Outraged by the inaction of lawmakers on gun violence, students across the country held walkouts on Thursday in the wake of a brutal massacre in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were gunned down at an elementary school.
From Meridian High School in Virginia to El Camino Real Charter High School in California, students across the country took part in walkouts to demand gun control measures, according to social media reports and local news outlets.
Meanwhile in Rhode Island, students from several schools in Providence laid down for three minutes outside the Rhode Island State House, according to a tweet from state Sen. Tiara Mack (D).
At Oxford High School in Michigan, over 100 students walked out of class on Thursday, the Detroit Free Press reported. The school was the site of its own deadly shooting on Nov. 30, where four students were killed.
In Buffalo, Minn., students at Buffalo High School took part in another walkout on Thursday, WCCO, a local CBS affiliate, reported. Buffalo was also the site of shooting last year at Allina Health Buffalo Crossroads Clinic. That incident left one medical assistant dead and several others injured.
But that shooting is not to be confused with another mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., where 10 people were killed at a grocery store earlier this month.
The scale and widespread nature of the walkouts, many of which were conducted in partnership with Students Demand Action, indicate just how much gun violence has permeated communities across the country.
Since 2009, 274 mass shootings have taken place in the country, killing 1,536 people, according to research from Everytown for Gun Safety.
In the last 12 years, one in every four victims of a mass shooting was a child, the group’s data showed.
Lawmakers in Washington have stalled on passing any gun legislation through Congress despite mass shootings that have brought tragedy and devastation to the overwhelming majority of states in the U.S.