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SALT LAKE CITY — Politicians and students alike gathered at the U.S. Capitol on Monday to urge lawmakers to act on gun safety after a recent shooting at a Buffalo supermarket that left 10 dead and a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed.
Among the students speaking was Jaden Christensen, a Springville native and senior at the University of Utah.
Christensen, a member of the Utah chapter of Students Demand Change, said that the issue of gun violence hits home for him and other Utahns after Springville High School student Lily Conroy, 17, was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend in what police called an "apparent murder-suicide."
"My community in Springville is reeling from a few deaths, actually, in the last few weeks by the hands of gun violence," Christensen said. "It really feels that this affects everyone. It can happen at any time, and we need to stop it before any more innocent lives are lost, and we need to stop it at the root of its cause."
Christensen and others with Students Demand Action, a national movement of high school and college-age volunteers working to end gun violence, donned bulletproof vests to underline what they described as an "urgent, uniquely American crisis."
"This might look extreme, but it shows the measures families might have to take to keep us safe if the Senate continues to abdicate the responsibility to protect us," said Ade Osadolor, a Students Demand Action National Advisory Board member.
The speakers urged senators to act, joining together in chants of: "Don't look away! Don't look away! Don't look away!" They said that no student should have to go through life fearing gun violence and that conducting active shooter drills in schools shouldn't have to happen.
Christensen said that Students Demand Action "still believe" in the Second Amendment, but that they would like to see better gun safety laws.
"We're not trying to amend any laws or anything, we're just trying to pass better gun safety measures," Christensen said.
These measures include enacting red-flag laws, raising the age requirement to purchase assault rifles from 18 to 21, as well as requiring more comprehensive background checks, he said.
You cannot have liberty when you're chained to fear that your school or your mosque or your synagogue or your park or your church or your grocery store can become a killing field.
–Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn; Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; and Cory Booker, D-N.J., also spoke at Monday's rally in Washington, D.C.
"We are assembling like generations before who took change to Washington and did not wait for it," Booker said. "I've known too many people that have died by gun violence, too many young people in my home community of Newark, New Jersey. Lives cut short by murder — by guns that should not be on streets like ours."
"You cannot have liberty when you're chained to fear that your school or your mosque or your synagogue or your park or your church or your grocery store can become a killing field," Booker said.
He went on to encourage the students who joined the rally, saying he was proud of them for deciding to be the "promise of a better day."
To Christensen, rallying with other students was "really empowering."
"A lot of the time, students feel like: As a single person, you can't really do much," Christensen said. "A group like Students Demand Action really proves that wrong. Students are taking the lead and leading the fight against gun violence by storm."
