Rally, held in Butler for students, gun regulation
A group of about 30 people, mostly adults, called for the encouragement of students speaking out about gun violence in schools and for gun law reform Friday at a rally in Butler’s Diamond Park.
The Support Our Students rally was held on the 19th anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado and as a sister event to a National School Walkout conducted nationwide Friday.
Rally organizer Linda Schoettker of Connoquenessing said students are being discouraged from staging walkouts and threatened with punishment if they do.
She called it “tragic and dangerous” and said students wishing to stage walkouts and voice their opinions should be supported.
“It is not just OK, but necessary to speak out. Some people are telling you a small group of people can’t change the world. They’re lying to you,” Schoettker said.
Dr. Joe Talarico said he treated many gunshot victims when he was a trauma physician at UPMC Presbyterian and most survived because 9 mm bullets, the caliber most often used in inner city violence, do not cause as much damage as the bullets used in AR-15 guns, which have been used in some of the recent shootings at schools.
Most shooting victims survived if the 9 mm that struck them didn’t hit a vein, but AR-15 bullets travel at a higher velocity and leave holes the size of a fist, he said.
“It’s become the weapon of choice for mass murder,” said Talarico, who lives near Zelienople.
A full story appears in the Butler Eagle.
