By: Robert Davis

Students across the country are walking out of class today to show their support for the Second Amendment.

“The media has pushed this narrative that my generation is the gun-control generation,” walkout organizer Will Riley, a senior at Carlsbad (New Mexico) High School, told Gunpowder Magazine. “They say gun control is for the kids. I think that’s what inspired former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens to call for a repeal of the Second Amendment. After I heard that, that was it.”

Riley, 18, said someone had to tell the other side of the story after school districts across the country condoned anti-gun walkouts following the shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the media spent weeks talking about increasing gun control.

Riley’s group, “Stand for the Second,” planned a 16-minute walkout for high schools across the country today. As of publication, more than 300 schools had signed up to participate.

“I want this walkout to help dispel the myths surrounding gun control,” Riley said. “A lot of us think the Second Amendment is key to what we have going here as a country. Repealing it would lead to a dismantling of the entire Bill of Rights.”

Riley says many of his classmates don’t share in the view of Stand for the Second. Some of them, he said, argue that “March for Our Lives” isn’t a gun control movement.

“But, if that’s true, I don’t see how writing a letter to your congressman asking him to stop mass shootings is anything but an argument for gun control. Murder is already illegal,” Riley said.

The Stand for the Second walkout was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and was to last for 16 minutes. The walkout planned at Riley’s school were encouraged by teachers and administrators. Riley said he made sure to work with the school to ensure they had extra security on campus.

Robert Davis is a journalist from Colorado. He covers defensive gun use and Second Amendment policy for Gunpowder Magazine. Contact him at [email protected].

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