Students Arrested For Staging Sit-In In Front Of Paul Ryan’s Office After Santa Fe Shooting

The Santa Fe shooting which left 10 people dead, including a number of school students, has prompted another series of protests by students nationwide asking senators to pass common sense gun control laws.

As reported by CNN, only a month ago, students at the Santa Fe High School had walked out of their classrooms to join hands with Parkland students protesting the death of 17 students by gunman Nikolas Cruz. A month later, another teen, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, walked into the same school with his father’s shotgun and a 0.38 revolver and shot indiscriminately during an art class.

Similar to Cruz, Pagourtzis had posted warning signs on social media, but no one had quite anticipated him to do what he did. The shooting left the small Santa Fe community in complete disarray, with parents who were planning for graduation ceremony the next day now having to make arrangements for funerals of their loved ones.

The incident prompted a lot of outrage on social media, but a number of students decided to register their protest in more tangible ways.

According to the Huffington Post, eight students belonging to the Montgomery County Students for Gun Control decided to stage a sit-in outside the office of House Speaker Paul Ryan. The Republican lawmaker is believed to be close to the NRA, which has found itself in the crosshairs after students confronted the gun behemoth following the shooting in Parkland in February. But instead of paying attention to the demands of the eight students protesting with a sit-in, authorities decided to arrest four of them.

Not even a month ago, students at Santa Fe High School walked out of their classrooms to protest school shootings. A sign read, "Santa Fe High School SAYS #NeverAgain"

Today, they were the victims of one. https://t.co/C2oFKvtFvl pic.twitter.com/6bTwqzyO6c

— CNN (@CNN) May 18, 2018

The time for mobilization is now. It's time to put an end to this senseless violence once and for all. My friends were willing to put themselves on the line for this, so it's time to act.
I'm sure you'll hear more soon. #GunControlNow #EnoughIsEnough pic.twitter.com/cMorKnGQk4

— Daniel Gelillo (@Vote_For_Dan) May 18, 2018

Daniel Gelillo, a member of the student group who did not attend the sit-in, said the protest was simply a peaceful means of registering the students’ discontent with the government’s inability to rein in any sort of gun control. Instead, four of the students got arrested by U.S. Capitol police for “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding.”

“This is an issue we all care about deeply, and we’re all incredibly frustrated and saddened by the losses suffered in Texas today,” Gelillo said.

“We want to see change, and we want to see it sooner rather than later. We should not live in a country where we have to go to school in fear of the possibility of looking down the barrel of a rifle.”

The four students who were arrested received support from other student activists, including David Hogg, who was at the forefront of protests in the days following the Parkland shooting.

I love these kids almost as much as @SpeakerRyan loves arresting students practicing their First Amendment rights to peacefully protest. #AllowTheVote https://t.co/PXvmfbrJpl

— David Hogg ?? (@davidhogg111) May 18, 2018