Indy students join nationwide rally for gun safety reform

Hundreds of Indianapolis students gathered Friday afternoon on the south steps of the Indiana Statehouse, part of a nationwide walkout and rally for gun safety reform.

The event was organized in response to the recent school shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where two children were killed and 18 more were injured.

Holden Pasley, 17, is a student organizer with Students Demand Action in Indianapolis. She said gun violence is always on her mind.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever gone to school in the past like, seven, 10 years without having a sense, in the back of my head, that I might not be able to go home that day,” Pasley said.

According to Education Week there have been eight school shootings in the U.S. this year that resulted in casualties. Everytown for Gun Safety lists 91 incidents where a firearm was discharged on school grounds.

Friday's protests were organized by Students Demand Action. The organization started in 2016 and moved to the national stage two years later, after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

According to their website Students Demand Action now has 900 groups across the country.

In their Walkout Activation Toolkit the group calls for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
 

Student Maddy Hood, 15, also attended the event in Indianapolis. She said her school holds lockdown drills once a semester, but thinks they should do more.

“What would I actually do?” Hood said, “Because in reality the little piece of paper over the door window isn’t going to stop anybody. And so I try to think of different escape routes, places I can hide.”

As of 2023 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention listed firearms as the leading cause of death for children age 1-17 in the U.S., and Everytown for Gun Safety ranks Indiana 27th in the country for gun law strength.

The last legislation Indiana passed regarding firearm use was House Bill 1296, which repealed the law requiring a person to obtain a license to carry a handgun in Indiana. It was signed into law by then Governor Eric Holcomb in March 2022.

Contact WFYI Digital Producer and Reporter Zach Bundy at zbundy@wfyi.org.