YOUNG ACTIVISTS
Student protests on gun violence
Re: “Students leave class by the thousands,” March 15 news story.
After standing outside a local high school watching the peaceful student walkout, I hope others will join me, a lifetime gun owner, in actively supporting only those candidates in the upcoming elections who promote sensible gun safety legislation that includes a ban on militarygrade, semi-automatic weapons, high-capacity magazines, and highvelocity, armor piercing ammunition.
My shotgun holds seven shells. Since the 1930s, federal regulation has required guns to be modified to hold a maximum of three shells when used for hunting migratory wildfowl in order to protect the birds from overharvest. In other words, current legislation offers greater protection for ducks than for our children. Candidates who refuse to address the issue deserve neither our vote nor our money. Gary Schanbacher, Littleton
Listen to the kids. Those who marched Wednesday demonstrated more courage and demanded more meaningful change than our spineless politicians who toe the gun-centric line of the NRA.
I have been a gun owner all my adult life. I am not anti-firearm. Neither is my daughter, who is a crack shot at the shooting range, and a high school English teacher. We are both educators who believe that guns in classrooms change the fundamental culture of a school. They create more student anxiety, not less. “As much as I love my colleagues,” she writes, “the ones who say they are willing to carry a gun to school to protect our kids are the same ones who I’ve seen struggle with the copier machine … and they think they’re going to have the presence of mind to accurately take out a shooter on campus?” Bob and Marilyn Box, Buene Vista
Watching the protests carried out by students around our country Wednesday made me realize that there is still hope in spite of what our nation has become under this nefarious administration.
The students are the ones who will bring about change to our gun laws — laws that protect those who cause death and mayhem, and not the innocent. When the Second Amendment to the Constitution was written, it was not its intention to protect the right to bear the arms that have killed and continue to kill innocent human beings, no matter what the NRA and the politicians who receive blood money from them in order to win elections say to justify their position. I doubt that bringing the Second Amendment as their excuse is done out of patriotism. Shame on all of them.
These students make me feel proud to be an American, as it should all the citizens of this great nation of ours. Carmen C. Gorgas, Denver
As a mother of five and grandmother of seven, I completely understand and remember the stress of teenagers growing up. Our youth have so much more today to deal with and it’s heartbreaking one of these is someone coming into their schools and killing their friends. I would like to suggest a few things for our kids to consider. My concern is seeing kids walk out of their classes to protest, even if it is peaceful. Would it not be best to stay in class and get together when school is out?
I ask teens, parents and teachers to remember that a gun doesn’t kill unless it is first picked up. No, I am not a member of the NRA. I am just trying to use common sense.
As a teacher’s aide a few years ago in what was called special education, I witnessed how these students were ignored or looked down on by the others. May I ask schools to encourage all kids to reach out to those less fortunate and begin there to acknowledge we are all different but we all need love and attention? Perhaps just one mentally ill or depressed boy or girl could be given help before they take their anger out on their fellow students. Jean M. Baldwin, Aurora
At my sixth-grader’s request, I attended the student walkout with her on Wednesday in Lakewood. Dozens of children from her school gathered on Wadsworth Boulevard along with a few adults — staff supervisors and other parents. Many people driving on Wadsworth honked, waved or gave a thumbs-up in support. Many others were silent. We counted five adults, however, who gave those children the middle finger. I would like to ask those people to think about what it says about themselves that they feel that was an acceptable thing to do to children. Those children are definitely thinking about it and what it means about whether those people care about children’s safety in our schools. Lucy Deakins, Denver
Two points with respect to the school walkout Wednesday, which was widely televised.
It would be foolish to think one would be able to organize, accomplish and re-establish classroom order after a 17-minute walkout in anything less than two hours. As a taxpayer, I have somewhat of a problem paying for something (high school education) that I saw interrupted today.
The second point would be the missing component to the demonstration — a voice from the youth of rural communities in Colorado. Unless I’m missing something, I have not seen or heard anything that would represent both peer groups. There very well could be some additional input that has been overlooked. Lawrence E. Barnes, Littleton
Re: “Students participating in walkout should be marked as absent,” March 14 letter to the editor.
Whether children are marked absent or suspended for walking out in Wednesday’s nationwide marches is up to individual school districts, and its wisdom can be debated. However, letter-writer Ron Reihmann’s reason for suggesting all such students be punished misses the mark.
Reihmann wrote: “I wonder what the school administration’s actions would be if a group of students walked out in support of white supremacy, to exercise their right to free speech.”
In the case of school shootings, students are not simply expressing their right to free speech. Unlike “white supremacy,” school shootings with military-grade weapons are not just an intellectual, political or social issue to them, as it may be to most adults. To school children, it’s nothing less than an assault on their very lives. It’s during school time they are being attacked, not during “their own time,” and the personal threat is hanging over all of them, every day. Pat Emery, Arvada