Students Walk Out In Support Of Second Amendment

This time, the walkout is in support of the Second Amendment.

A group of students from Rockledge High School in Brevard County briefly walked out of class Friday to show their support for the Second Amendment.

About 75 students, according to a head count by school administrators, walked onto the school’s track carrying the American flag and signs that said “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and “I support the right to bear arms.” The event lasted about 20 minutes and then students returned to class.

The demonstration was organized by Chloe Deaton, a sophomore, and Anna Delaney, a junior, who are part of Rockledge High’s Criminal Justice and Legal Studies Academy.

Deaton — who was wearing a T-shirt that read, “my rights don’t end where your feelings begin” — said the event was meant to clear misconceptions about the Second Amendment, not support or oppose any particular political stances.

After the playing of the national anthem and “God Bless America” over the loudspeakers, she told the group of students, “We were built on certain rights and that was one of the original rights, that we should have the right to bear arms.”

Delaney read a quote from former President Ronald Reagan, who at a 1983 banquet for the National Rifle Association said, “The Constitution does not say that government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The Constitution says ‘… the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'”

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Of course, this was only one school versus the 2,800 schools that took part in the March 14th walkout, but Deaton and Delaney aren’t being given the massive media coverage that David Hogg and company are.

For what it’s worth, school administrators there acted as unbiased as they possibly could.

Vickie Hickey, principal of Rockledge High School, said the school treated Friday’s  event exactly like it treated the walkouts that took place March 14. She said both events were completely student-driven.

I’ll give Hickey credit for that. That’s an unbiased approach that seems to be sorely lacking from our country in this day and age.

Now, with that in mind, my earlier comments about student walkouts stand. There will always be a number that will walk out just because it’s an excuse to get out of class, especially when there are no repercussions for taking part. That means the numbers don’t really indicate support for a given proposition.

This time, however, it was very clear what the purpose was, so at least there aren’t some calling for gun control while others are just opposing school violence.

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But there is an important thing to note, and that’s how despite the rhetoric coming from the Parkland crowd, their generation isn’t united behind the idea of gun control. We have a few loud voices, to be sure, but those loud voices are being blown out of proportion. There are a lot of kids like these who don’t support a requirement to be 21 to purchase a new firearm.

They’re just not the ones flapping their gums about it on Twitter all day and being invited on CNN to talk about it all night long.

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