Students stage ‘die-ins’ to protest gun violence

Young people staged “die-in” protests nationwide Tuesday to protest gun violence, aiming to raise awareness on the second anniversary of a mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead.

The protest included demonstrations in at least a dozen cities, including Washington, where people gathered on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol, and in Florida, near President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-lago property. Participants lay motionless on the ground for 720 seconds – one second for every person believed to have been killed in a mass shooting since the Pulse nightclub shooting on June 12, 2016.

“Our bodies will symbolize the tangible effects that lethal legislative inaction has on its citizens,” organizers wrote on Twitter.

In Washington, people gathered on the west lawn of the Capitol on a sunny morning, many holding signs, to listen to speakers before taking up positions on the grass, where they posed as dead bodies. Students later went to the offices of senators including Ted Cruz, R-texas, and Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., carrying a long list bearing the name of every student killed in a school shooting since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where 13 people were killed.

“The truth is, kids are scared to go to school,” said Marcel Mcclinton, a student activist from Houston. “This 230 lb. left tackle is scared to go to On the second anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando, the group March for our Lives New York organized a “die-in” to call for stronger gun control laws on Tuesday.

school, and it’s not because of a bully, it’s because of a gun.”

“I don’t want your guns,” Mcclinton yelled, and the crowd yelled it back to him.

Bree Butler, who survived a shooting at Santa

Fe High School in Texas that killed 10 people last month, said she and others support the Second Amendment but want to see politicians take steps to try to prevent mass shootings like the one at her school.