MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Following the mass shooting at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, students across the Twin Cities metro are planning to take part in a nationwide school walkout on Friday pushing for changes to gun regulations.
Students push for gun reforms
What we know:
Students Demand Action is calling for a nationwide walkout at schools across the country on Friday at noon.
The group is organizing the walkout effort on its website. The call for action directly cites the shooting at Annunciation as the inspiration for the effort. Two children were killed and 21 people, including 18 students, were injured in the shooting on Aug. 27.
Students will walkout to demand lawmakers at the state and federal level pass a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
What they're saying:
A post from Students Demand Actions reads:
"No students should have to hide in their church pews or their classrooms, wondering if their classmates, friends, and teachers will walk out alive. We should not have to be afraid of gun violence in our schools, places of worship, or whether a bullet will shatter our futures and fracture our communities. We’re sick and tired of inaction from our elected officials to protect our lives and our ability to actually feel safe in our classrooms and communities. Firearms are already the leading cause of death for children, teens (ages 1 to 19), and college-aged people in the United States — when will ENOUGH be ENOUGH for our legislators?"
In a statement in a press release, Timberlyn Mazeikis, a gun violence survivor from the school shooting at Michigan State University in 2023 and Students Demand Action volunteer from Minnesota, said:
"Students are being shot and killed at school in Minnesota, across the Midwest, and throughout our entire country. Gun violence is a national crisis and that’s why we’ll be walking out of school to demand our lawmakers pass an assault weapons ban. Until we get these weapons of war off our streets, gun violence will continue to wreak havoc in our schools, homes, and communities."
Local perspective:
An events page on Everytown for Gun Safety shows walkout efforts being organized at more than a dozen schools across the Twin Cities metro.
This is the latest event in the Twin Cities involving people calling for gun reform. On Wednesday, students marched in Minneapolis against gun violence. Meanwhile, during Vice President JD Vance's visit to Annunciation Catholic Church on Wednesday, protesters gathered outside to call for politicians to do something to make shootings stop.
Family members of survivors of the Annunciation shooting have also called on Vance and other politicians to pass legislation.
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Students march against gun violence in Minneapolis
Multiple events across the Twin Cities called for action against gun violence, while Republicans say those organizations are politicizing the grief from the Annunciation mass shooting. FOX 9's Soyoung Kim has the latest report.