Students Walk Out Across the State to Protest Gun Laws
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On January 4, at around 7:30 in the morning. 17-year-old Dylan Butler opened fire upon his classmates at Perry High School. He took one life and left seven others injured, including the principal, before dying from self-inflicted wounds. Ahmir Jolliff was an 11-year-old boy in sixth grade attending Perry. That morning, he died. Cause of death: A gun.
In the aftermath of the devastating school shooting at Perry High School, on January 8, hundreds of students across Iowa participated in a walk-out to protest against Iowa lawmakers’ inaction against gun violence. The walkout was organized by the Iowa chapter of March For Our Lives, a student-led organization fighting to end gun violence.
Students from all over the state came together to rally for better gun control in Iowa.
Led by Northwest’s March For Our Lives President, senior Grace Fisher, Northwest students walked out of their classes and rallied outside the school with signs and chants. The student activists spoke out against Iowa’s gun laws and called for change in the state legislature.
“It’s really unfortunate that this has to happen, and that we have to do walk-outs, and that we have to show up at the capitol… Everybody [protesting] is just kids. But people are actually dying, so it is something that I think needs to be done,” Fisher stated.
Junior Xavier Lago delivers his speech, “How Many More?” at the capitol.
At the Northwest walk-out, and then again at the rally in the capitol, Northwest junior Xavier Lago delivered a speech titled, “How Many More?” Lago directs his message at stagnant lawmakers, saying, “How many more [dead] until our cries are heard?… How many more lives are we willing to take? How many more before it’s too late?” Lago’s speech had been six years in the making.
He started it in 5th grade when there was a false report of a gunman near Waukee High School. 10-year-old Lago was participating in field day with his classmates when the stadium went into lockdown. After the incident, Lago headed home early and wrote the first few sentences of “How Many More?” The speech was put away for six years until the shooting at Perry High School inspired Lago to pick the pen back up.
“[The shooting in Perry] has really reignited a lot of old feelings that I don’t particularly like, and it just hurts me… [The shooting] was partially race motivated… and that hurts because I know that could happen to me,” Lago said
Student activists call on state legislators to enact changes to Iowa’s gun laws. Listen to Waukee senior Hala White’s spoken poem about gun violence in schools.
The crowd listens to their fellow protestors speak out against gun violence at the capitol. You can listen to March For Our Lives co-state director Hannah Hayes’ speech here
Students then got into their cars and headed downtown to protest at the capitol despite the impending snowstorm. At the rally, students and democratic legislators delivered speeches encouraging the public to fight for the safety of schools and criticizing Iowa officials. Many elected officials, including Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, found themselves under heavy public scrutiny for the lack of gun control regulations in Iowa.
In her speech at the rally, the co-state director of March For Our Lives, Hannah Hayes, declared, “If [elected officials] don’t protect the people, then we will choose to vote them out because enough is enough… We cannot allow more people, more children, to lose their lives because of our legislators’ inaction. Their silence is deadly.”
March For Our Lives has been active since a Florida mass shooting in 2018, where a gunman took the lives of 17 bystanders and wounded 14 more. Since then, March For Our Lives has been active throughout the country in giving America’s youth a space to become involved in the country’s political climate.
The March For Our Lives website reads, “[Our mission is] to create safe and healthy communities and livelihoods where gun violence is obsolete.”
Participants in the rally cry out to state officials saying, “enough is enough” and to “end gun violence.” You can listen to their chants here.
After the protest, March For Our Lives directors delivered a letter to state governor Kim Reynolds pleading with her to prioritize the safety of children over guns.
Protestors “stand with Perry” after the recent tragedy that claimed the life of an 11-year-old boy.
Despite the effort contributed by March For Our Lives members and disquieted students, there has been little change in Iowa’s gun control laws. Instead, Iowa’s laws have only grown more lenient. In 2021, the state legislature eliminated the requirement for a permit to purchase a gun and for concealed carry, making it easier for someone to acquire and hide a gun. Four years prior, a Shoot First law was enacted, which allows people to use deadly force in self-defense immediately, even if they could safely walk away.
Guns are the leading cause of death in people under 20 years old, and with no changes being made to prevent this, Iowa teens are feeling more motivated than ever to get involved in politics. Students across the state have signed petitions, protested, pleaded and voted to enact the change they want to see. While it may seem daunting to get involved in such political debates, many protest speakers stressed the importance of the youth in making political change happen.
Student activist with her sign, pleading with lawmakers to switch their priorities.
Protest speaker and voting rights activist Diedre DeJear urged, “Carry on young people so that we can see life happen for all of us, uninterrupted by anything, let alone a bullet.”
Interested in joining March For Our Lives? Meetings are held every first and third Thursday of the month after school in the Northwest Library.
To donate to March For Our Lives, visit this link