Students Marching For Gun Laws Finish Days-Long Walk To Janesville

Wisconsin students who took their demonstration against gun violence on the road reached their destination on Wednesday: U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s home turf of Janesville.

About 40 students launched a “50 Miles More” march from Madison on Sunday. They made it to Janesville Wednesday at about 12 p.m. and held a rally in a city park attended by roughly 200 people.

The 50-mile trek was billed as an extension of the March For Our Lives protests that took place last weekend in Washington and dozens of other cities across the country in response to recent school shootings.

The students are calling on Ryan and other lawmakers to enact several gun control measures including a ban on military style weapons, a ban on accessories to turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, a four-day waiting period on all gun purchases, background checks on all gun sales and raising the legal purchasing age on guns to 21.

During the rally, Tatiana Washington, 17, a marcher and student at Milwaukee’s Rufus King High School read from an open letter to Ryan:

“What I would say that you should know about students across the country, is that we are resilient. We are not going to give up, and we will not stop until we have common-sense gun laws. Your selfish, careless actions have not only hurt the district that you are supposed to be representing, but all of us!”

In a statement, Ryan spokesman Jordan Dunn said, “The congressman respects those making their voices heard. As he has said, violence has no place in our schools. That is why just last week the House enacted laws that take concrete action to keep children safe without infringing on constitutional rights.”

The days-long march drew national media attention. Speaking to reporters after arriving in Janesville, 17-year-old Eau Claire Memorial High School senior Violet Kilmurray said she was, “happy we accomplished this … Our bodies all hurt, but we did it.”

“It’s important for me to be a part of it, because I see how it affects the people around me, and other people in my country. But also because it affects me,” Kilmurray added. “My school has had two shooting threats in the last four months. That’s crazy and it needs to stop.”

Katie Eder, a Shorewood High School senior, was one of the organizers of the “50 Miles More” march. At the rally, she announced a campaign to spread the marches nationwide under the name “#50More in #50States.”

“We are challenging young people in the other 49 states to plan a 50-mile march to the hometown or office of one of their elected officials before the November elections,” Eder said. “It’s big feat, we know that. But walking 50 miles in four days was a big feat, and we just did that.”

This story was updated at 3:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 28, 2018.