Students seek gun laws

Two dozen students protested outside the Statehouse on Thursday to call for stricter gun laws, eight days after a shooter killed 17 people and injured 15 at a Florida high school.

Columbus Alternative High School senior Julia Allwein, who organized the rally, said she no longer feels safe at school, and is worrying more about an escape plan should violence erupt than her studies.

“Every time I open the (classroom) door, because it locks when you close it, I wonder is this my friend or the time when everyone sees me die,” said Allwein, 17. “It’s become our new normal.”

The protest, students said, was inspired by the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland, Florida, and fears that school shootings will continue unabated.

“I don’t want to think about what it would be like to have one of my friends bleeding on the ground beside of me, and to have to stop that until the EMS get there,” said Orion Hower, a 16-year-old Columbus Alternative student.

Students called for tougher restrictions on guns, including universal background checks and bans on so-called assault rifles.

Columbus Alternative junior Jane Schamess said, “People are allowed to buy guns, and our lives are on the line so someone might want to buy a gun to protect themselves. But at this point we are the ones not being protected.”

The Republicancontrolled General Assembly has been loath to place restrictions on guns in recent years. In response to school violence they have, however, provided funding for improving school security like fortifying entrances and beefing up communication systems, and creating a tip line to report potential threats (844-723-3764).

Hours before Thursday’s protest, Ohio House Education Chairman Andrew Brenner, R-Powell, announced that the committee will look at ways to improve school safety, which may include guns.

“This is not a political issue; the children of this state are not political pawns. What happened in Florida and so many other schools could happen again in Ohio,” Brenner said in a statement.