Waltham Students Rally For Gun Control On Columbine Anniversary

WALTHAM, MA — Work preventing gun violence at schools is not over, and some Brandeis students want to keep the conversation going a month after students walked out across the country and rallied to get the attention of lawmakers on stricter gun laws to that end. So Friday, students are holding a gun control rally at Brandeis.

At least one elected official representing Waltham will speak for Gun Violence Prevention on the 19th anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine High School that killed 13 and rocked the US on April 20, 1999.

Friday’s event will be the second at Brandeis following the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 in February and sparked a national student-led #EnoughIsEnough movement protesting gun violence in schools and in urban areas.

“We hope to highlight the many different ways in which gun violence can affect people, such as school shootings, domestic violence, police brutality and suicide,” the group's Facebook Page reads.

The Brandeis group joins more than 2,100 schools including a group at Harvard University, that have made plans to walkout on April 20 from 10 a.. to noon to call for stricter gun control legislation.

Ward 7 City Councillor Kristine Mackin will be speaking, as well as members of the Brandeis community, according to the group. State senator Mike Barrett of Lexington, who recently was diagnosed with cancer was scheduled to speak, but told students he wouldn't be able to make it, after all.

“Reducing the staggering number of firearms and firearm-related deaths is the most pressing issue in the country right now,” Barrett said in a statement. “I’m grateful to see Brandeis leading the way in addressing the problem.”

Renee Korgood, one of the lead organizers of the rally said her Brandeis group is holding this rally now in part because it's at a time when schools across the country are doing so, and the solidarity is meaningful.

But school is almost out for the summer, and timing is also important she said.

"We wanted to make sure that between March and the summer that people aren't losing the momentum that we have right now to make change," she said.

Her group on campus have led a letter writing campaign and voter registration drives but this rally is a way to remind students they have the power to make change.

"Our goal is to send people off into the summer with that energy so that we don't lose momentum," she said.

The group is hoping for as many as 100 people and has invited folks from greater Waltham, including the Mass Coalition Against Gun Violence, Progressive MA, the entire city council and the mayor.

"We haven't heard anything back from the Mayor, though," she said.

The rally like the previous rallies across the country and at the school is student-led, and although an "adult" or two are slated to speak, Korgood says the focus will still be on students.

One of the March for Our Lives Boston student organizers, Charlotte Lowell, is expected to join, too said Korgood.

"Students have these perspectives and have this drive to make change happen," she said.

Korgood, like Lowell, comes from an area where she didn't personally know anyone immediately affected by gun violence. But Korgood said after the Las Vegas shooting she was particularly jarred by the sheer scale of what had happened. She'd been talking with someone a bit older than her when she realized it didn't used to be normal for people to hear about mass shootings as regularly as she's hearing about them.

"It's really sad, but what are you going to do about it?" she remembers someone asking her.

But she resolved to do what she could. She called her own legislators about the bump stocks but then the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass happened.

She saw in the resolve of those Parkland, Fla., students started something that inspired her and resonated. "They were like 'we're diving right in and ready to make change,' so I started talking to other students here and we were like, they're right. We're really following their lead," she said.

And that, she's convinced, will make all the difference.

Makin said when Korgood invited her to speak she said she agreed because she feels it is critical that she use her position as councilor to reflect and amplify the voices of the students.

"I remember Columbine but the students who are on campus right now, don't. I think that speaks to a failure of my generation to step up and do the hard work. And now we see them stepping up. And it's our job to stand by and support them. We've failed to make a change and we owe it to them to help them do it at this point," said Makin.

Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch