Students deserve to be heard on gun violence

I was encouraged seeing so many students participate in the national school walkout and very proud of them. This generation of students remember the horrifying tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, where 28 people were killed, 20 of them first-grade children. These students also remember the tragedy in Oregon, where eight college students were killed. They remember the recent shooting at a high school in Kentucky where 18 were injured and two killed. And they surely remember Parkland, Florida, and its 17 victims and many more injured.

They remember mass shootings in Las Vegas and its 59 victims and Orlando and its 50 victims and the Sutherland Springs church shooting with its 27 victims. All these mass shootings happened in the last five years or so.

The cynical and oblivious brushed off this walkout. What those misguided souls don't understand is these high school students do understand the Second Amendment. Most do not want to take away all guns, if you listen to their calls for change, you will hear budding Democratic and Republican students calling for a wide swath of sensible action, such as better background checks, proactive mental health assistance, banning only automatic weapons with high capacity magazines and to insure security in schools is acceptable.

These students understand the problems are beyond just gun controls. Now is the time for our leaders to hear that call for action and to work in a bipartisan fashion to enact common-sense solutions to these mass killings. If they don't, it's reassuring to know many thousands of young adults will be involved and will be the future leaders that will get meaningful results instead of doing nothing and being pawns to the gun lobby. These students will have my vote.

John Jaszka

Carol Stream