By Cate Pitterle, ’20

April 20th started out like any other day at Cary Academy. But at 10:00 AM, almost 50% of the upper school walked out of class and down to the track for a rally commemorating the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting. The rally also honored the victims of gun violence in American schools, including the 17 students and teachers killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, on February 14th.

During the rally, calls for gun reform rang out both from the students and speakers. “Why do we walk out today? We walk out to show our politicians our lives are more than statistics in a history book,” said junior Lily Levin in her opening remarks. “I demand gun reform because though I am from a safe school in a safe area, Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a safe school.”

Also present was Rep. Grier Martin (D), a member of the North Carolina House and outspoken advocate for gun reform. “We have failed you,” he said of legislators’ fruitless attempts to tighten federal and state gun laws. “Not only have we failed to make progress on gun safety, we have taken steps backwards.”

Although Florida passed gun reform laws after the Parkland massacre, most other states– and the U.S. Congress– have yet to follow. Although Louisiana, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont have all proposed legislation regarding gun safety, only the three latter states were successful in passing it. Louisiana’s state legislature voted to kill a bill that would have raised the legal age to buy a gun to 21. North Carolina, on the other hand, has not passed a gun-related law since 2015, and then it was to approve a pro-gun-rights law.

Some students say this lack of action is unacceptable. “We must face the facts. Our leaders and representatives must face the facts,” said Leah Rhode, a junior, in a speech. “The numbers speak for us. The 13,286 people who die every year of gun violence speak for us.”

Not every student called for more restrictive gun legislation, however. Grant Scotto, a sophomore, held up a different poster than most at the rally: his called for pro-gun rights. “It’s not like I like shootings,” he told me before the rally, “but the gun violence isn’t just about getting rid of guns.” He cited other methods that could be utilized for changing the landscape of American gun violence, including helping and keeping better tabs on those who are dangerously mentally ill.

Regardless of their political views, students at the rally felt sharply the reality of the gun violence persisting in America. And the fears expressed in the students’ speeches– of shootings, of guns, of the reality that this could happen to any one of us– were well-founded. As I sat at the rally, watching Lucy Daley (’18) sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to honor the victims, I received a newsflash on my phone. A student in Florida had been shot in the ankle.