High school students stage walkout for gun laws at Georgia Capitol

ATLANTA - Atlanta high school students held a walkout at the Georgia Capitol Building to push for stronger gun control laws following the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School.

It's been just over two weeks since the deadly attack in Barrow County left two students and two teachers dead and nine wounded.

The violence has spurred some high schoolers to advocate for change in the state and to tell lawmakers to "do something."

"Why don't you consider taking away semi-automatic guns or really all of the guns? All you people care about is money, not people," student Francis  Willsea-Rehrig exclaimed.  

"People's lives are more important than guns. It's tearing families apart and making schools not a safe place to be. We just want everybody to be safe," student Audrey Humphrey said.  

"We are kids, and we know all these things and we're telling you. Do something about these guns," student Mattie La Rosa yelled emphatically.  

Students at Atlanta's Morgan Oliver School organized a citywide school walkout on Thursday to call for legislative action.

"First off, why can anyone just walk in a Walmart and buy an automatic weapon? We have no idea what they will do with that gun," one of the students questioned.  

The organizers say they are frustrated with legislative inaction on the issue of gun safety in Georgia and want to "draw widespread attention to the urgent need for legislative reform."

Republican lawmakers joined the meeting by Zoom, but Democratic lawmakers assured the students that they were being heard. 

"Step up and do the right thing, move beyond your party and let's get lives saved," said state Rep. Kim Schofield, D-Atlanta. 

The demonstration was initially supposed to happen on Sept. 13 but was delayed because of student safety concerns.

A spokesperson from Gov. Brian Kemp's Office released this statement on the matter.  

"Since the senseless tragedy that occurred at Apalachee High School on September 4th, the governor’s family and administration have remained directly engaged with the Wildcat and Barrow community – praying with them, mourning with them, and ensuring the full weight of the state’s resources were made available to them as they navigate this devastating time. While Georgia has taken significant action to improve school safety since he took office, including providing more than $294 million for schools to hire Resource Officers or to invest in security related technology, dedicating nearly $10 million since 2019 to the APEX program to focus on mental health in Georgia schools, and putting ongoing funding for school safety in the annual budget, our office is aware of the numerous policy proposals that have been made in recent days in the wake of this tragedy. We will review these proposals and as we have done in the past, work with the General Assembly to protect our students, teachers and faculty." 

Apalachee High School

The move comes on the same day that funeral services begin for 14-year-old Christian Angulo, one of the victims of the shooting. A viewing is planned for tonight at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Winder. His funeral is set for Friday morning.

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The Georgia school shooting marked the 30th mass killing in the U.S. so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. At least 127 people have died in those killings.

In response to the shooting, Georgia Republicans have proposed new policies to foster student mental health and detect guns in schools, but have stopped short of demands from their Democratic counterparts to strengthen laws that would require background checks or let the state temporarily take guns from someone in a crisis.