Pro-Second Amendment students hold nationwide school walkout

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Pro-Second Amendment students plan walkouts

Thousands of students plan to walk out of school in support of the Second Amendment.

Students nationwide plan to march out of their classrooms Wednesday morning in support of the Second Amendment.

Some 400 schools are expected to participate in walkouts at 10 a.m. for 16 minutes, Will Riley, the high school senior who organized the national Stand for the Second demonstrations, told Fox News.

Riley, an 18-year-old who attends Carlsbad High School in New Mexico, thought media coverage of the school walkouts following the Parkland high school massacre “depicted a united front from my generation and for my generation” in support of more gun control.

“That’s a myth I wanted to dispel,” he said.

The Second Amendment, Riley said, is more important now than ever because of calls to repeal it, including from retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

“I think all of our constitutional rights are important, but I think the Second Amendment is somewhat special in that it’s meant to protect the others,” he said. “It’s so important right now because no one is calling to repeal the other amendments, but if you repeal one, then you set the precedent that it’s something you can do.”

The response to the walkouts has been “overwhelmingly positive” from other students, Riley said. But he does expect some pushback from schools -- including ones that hosted and “encouraged” the gun control demonstrations, he said. For that, Riley said he hopes to put students in touch with lawyers “if they are being unfairly targeted for viewpoint discrimination by schools.”

Students across the country, including in California, Florida, Michigan and New York, are expected to participate in the walkout, according to a map put out by the event.

In Michigan, 18-year-old Zach Bell of Grand Ledge High School is one of those students who plan to participate. He said he believes gun rights are important and without them, “we wouldn’t be the country that we are today.”

At his event, Bell told the Lansing State Journal that students will have a moment of silence for law enforcement officials, first responders and veterans who have been killed.

Riley didn’t know the Stand for the Second walkouts would grow to be as big as it is, but he said he’s proud to give a platform to students, like him, with viewpoints that otherwise might have been ignored.