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Going to school freshman year felt like marching toward death — and we don’t mean that figuratively. That’s because there were multiple shootings at our high school in a single year and in one of those cases, our classmate was killed.
Talk about a freshman year from hell.
We were terrified, full of grief, and, honestly, feeling kind of hopeless. It was hard to make sense of how something like that could happen even though our generation knows the reality of gun violence all too well.
But that was almost two years ago. Today, we were far from hopeless as we stood on the steps of our state’s capitol with hundreds of other students from Colorado to demand that politicians protect our right to live free from gun violence. Yes, even in blues states we still have work to do.
Colorado wasn’t always a leader in gun safety, but it’s amazing what a couple of thousand students can do when they’re sick and tired of getting shot at school. Students Demand Action organizers have moved mountains to make sure laws are being signed that prevent easy access to guns — and it’s working. These gun safety laws are saving lives, but they’re only as effective as the implementation.
What do we mean by that? There’s currently a ban on high-capacity magazines in Colorado, yet no restrictions on the guns that accept those magazines. And all of the states that border Colorado don’t have a ban on high-capacity magazines. This makes it really easy for someone to buy a high-capacity magazine in a nearby state — without a background check, we might add — and then go back to Colorado, where they can purchase a gun that uses the magazine.
We’re focused on closing this loophole because a ban on high-capacity magazines is effectively useless without prohibiting the guns that hold them. It’s the equivalent of slapping some duct tape on a dam that’s about to break.
High-capacity magazines were used in at least 8 of the 10 deadliest shootings in America from 2015 to 2022, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, making it crystal freaking clear that the purpose of these devices is to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. Even in our own state, we know exactly how deadly a shooting can become when a gunman uses a high-capacity magazine. Just look at the lives taken at Columbine High School, Club Q in Colorado Springs, and the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora.
It’s important to note that mass shootings make up only a fraction of the gun violence hundreds of Americans experience daily. Yet, it is incomprehensible that with an easy addition to their firearm, anyone can wield the power to fire off 41 rounds in 30 seconds. We all have a collective moral responsibility to make sure weapons and devices created for war don’t fall into civilian hands. Sure, there are complexities when it comes to addressing an issue as broad and pervasive as America’s gun violence crisis, but keeping people from accessing weapons meant for mass slaughter isn’t one of them. It’s just common sense.
Our experience working for the bill to ban guns that accept high-capacity magazines was a wake-up call. While testifying during committee hearings or meeting with lawmakers to garner their support, we've learned that the foundation we’ve built in Colorado to advance gun safety isn't necessarily permanent. The progress we make is precious and sustaining it requires us to invest our time, energy, and resources year-round. For us, this whole experience put into perspective the importance of organizing at the state level — especially under the Trump-Vance administration.
There’s no sugarcoating that these next four years will be challenging, but now is the time for our generation to be louder and more disruptive than ever. We’ve worked too hard, come too far, and survived too much to lose any ground when it comes to the progress we’ve made to reduce gun violence, and a massive part of that will be in strengthening gun safety laws in Colorado and across the country.
Colorado is just one example of the advocacy that Students Demand Action volunteers will be focused on this year. You’ll see us in our red shirts pushing lawmakers to pass secure storage requirements in New Jersey, defeat permitless carry in North Carolina, and raise the age to purchase a gun in New Mexico. Because no matter who is elected, our work doesn’t stop. That’s a promise we’ve kept each time we’ve testified on a bill, held a school walkout, or registered someone to vote over the past decade.
This movement is so much bigger than one election or one person. There’s nothing politicians or the gun lobby can do that would make us back down. Gen Z will be the last mass shooting generation, with or without the federal government’s help. The days of run, hide, and fight are over.
