Students from STEM School Highlands Ranch stormed out of a vigil on Wednesday night put on by an organization affiliated with the anti-gun Brady Campaign because the event was “heavily politicized,” in the words of one student.
Hundreds of students attended the vigil held in nearby Highlands Ranch High School and quickly realized that the event was intended to push for gun control and was not about remembering Kendrick Castillo, their 18-year-old classmate who was killed when he attacked the assailant, allowing some of his classmates to escape.
A student who attended the event, and wished to remain anonymous, told The Daily Wire that Moms Demand Actions’ Laura Reeves was the person who prompted pushback from students due to her heavy politicization of the tragedy that claimed Castillo’s life. Multiple people on social media also indicated that Reeves was the person who offended many at the vigil.
Shortly after Reeves’ politically charged comments, students got up and stormed out of the high school and chanted, “mental health!”
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One of the students that spoke to the Daily Wire said that Reeves’ comments were “dystopian” and not connected to reality, and that she angered the students the most of all the speakers because she was trying to capitalize on their pain.
“It has become our unimaginable reality that gun violence is now so commonplace it is our new reality that we allow families to live in neighborhoods where gunshots can be heard at all hours of the day,” Reeves claimed without evidence. “I’m also very disappointed to admit that all the generations before yours made this harder.”
“We became paralyzed by the NRA. We did not hold our elected officials accountable as they were loosening the sensible gun regulations that were keeping us safe,” Reeves claimed. “Instead, we chose to burden our youth with the responsibility of saving their own lives. We forced all of you to learn in an environment that’s more closely resembling a prison than a school. … We robbed you of your innocence. Why would we do this to our own children? The very pathetic truth is that we took this route because it seemed easier than confronting the actual root cause of the gun violence issues, for this, I am truly and deeply sorry.”
Reeves then pushed her political views even harder on the grieving students, suggesting that they should be like her and work to elect anti-gun Democrat lawmakers.
Reeves then encouraged the students to register people to vote in the upcoming election, lead walkouts and demonstrations, write op-eds, raise money, and use social media to push for gun control.
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Democrat Rep. Jason Crow and Democrat Sen. Michael Bennet both politicized the tragedy by calling for new gun-control laws — even though no gun laws would have prevented the shooting, as the firearms used were illegally obtained — and neither Democrat called for protecting students at school. It is worth mentioning that both politicians did repeatedly remember the life of Castillo and did not take their politicization of the tragedy nearly to the extent that Reeves did.
