Texas Students Demand Action Organized More Than Thirty Walkouts At Schools Across the State to Demand Action on Gun Safety

On Saturday, Students Demand Action and Moms Demand Volunteers To Host Nearly 200 Events Nationwide – Including in Texas – Calling For Congress to Reinstate the Bipartisan Assault Weapons Ban

School Walkouts Follows Deadly Shooting at Mall In Allen Texas, The Third Mass Shooting in the State in Two Weeks 

AUSTIN, Tex. — On Thursday, youth gun safety advocates and gun violence survivors with Students Demand Action, a grassroots arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, walked out of class at more than 30 schools across Texas to call on lawmakers to take life-saving action on gun safety. The walkouts follow the tragic shooting in Allen, Texas – the third mass shooting in Texas in the past two weeks. 

“As our generation continues to bear the trauma of this gun violence epidemic, Texas lawmakers continue to show us that their gun industry loyalties are more valuable than our lives,” said Quinn Covey, a student at Allen High School and volunteer with Student Demand Action in Texas. “Today, we once again walked out of class, in unity, to demand action by our lawmakers. We should not be worried about getting shot when going to school, the mall, or a playdate. They were elected to enact policies that benefit our communities and keep us safe. It is time for them to do their jobs.”

Guns are the leading cause of death for kids and teens in Texas. But Texas lawmakers, beholden to the gun lobby and insistent that guns in more places will make us safer, keep on weakening its gun laws, including passing permitless carry in 2021. Meanwhile, the gun homicide rate in Texas increased 91% from 2012 to 2021. Yesterday, the Senate Education committee heard HB 3, a dangerous bill that in its current iteration would make schools less safe by arming teachers.

So far this year, there have been at least 44 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 19 deaths and 33 injuries nationally. But mass shootings and school shootings represent only a fraction of the gun violence that impacts young Americans every single day in their homes, neighborhoods, and so many other places that should be safe. Every day in America, 120 people die from gun violence, 200 hundred more are wounded, and countless others witness acts of gun violence. The impacts of this crisis are shaping an entire generation of Americans.

Even as young people continue to be disproportionately impacted by gun violence, they are also leading the fight to end it. Gun violence is the number one killer of children, teens, and college-aged youth in America — but young people all around the country are fighting back and standing on the frontlines of the gun safety movement.

If you would like to speak with a Students Demand Action volunteer, please do not hesitate to reach out.