Tri-Cities students lead call for changing gun laws during Richland march
Isaiah Evangelista lives with the reality that a school shooting could happen at any time.
On Saturday, he was one of a group of Hanford High School students leading a local charge to change gun regulations in a hope to end them.
About 200 people gathered in Howard Amon Park as part of a March for Our Lives rally. Messages like “Arms are for hugging, not killing” and “Children are not the price for your privilege” were printed across signs carried by the demonstrators.
The Richland event was one of 14 across the state and more than 400 nationwide. They were sparked by the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The youth-led movement got its start in 2018 following the shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Evangelista told the crowd before the march that he was tired of hearing about “Band-Aid solutions” such as blast doors, bulletproof vests and giving teachers guns.
“Kevlar shouldn’t be a back-to-school item. Teachers shouldn’t have to be trained in gun safety. A grade-school kid shouldn’t have to walk up to the first day of school and ask their parents why the door looks so scary and where their school has no window.”
He noted that firearms are used in nearly 80 percent of all homicides. School shootings were only a small percentage of that.
Evangelista and the others said they weren’t looking to eliminate gun ownership, but they wanted to put more restrictions in place, including limits on high-capacity magazines.
“You don’t have to be anti-gun to be pro gun control,” he told the Herald. “I think that’s something isn’t explicit enough.”
One student said lawn darts shouldn’t have tighter regulations than firearms.
Another Hanford student, Ourania Glezakou-Elbert, said her mother was concerned about her safety when she went to see her friends graduate high school on Friday. She said it should be a concern of any parent.
She pointed out that the students impacted by the shootings aren’t able to vote, but the adults gathered to participate in Saturday’s march could.
“We’re gathered here today because we all know about the dangers,” she told the crowd. “But we need to take action. We need to stop this. ... This cannot be an issue of economics. This is an issue of lives.”
This story was originally published June 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.