06.13.2022
“Senators, we meet again. You may remember us, the ones in the red shirts, the ones fighting day in and day out today. We’re here again, having come from all over the country to rally on your front lawn.”
Jeannie She, Students Demand Action Advisory Board member from Virginia
In June 2022, Students Demand Action leaders and survivors rallied in front of the Capitol, demanding that senators don’t look away from our gun violence crisis. The rally came two weeks after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two adults dead and renewed calls for lawmakers to take action on gun safety.
Outside the Capitol, students wore bulletproof vests, a powerful visual statement about what could soon become reality if the Senate fails to act. Following high-profile mass shootings, including the one in Uvalde, sales of bulletproof backpacks have skyrocketed at retailers across the country — showing the measures families might have to take to keep their children safe at school.
The rally featured the voices of several Students Demand Action volunteers and leaders, as well as four U.S. senators who have championed gun sense for years. Almost a week after the rally, a coalition of 20 bipartisan U.S. senators — including Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, who both spoke at the rally — reached an agreement on major gun safety, mental health, and school safety provisions. The bipartisan framework was signed into law on June 25, 2022 — the first major federal gun safety law in nearly 26 years.
Read more below for highlights from the Don’t Look Away rally.
“Today I’m left wondering how, how in a country like the United States, are we willing to sit back and let gun violence be something we grapple with? Every time we go to school, to the hospital, to movie theaters and concerts, how do we accept [this]? How do we accept it as normal to live and die like this in a country that is meant to be a beacon of freedom in the world?”
Emmanuel “Manny” Macedo, Students Demand Action volunteer from Los Angeles, CA
Highlights from the Rally
Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by gun violence.
The rally opened with remarks from Jeannie She and Ade Osadolor, two members of the Students Demand Action National Advisory Board. She brought up the tragedies of hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), which have risen sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “As a Chinese woman, it all hurts tenfold,” she said. “More violence against AAPI people and women is enabled by access to firearms. Hate turns deadly and snowballs into tragedy after tragedy when perpetrators read racist diatribes and seek out firearms online.”
Osadolor, an Afro-Latina resident of Texas, felt a personal connection to the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. “Our generation has to live with the trauma of gun violence and we keep reliving it,” she said. “Across this country — whether it’s the racist mass murder of Black shoppers in Buffalo by a white supremacist or the gun violence that tears communities in this country apart every single day — this epidemic disproportionately impacts Black people. We experience 10 times the gun homicide, 18 times the gun injuries, and the police shoot and kill us three times as frequently as white people. Senators, isn’t it clear none of the survivors here on your front lawn deserved life-changing trauma and pain from gun violence?”
Following She’s and Osadolor’s opening remarks, Emmanuel “Manny” Macedo was the first student to speak at the rally. Macedo, a Students Demand Action volunteer from Los Angeles, California, had been visiting his old high school when he learned about the shooting in Uvalde. “To see the news of another school shooting while I was back at my school was surreal,” he said. Macedo, whose speech included a mix of English and Spanish, also called attention to the impact of gun violence on Latinx communities. “It is well-known that communities of color already bear the brunt of gun violence in this country,” he said. “But often we don’t think about the impact on Latinx communities. Latinx people are twice as likely to die by gun homicide and four times as likely to be wounded by an assault with a gun than white people. And devastatingly, Latinx children and teens like myself are three times more likely to be killed by a gun than our white peers.”
>12×
Black Americans are more than 12 times more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide.
Everytown Research analysis of CDC, WONDER, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death, 2019–2023. Black and white defined as non-Latinx origin. Homicide includes shootings by police.
Last updated: Last updated: 11.8.2024
5,500
Each year, more than 5,500 Latinx people die from gun violence in the US.
Everytown Research analysis of CDC, WONDER, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death, 2020–2024. Latinx defined as all races of Latinx origin.
Last updated: Last updated: 1.27.2026
68%
68 percent of Black and Latino American adults are survivors of gun violence, either experiencing gun violence themselves or caring for someone who has experienced gun violence in their lifetimes.
SurveyUSA. “Market Research Study”. SurveyUSA. (2018). https://bit.ly/2ExxpyZ.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States. The impact is far-reaching, affecting children and teens in states all across the country.
Throughout the rally, Students Demand Action volunteers and leaders highlighted the stories of children and teenagers who were taken by gun violence:
Alaska
“Kids like Juanita Lolesio, who got shot and killed in Anchorage, Alaska at the age of 19.”
— Jayden Tsutsu, Students Demand Action volunteer from Anchorage, AK
Florida
“Kids like the 14 students senselessly murdered in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.”
— Neha Bangalore, co-lead of Tampa and Florida Students Demand Action
Kentucky
“Young adults and activists like Travis Nagdy. After Louisville police shot and killed Breonna Taylor, he was leading protests for Black lives in the city when he was shot and killed at only 21.”
— Ella McCutchen, Students Demand Action volunteer from Frankfurt, KY
Louisiana
“Kids like Byron Kelly Jr. His mom Carla told a story about a conversation they had before gun violence stole his life. Byron loved to pray, and his mom asked Byron to say a prayer at her service when she passed. She’s still here, but at just 13 years old, Byron was shot and killed in New Orleans as he was walking to the store to meet a friend.”
— Iyian Paige, Students Demand Action volunteer from New Orleans, LA
Maine
“Kids like Octavia Young from Wells, Maine. Her relative described her as the light of everyone’s life. And at only two years old, she was just learning to walk when gun violence took her life.”
— Madison Miller, Students Demand Action volunteer from Bangor, ME
Missouri
“Kids like the 49 children in St. Louis alone, who have already been shot this year — seven fatally. They had their whole lives in front of them, but gun violence stole them from us.”
— Jeannie She, Students Demand Action Advisory Board member from Virginia
North Carolina
“Kids like Ja’Eid Watson. At 19, he had just graduated from Roanoke Rapids High School and had ambitions to start his own business. He was on his way to his grandmother’s house.”
— Ade Osadolor, Students Demand Action Advisory Board member from Texas
Pennsylvania
“Kids like De’Avry Thomas, who was just 18 months old when he was shot and killed in an apparent drive-by shooting in Pittsburgh.”
— Jayla Hemphill, Students Demand Action at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA
South Carolina
“Kids like Knowledge A. Sims. His family described him as an incredible, caring seven-year-old. He was shot and killed in his home in Columbia.”
— Jacobi Mitchell, Students Demand Action volunteer from Ladson, SC
Texas
“Kids like the 19 second, third, and fourth graders who were shot and killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.”
— Ella McCutchen, Students Demand Action volunteer from Frankfurt, KY
Utah
“Kids like Lily Conroy. Lily played softball at Springville High School in my hometown and was just 17 when she was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend.”
— Jaden Christensen, Students Demand Action volunteer from Salt Lake City, UT
West Virginia
“Kids like KJ Taylor — his friend, David, described him as positive and supportive, someone younger kids strive to be like. He was a football player at Charleston, West Virginia’s Capital High School, but at just 18, he was shot and killed.”
— Ade Osadolor, Students Demand Action Advisory Board member from Texas
“You’ve heard the old adage—a picture’s worth a thousand words. Senators, colleagues, whether you’re Republicans or Democrats, you can’t look away. . . You can’t close your eyes or your ears to what’s happening in America. And you have to listen and see the voices and faces that are here because these students speak for America.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Senators recognize the support of student gun safety advocates.
Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) spoke at the rally. Blumenthal, the first senator to speak, discussed a bipartisan measure to curb gun violence that he and Murphy had introduced in Congress and has now since passed. During their remarks, several senators credited the student activists who showed up and spoke out for gun safety.
“If you go back in the history books, every single great social change movement in this country has been led by young people, right?” Sen. Murphy said. “If you want to be successful as a change agent, then you have to have young people. You have to have students in the lead—whether it was the antiwar movement, the marriage equality movement, the civil rights movement, right? It has been young people and students that have been at the front of the battle. And so, when I see Students Demand Action taking the lead, I am more confident than ever that we are going to change the gun laws of this country to make our schools a safer place.”
