Students at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado stormed out of a vigil honoring their slain classmate on Wednesday evening in anger over what they saw as a “political stunt” using their tragedy to push for gun control. “We are people, not a statement,” the students shouted as they marched out of the gymnasium at the nearby Highlands Ranch High School. Hundreds of students, teachers, and activists had attended the vigil, which was billed as honoring Kendrick Castillo, a teenager fatally shot when he tried to tackle one of the shooters in a spree on Tuesday that left eight others injured at a charter school in a Denver suburb. Two students, 18 and 16, have been arrested. Advertisement The event was organized by a gun control group called the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. According to USA Today, many students appeared to have been unaware that the event was organized by an advocacy group. A half-hour in, after Sen. Michael F. Bennett and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado spoke about gun regulations, the students became furious at what they saw as the politicization of their trauma. Advertisement Advertisement “I thought this was about us, not about politics,” one student said, according to the Washington Post. Another student argued that they were “not a statistic” and shouldn’t be cited to justify gun control: “We are people, not a statement.” The students held their phones’ flashlights into the air and chanted, “mental health, mental health.” They also confronted journalists, whom the Brady Center had invited to cover the event, calling them derogatory names, according to the Denver Post, and asking to see what photos they had taken. The Brady Center apologized for the vigil later on Wednesday. “We are here to lift up the voices of victims and survivors,” the statement said. “We are deeply sorry any part of this vigil did not provide the support, caring and sense of community we sought to foster and facilitate.” According to the Washington Post, some students returned to the gymnasium later to finish the event. “We wanted Kendrick to be mourned,” one student who addressed the crowd said. “We wanted all of you to join us in that mourning. But that was not allowed here.”<doc-sep>The very public scene of hundreds of Colorado students and their parents walking out of a vigil that was turned into political theater by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was so embarrassing that the gun control group actually issued an apology. Before leaving the Wednesday night event, students shouted, in front of journalists who the Brady Campaign invited: “this is not for us,” “political stunt” and “we are people, not a statement.” The Brady Campaign had portrayed the event as a vigil in memory of Kendrick Castillo, a student hero who died from gunshot wounds after he and two other students charged one of the attackers Tuesday at the Highlands Ranch STEM School in Colorado. COLORADO STUDENTS WALK OUT OF SCHOOL SHOOTING VIGIL AFTER POLITICIANS TAKE THE MIC Eight other students were injured in the shooting. Two students were arrested and accused of the attack. Instead of putting together an event to bring people together to mourn, the gun control group brought in activists and Colorado politicians – Democratic presidential contender U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jason Crow – to push a one-sided political agenda. The speakers said they weren’t there to just offer thoughts and prayers, but that they instead were there to push for more restrictions on the right to bear arms. We saw this with events after the shooting at Parkland High School in Florida. T events, including a CNN town hall, weren’t open forums or vigils. They were orchestrated propaganda designed to push a political cause. Law-abiding gun owners enjoy shooting competitions, hunting or simply want to defend themselves and their loved ones. They should not be blamed for the evil actions of criminals and those with serious mental health problems. The CNN event even featured then-Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel. He vociferously stuck to the gun control narrative. He should have known – and we would all soon find out – that a school resource officer stayed outside during the attack. President Trump later called the officer a “coward.” Turning grieving students into props for an agenda has become what these gun control groups and the mainstream media do after shootings. This has become so choreographed that the Brady Campaign was caught flat-footed when hundreds of students and their parents wouldn’t be extras in the production. This is an important moment because it signals that a less ideological time is coming. Groups like the Brady Campaign and the politicians who agree with them have been treating legal gun ownership as a problem that needs to be solved. They are blaming law-abiding gun owners for the actions of criminals as a way to impose more controls on the citizenry. This political treatment of an important issue has made it difficult to even have an intelligent discussion about the problem. How can an open and honest dialogue be possible when the mainstream media and so many Democrats prefer to blame America’s 100-million-plus gun owners? Law-abiding gun owners enjoy shooting competitions, hunting or simply want to defend themselves and their loved ones. They should not be blamed for the evil actions of criminals and those with serious mental health problems. Guns have been commonly owned by Americans since before the beginning of our republic, but school shootings are a modern trend. Yet they are not new. The most deadly attack on a school actually occurred in 1927 in Bath, Mich., when a trustee from a local school board detonated 600 pounds of dynamite he placed inside the Bath Consolidated School. Andrew Kehoe killed 44 people, including 38 elementary school children and his wife. He then committed suicide by detonating a final explosion in his truck that also killed another three adults and a child. There is a lot of evidence, however, that some things have changed. There is certainly a mental health crisis growing in our youth in America. Suicide rates among the young, especially those between 15 and 24, have climbed rapidly in recent years. Levels of anxiety and depression among young people are also up. The reasons for this growing epidemic are numerous and many researchers are studying the problem. But it is clear that if we honestly target the actual problem things can be done. Often, after a murderer strikes a school or another so-called “gun-free zone,” we find that the person responsible was calling out for help. Parents try, but they too often can’t find enough resources. The bureaucracy has also failed us again and again. Too often the killers weren’t stopped before they acted, even though many people reported them to the proper authorities. Various federal, state and local agencies have also too often failed to give the names of people prohibited from owning firearms to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), so these people can at least be stopped from legally buying a gun. Political differences aside, imagine if the media actually treated gun rights groups honestly. The National Rifle Association (full disclosure, I write a weekly gun rights column for the NRA) has the School Shield program that sends teams of experts to schools to help them create safer environments. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for firearms manufacturers, has lobbied for FixNICS and many other initiatives to keep guns out of the hands of those who are prohibited from owning them. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Instead of demonizing these groups, imagine if the mainstream media were willing to be more factual and nuanced in their reporting. Solutions would become much clearer in such a climate. The students who boldly walked out en masse as they chanted “mental health, mental health” from what shouldn’t have been a political event did shock the mainstream media into actually reporting on the story. That’s a big step toward finding honest solutions to a horrifying problem. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY FRANK MINITER<doc-sep>A vigil held Wednesday evening to recognize the victims and heroes of the shooting earlier this week at a Colorado high school turned into a political protest after some students in attendance expressed frustration with the tone and focus of the speeches. According to local news reports, a group of students walked out of the event, organized by a local chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, after hearing speeches from members of the community, including activists and elected officials like Senator Michael Bennet, a Democratic presidential candidate, and Rep. Jason Crow, who represents the district where Tuesday's shooting took place. Both Bennet and Crow were invited by the Brady Campaign to speak at the event, which took place at a nearby high school, and also attended another vigil Wednesday night at a nearby church. Speakers at the event, which honored Kendrick Castillo, the 18-year-old who was killed protecting his fellow classmates at the STEM School in Highlands Ranch, also talked about the need to take action in the wake of another tragic school shooting and reform the nation's gun laws. "I know our kids already have enough to do, they have a job to do when they come to school, you have a job to do when you come to school," Bennet, the former Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, said before praising Castillo's bravery. "Their job is not to fix America's broken gun laws. Their job is not, as Kendrick so selflessly did yesterday, to give up their own life to save their classmates lives. Or the teachers' lives. That's not their job." "You sent me to Washington to speak the truth. So here it is – we are failing. We are failing when this happens over and over and over and over again and nothing happens," Crow, a gun owner and former Army Ranger elected to Congress last year, said. "You already have my thoughts and prayers, but you deserve and should demand more. Because to only send thoughts and prayers when you're a member of Congress or when you're in a position to take action and to affect change, it is empty, it is hollow, and you and your children deserve more." On Thursday, Crow spoke with ABC News' Senior Washington Reporter Devin Dwyer about the protest, saying he supported the students' demand that they be given a chance to speak. "It was a very emotional night, which I completely understand, these are students that had just gone through a horrific tragedy...And it became apparent halfway through the event that they weren’t being given an opportunity to speak," Crow said. "So they stood up, as they should have, and demanded an opportunity to speak, and I supported that. I stayed late until every student was heard and had their opportunity to tell us how they felt about this issue and just express that emotion. So it was really important that we keep the focus on the students," he added. The tenor of the vigil seemed to shift after some in the audience began to express frustration that the event was not solely focused on remembering the heroes and victims of the shooting. "This can be an incredibly divisible or painful or awful time, or it can be a time when we come together," another speaker at the event told the packed gymnasium. After a number of speeches, one student in the audience shouted "Let STEM kids speak!" and video from the event from ABC News affiliate KMGH showed students chanting "Mental Health," as they left the event and gathered in the parking lot outside the gym. Students later re-entered the event and vented their frustration at the media and politicians. “What happened at STEM is awful, but it’s not a statistic. We can’t be used for a reason for gun control. We are people, not a statement,” one student said after the event. The Brady Campaign issued an apology Thursday afternoon, saying that all efforts should be focused on providing support to the students, faculty, and families affected by the tragic shooting. "We are here to lift up the voices of victims and survivors...We are deeply sorry any part of this vigil did not provide the support, caring and sense of community we sought to foster and facilitate and which we know is so crucial to communities who suffer the trauma of gun violence," the statement said. In the days after the shooting, Castillo, who was killed three days before graduation, has been remembered for his kindness and bravery. John Castillo, Kendrick Castillo's father, called his son's death "devastating, as you can imagine." "When I see the people that he saved, it made me happy," John Castillo said. "I knew my son wouldn’t have it any other way. But as any parent would tell you, 'It's a heck of a trade-off.'" ABC News' Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.<doc-sep>Hundreds of Colorado’s STEM School Highlands Ranch walked out of the vigil for Tuesday’s shooting victims citing gun control politicization. USA Today reporter Trevor Hughes tweeted: Frustrated, crying and angry, #STEMschool shooting victims hold an impromptu vigil in the rain Wednesday after leaving a gun-control vigil they felt inappropriately politicized their trauma. (They asked that I not photograph their faces close up, and I respected their wishes.) pic.twitter.com/cksRXGtYQA — Trevor Hughes (@TrevorHughes) May 9, 2019 The Federalist reported: Colorado students walked out of an event billed as a vigil for Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old killed in a shooting at his school on Tuesday, when prominent speakers attempted to turn it into a rally for gun control. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado) each took a turn calling for gun control at the Douglas County event before students streamed out in protest. Although the event was advertised as a vigil for Castillo, it was “sponsored by the gun control groups Brady’s Team Enough and March for Our Lives.” USA Today reported that “hundreds of students from the STEM School stormed out.” And while leaving they yelled, “This is not for us,” “Political stunt,” and “We are people, not a statement.” The day after a heroic student gave his life to save others, anti-gunners politicized the event by hosting a rally misleadingly labeled a “vigil.” Upset, the students left the rally chanting "mental health" and demanded they not be used as political pawns. https://t.co/hcZOYnuwcU — NRA (@NRA) May 9, 2019 Breitbart News spoke to Andrew Pollack, father of Parkland school victim Meadow Pollack. We asked what he thought of the students’ decision to march out once the vigil turned into a gun control rally. He said, “I praise good parenting.” Pollack added, “Kids are looking at the real issues, which center on things like mental health. AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.<doc-sep>
"This was not a vigil. This was a political stunt." David Zalubowski / AP Students leave during the community vigil May 8. Survivors of the shooting at the charter school in Colorado that killed one student and injured eight others stormed out of a community vigil Wednesday, calling it a "political stunt." The event, organized by Team Enough — the student-led initiative of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — was intended to be an interfaith vigil to honor the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting survivors and 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, who died Tuesday after trying to stop one of the shooters. Hundreds of grieving students, parents, and community members packed the Highlands Ranch school's gym, but their anger and frustration became apparent after none of the STEM students themselves had a chance to speak about Castillo at the vigil. Instead, several speakers — including Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Michael Bennet, Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, and a Moms Demand Action volunteer, Laura Reeves — addressed the need for gun control legislation. "[Our kids] have a job to do when they come to school," Bennet told the crowd. "Their job is not to fix American’s broken gun laws. Their job is not, as Kendrick so selflessly did yesterday, give up their own life to save their classmates' lives or their teachers' lives. That's not their job. They’re relying on the rest of us to do our job so they can do their job." Via Facebook: KMPHFOX26 Sen. Michael Bennet at the vigil. "Let STEM kids speak," an attendee shouted during the vigil as some students began walking out in protest. However, an organizer of the event told the crowd that they hadn't been able to connect with any STEM students to have them speak at the vigil. "You never asked," some students said in response, prompting an exodus of students and parents, according to an eyewitness who attended the vigil but wished to remain anonymous. David Zalubowski / AP Students and others gather in the high school hallway after walking out of the vigil. One organizer blamed the media for sending attendees outside, but students later said that was false and that they had chosen to leave themselves. The protesting students then gathered in the high school hallway, chanting, "Mental health," "STEM strong," and "Fuck the media," the eyewitness told BuzzFeed News on Thursday. Students from the #STEMshooting in Colorado stormed out of a rally organized by gun-control advocates Wednesday night after growing angry about the politicization of their trauma. "Everyone was upset there was no time to honor Kendrick," one eyewitness said, adding that students and parents appeared to be frustrated at the news media for taking photos of people crying. "It's just about votes and something that doesn't have anything to do with anything," a school parent, Chris Barrette, told KRDO-TV. "It's about the victims, our faculty, and the first responders, the horror that our students went through just yesterday." Several students who walked out of the gym also gathered outside the high school and held their own impromptu vigil in the rain, pointing their illuminated cellphones toward the sky. STEM students leave vigil, hold their own outside Highlands Ranch HS. Many students then returned to the gym and held a moment of silence for Castillo and the shooting survivors. Several of them took the microphone to express their frustrations with the organized event and to speak about Castillo. "This was not a vigil," one student said in his speech. "This was purely a political stunt. This is not what we wanted for Kendrick. We didn’t want Kendrick to be a prop. We wanted Kendrick to be mourned. We wanted all of you to join us in that mourning, but that was not allowed here. We all walked out. We were not kicked out, despite what you have heard. And we're back now to tell you that we love Kendrick and we love all of the survivors." Via krdo.com A STEM student gives a speech at an impromptu vigil for Kendrick Castillo. One of Castillo's classmates broke down as she remembered her friend. "I came here for my close friend Kendrick," she said. "I just wanted to talk about him a little bit because everybody's been sitting here talking about gun violence and avoiding the fact that he died."