Students Walk Out When School Shooting Vigil Turns into Gun Control Rally

Hundreds of Colorado’s STEM School Highlands Ranch walked out of the vigil for Tuesday’s shooting victims citing gun control politicization.

USA Today reporter Trevor Hughes tweeted:

Frustrated, crying and angry, #STEMschool shooting victims hold an impromptu vigil in the rain Wednesday after leaving a gun-control vigil they felt inappropriately politicized their trauma. (They asked that I not photograph their faces close up, and I respected their wishes.) pic.twitter.com/cksRXGtYQA

— Trevor Hughes (@TrevorHughes) May 9, 2019

The Federalist reported:

Colorado students walked out of an event billed as a vigil for Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old killed in a shooting at his school on Tuesday, when prominent speakers attempted to turn it into a rally for gun control. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado) each took a turn calling for gun control at the Douglas County event before students streamed out in protest.

Although the event was advertised as a vigil for Castillo, it was “sponsored by the gun control groups Brady’s Team Enough and March for Our Lives.” USA Today reported that “hundreds of students from the STEM School stormed out.” And while leaving they yelled, “This is not for us,” “Political stunt,” and “We are people, not a statement.”

The day after a heroic student gave his life to save others, anti-gunners politicized the event by hosting a rally misleadingly labeled a “vigil.” Upset, the students left the rally chanting "mental health" and demanded they not be used as political pawns. https://t.co/hcZOYnuwcU

— NRA (@NRA) May 9, 2019

Breitbart News spoke to Andrew Pollack, father of Parkland school victim Meadow Pollack. We asked what he thought of the students’ decision to march out once the vigil turned into a gun control rally. He said, “I praise good parenting.”

Pollack added, “Kids are looking at the real issues, which center on things like mental health.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.