Pupils across US stage walkouts over school shootings

'Being a student shouldn't be a death sentence,' organisation behind nationwide protest says

A child holds a sign inside the Tennessee State Capitol during a protest to end gun violence and support stronger gun laws after a deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. Reuters

Pupils from Colorado to Massachusetts staged a walkout protest on Wednesday in a call to action on school shootings, after six people were fatally shot in Nashville, Tennessee, last week.

Mass shootings in educational spaces are almost entirely an American phenomenon, and a recent health analysis found that guns are the leading cause of death among US children and teenagers.

Three nine-year-old children were killed along with three staff members in the latest school shooting, and Tennesseans have taken to the state capitol to demand more gun control legislation.

“Being a student shouldn’t be a death sentence but once again, gun violence has forced its way into our schools, leaving nothing but pain, trauma and tragedy in its wake,” the Students Demand Action organisation said ahead of the nationwide protest.

“We need more than thoughts and prayers. We demand action from our lawmakers now.”

President Joe Biden has taken several steps to expand gun control, but recently said it was up to Congress to meet demands from the American public, as he has done all he can with his presidential powers.

“I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns,” he told reporters last week.

Pupils in several schools across Colorado, Massachusetts, Missouri, Texas and other US states were reportedly stepped out of class to march and call for gun reform.

“I’m nervous walking in every day because I don’t know if I’m going to be able to walk out,” a pupil in Dallas, Texas, told a local National Public Radio affiliate while protesting.

This is not the first time pupils have protested in an attempt to encourage a more cogent response to school shootings.

Shortly after 14 pupils and three staff members were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, teenagers who survived led the March for Our Lives movement that spurred protests across the US.