Highlands Ranch, Colorado –-(Ammoland.com)- On Wednesday, students of STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado walked out of a vigil for student hero Kendrick Castillo.
Two students tried to pull off a mass shooting at the Colorado high school. One of the would-be murderers pulled out a gun in a British literature class during a screening of the “Princess Bride.”
Castillo would not sit there and do nothing as his friends were in danger. When most people would run or cower, the student hero charged the shooter to protect those around him. He stopped the shooting but lost his life in the process.
On Wednesday night, a vigil was to be held for Castillo. What the students didn’t know was that instead of honoring Castillo for being a hero, all the speakers used their time to preach an anti-gun message.
Rahm Emanuel once said “Never let a tragedy go to waste,” and the politicians and anti-gun activist took the opportunity to call on Congress to change the gun laws. Instead of celebrating the life of a genuinely remarkable person these invited speakers used it as an opportunity to push their oppressive agenda.
What the students also did not know was that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence organized the event. The Brady Campaign named their group after James Brady who a mentally deranged man shot during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. The group is one of the most prominent anti-gun rights groups in the country.
The Brady Campaign invited Democrats Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Jason Crow to speak. Both politicians used their time not to honor Castillo, but to call on Congress to pass new and more restrictive gun laws.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence also invited the press to cover the event. The students did not want to be in the news, but the anti-gun group seemed not to care. It was like the grieving student’s sorrow for their fallen classmate was just an afterthought in the planning of the event.
“This is not for us!” “Political stunt!” and “We are people, not a statement,” yelled the students at the speakers who just kept preaching their anti-liberty message.
The talking heads ignored the students proving once again that they were not there for anyone, but themselves. After about 30 minutes the students couldn’t take anymore.
Hundreds of students started walking out in mass.
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
Outside the vigil, the students that walked out held up their cell phones in the freezing cold rain and started chanting “mental health, mental health” proving that they have a better grip on the problem than the adults inside that were using their fallen friend and classmate as a prop.
Outside mainstream journalist swarmed the students trying to get them on the record. The students pushed and screamed at the reporters shoving microphones in their faces. The students insisted that they did not want to talk to the press.
The students only wanted a chance to grieve over an extraordinary soul who gave his own life for a chance to save theirs. Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Jason Crow, and the mainstream media sole that chance from them.
There is a place for politics. This vigil was not one of them.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.