Today the Biden Administration announced a new executive action promoting the safe storage of firearms to stop gun violence – the leading cause of death of children in America.
The announcement came as more than 140 student leaders and 50 on-campus student newspapers signed their names and organizations to UNC-Chapel Hill March for Our Lives, a student-led group for gun control, op-ed calling for politicians to unite with their generation and end gun violence.
“Politicians will not have the shallow privilege of reading another front-cover op-ed by students on their knees, begging them to do their jobs. They will instead contend with the reality that by uniting with each other and among parents, educators and communities, our demands become undeniable,” UNC student organizers write. “Our movement is not just moving away from the unbearable pain of our yesterday, we move toward an unrelenting hope for our tomorrow.”
UNC-Chapel Hill March for Our Lives organizers Andrew Sun and Alexander Denza explained that since a graduate student fatally shot a faculty adviser on campus on Aug. 28, 2023, UNC students have demanded a future free of gun violence. After UNC students viral text exchanges between their parents, other students and friends from the day of the shooting reached the hands of the president, little has been done.
” With our prose and protest, we protect not only our lives, but our way of life itself,” UNC student organizers write.
According to The Washington Post tracker of gun violence in the U.S. data, more than 360,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine, with the most recent shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, where one student was killed and five others were injured in the Jan. 4 shooting. Approximately 76 percent of school shootings are carried out with guns from the shooter’s home.
“We believe that our country has the capacity to love us back. There are bullet-shaped holes in our hearts, but our…
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