Florida Students Walk Out—But It’s To Support The Second Amendment

On Friday, roughly 75 students in Brevard County, roughly 160 miles north of Broward County, where the Parkland school shooting occurred, decided to stage a walk-out from school — but it was not an anti-gun protest; it was a rally to support gun rights.

The students, who asserted that they had been denied their own pro-Second Amendment rally several times by school administrators and school leaders, finally received permission to walk out and rally on the Rockledge High practice field to support the Second Amendment. They carried the American flag and signs that said “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” and “I support the right to bear arms.” After 20 minutes, they returned to class.

The national anthem and “God Bless America” were played on loudspeakers at the beginning of the rally. Anna Delaney, a junior who co-organized the rally, stated, “We are not backing down. We aren’t taking no for an answer.” Co-organizer Chloe Deaton, who wore a T-Shirt reading, “My rights don’t end where your feelings begin,” echoed, “We should not have our rights taken because someone else does something wrong. We are protecting the Second Amendment, and it should not be infringed upon.”

Delaney also read a quote from Ronald Reagan from a 1983 banquet for the National Rifle Association in which he said, “The Constitution does not say that government shall decree the right to keep and bear arms. The Constitution says ‘… the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.'”

Both girls are part of Rockledge High’s Criminal Justice and Legal Studies Academy.

Delaney and Deaton said other students at their school support them in addition to some Parkland students who watched the rally online.