Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Mass school walkouts against firearms

PUPILS across the US marked the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school massacre yesterday by staging mass walkouts in protest at gun violence.

The national walkout was organised following the Parkland school shooting in Florida in February, in which 17 people were killed.

Demonstrations were held in every state in the US with students making calls to their senator’s offices demanding reforms to gun laws.

They held 13 seconds silence in memory of those killed at Columbine.

More than 2,000 schools took part in the action, which has drawn widespread support from teachers, politicians and celebrities.

Actors Robert de Niro and Julianne Moore both penned letters for pupils to deliver to their teachers excusing their absence from school.

Mr de Niro wrote demanding a “safe, nurturing environment” for children’s education and growth. He said that gun violence is a “devastating disease” with 46 children and teens shot every day, four of them murdered.

“What an opportunity to teach these kids history by encouraging them to make history. Let them learn about the American tradition of protest for change as they experience it,” he added.

The 1999 Columbine shootings sparked a major debate over US gun laws. 

However there have been a further 25 fatal school shootings since then, including those at Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech.

Mass demonstrations followed the Parkland school shooting with pupils demanding politicians and companies cut their ties with the influential National Rifle Association (NRA) which has lobbied against gun reforms, threatening to sue those proposing restrictions.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten announced that the union had cut ties with Wells Fargo, after its chief executive Tim Sloan failed to follow up on meeting with the union to discuss the bank’s relationship with the NRA and gun manufacturers. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Keir Starmer
Editorial / 23 May 2025
23 May 2025
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves speaks with the media at the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby, following the announcement from the Office for National Statistics that the UK economy grew by 0.7% between January and March, May 15, 2025
Editorial: / 15 May 2025
15 May 2025
Similar stories
BACK TO THE DARK AGES: A child mill worker in the US, 1908
Eyes Left / 30 April 2025
30 April 2025

Incredibly, US Republican states are systematically dismantling child labour protections, with children transformed back into the cheap, disposable workers of the Dickens era, reports ANDREW MURRAY

ELITE ENDORSEMENT: Keir Starmer hosts Adolescence writer Jac
Features / 9 April 2025
9 April 2025
The series unveils uncomfortable truths about youth alienation and online radicalisation — but the real crisis lies in austerity and the absence of class consciousness in addressing young people’s disillusionment, says teacher ROBERT POOLE
US President Donald Trump speaks at a reception celebrating
Features / 3 April 2025
3 April 2025
Trump’s recent executive order ends union rights for a large number of federal workers, citing national security concerns after some unions vowed to oppose the massive cuts proposed by the new administration, writes PEOPLE’S DISPATCH