ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Students from more than 2,500 schools across the country joined in on the National School Walkout to demand action on gun reform Friday afternoon. Several of those schools were in the Metro Detroit area.
Students met in downtown Royal Oak to rally for stricter gun laws.
"Well, I think that it’s too easy to get your hands on a gun. I mean there have been so many cases with just random people, getting guns and doing stupid things with them," Vance Tyson said. "It’s just as simple as that, and that’s just wrong."
Tyson is one of the many who marched from Royal Oak High School to downtown Royal Oak, to make their voices heard loud and clear.
Several students participated in the call for change, Zackariah Farah, a senior at Bloomfield Hills High School, said his brother was a victim of what he calls "weak gun laws."
"He was kidnapped and mugged in Detroit at gun point by convicted felons," Farah said, "and they never would have gotten that handgun if we would have universal back ground checks in Michigan."
Students in Troy, Avondale, Plymouth-Canton and Royal Oak, all joined in on the National Walkout Day, on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School mass shooting in Colorado. Farah isn't the only one with a personal connection to gun violence. It's also personal for Bailey Golding.
"We’re making sure this is not just a moment but a movement," Golding said. "My friends are teachers at Columbine High School, my sister was at Columbine High School."