. The schools tended to be in rural areas, from Oregon to Pennsylvania.

In some schools shown on a map on the event website, officials said they had no knowledge of walkouts.

The map was later take down from the website. In other schools, only a few students participated.

In most walkouts, students left class at 10am for 16 minutes — one minute less than the March walkout for the 17 students killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February. The walkout Wednesday was 16 minutes to avoid appearing disrespectful to those victims, according to the website.

The demonstrations were significantly smaller than the National Student Walkouts March 14 and the March for Our Lives 10 days later.