Parents, students and teachers protest at Tarrant County courthouse for stricter gun laws
“I don’t want my parents to plan my funeral,” 14-year-old Kamryn McCalister said standing outside the Tarrant County Courthouse at one of many “March for Our Lives” protests held Saturday across the country.
McCalister was among hundreds of activists protesting for gun reform over two weeks after a gunman entered an elementary school in southwest Texas and killed 19 students and two teachers.
The teen, wearing red eye makeup, held back tears as she held a white poster board covered in bloody hand prints and red paint splatters. On one side, it read “How many more of us need to DIE before things change?” On the other side, it read “Hundreds of deaths later and you still think guns are safe,” followed by red paint reading, “OUR BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS.”
McCalister said she lost her uncle last October to gun violence and after the Uvalde school shooting on May 24, she fears she could lose her 10-year-old sister, Jaylee Vajello, or mother – who’s a local teacher – next.
“Every time I think about those kids, some of them look like my little sister,” McCalister said. “Every time I look at them, I’m afraid it’s going to be her one day. I don’t want them to be her. I don’t want it to be anyone.”
That sentiment was echoed throughout the event Saturday. The crowd was made up of grandparents, parents, students and teachers who were advocating for gun reform. Many demanded raising the legal age to obtain a gun while others wanted to see stricter background checks, a ban on semi-automatic weapons or a mix of all the above.
Victims of gun violence
Similar to McCalister, Melinda Hamilton had lost loved ones to gun violence.
Hamilton wore a black shirt that read “Mothers of Murdered Angels,” which is an organization she founded to advocate for gun-violence victims and provide support to their surviving family and friends.
Hamilton lost her 32-year-old daughter in 2018 to a drive-by shooting, and just three years later, lost her 19-year-old grandson, who was shot and killed by “bullies,” she said.
“When you recognize your baby is gone, you need people around. You need help,” Hamilton said. “It’s no way to explain it, the hurt that you feel, it’s worse than a stab in your heart.”
Hamilton said that she had just returned from Uvalde and Houston’s NRA convention in recent weeks, and that her trip to south Texas felt like “going through Death Valley.”
“You can feel it when you go through (Uvalde), just sadness all over,” Hamilton said. “If you hadn’t been through nothing like that, that right there, would have made you want to get up and do something.”
“We can walk all day long. We can protest all day long, but until the state and elected officials do something by changing some of these laws, it’s going to continue,” she said. “It’s still continuing, like my daughter got killed, and they’re still over there, doing the same old stuff. Nothing has been done. The city has done nothing. The state is not doing anything. They’re still there talking. We have to vote to get some of them out.”
When asked what type of reform she’d want to see, Hamilton said it begins with raising the age limit.
“You can’t even buy a drink until you’re 21, but you can buy a gun at 18-years-old. That doesn’t even make any sense,” Hamilton said.
Scared parents
Like Hamilton, other parents said they couldn’t grasp the idea that 18-year-old Texans can purchase an AR-15 before a beer.
“At 18-years-old your mind isn’t developed,” Dora Gutierrez said in Spanish, sitting alongside her husband and 21-year-old daughter. “At 18, you’re still a kid. You’re still an adolescent. … There needs to be something that says ‘OK at 21, you’re a little more mature to make those decisions.’”
Gutierrez sat with a sign that read “Ya Es Suficiente,” which translates to “Enough is enough.”
Gutierrez, a mother of two daughters, with her youngest still in high school, said she was also protesting for the Uvalde victims.
“The school is the last place where violence needs to occur,” Gutierrez said in Spanish. “It breaks your heart because you put yourself in the parent’s shoes. … When my (teenager) goes to school, I’m always praying to God to protect her. I pray to God to protect her because no one else can. The government isn’t doing anything.”
Educators in attendance
Barbara Richardson, in addition to being a mother to several daughters and a grandmother to a three and six year old, said she considers her middle school students her children as well.
“You protect them just like they’re your kids, and it’s becoming harder and harder to protect them,” Richardson said.
After the shooting in Uvalde, lawmakers, advocates and residents have been debating courses of action to prevent school shootings, including the possibility of arming teachers.
“It’s not going to go smoothly,” Richardson said.
Across the lawn of the courthouse, a middle school teacher, who asked to only be referred to by her first name, Bailey, also carried a sign about protecting students. The 24-year-old, who just finished her first year of teaching at a school in Burleson, shared the same concerns as Richardson.
“If you want to arm me, arm me with the tools that I can use to help my students with. Arm me with correct mental health resources so I can actually be an advocate for when they are struggling,” Bailey said. “Arm us with the resources to help our kids, please.”
In addition to wanting gun reform, including potentially banning semi-automatic weapons, Bailey said she just wants better resources in the classroom.
“We need more counselors in our schools and to actively fund that,” Bailey said. “We need to talk to kids when they’re feeling stressed. … If you’re having a bad, let’s talk about it, let’s work through it because it’s not time to bury those feelings. We need to talk about them. That includes providing more resources for mental health, I want to see more resources for teachers, etc.”
Organized speakers
In addition to the attendees, the Fort Worth event, organized by Lucy Ariola, a rising senior at the University of Oklahoma, and Lillie Doze, a rising sophomore at Young Women’s Leadership Academy, spoke to the crowd prior to a march through the downtown area.
“We must keep taking steps and being courageous. Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run, it’s easier. We do not have to be heroes overnight, just a step,” Ariola said. “Four years ago, Lillie Doze was an 11-year-old marcher and I was her babysitter, and there’s been no change.”
After the pair spoke, a series of teenagers, college students and a teacher also talked about their reasons for advocating for gun reform.
“Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough and they haven’t been enough in a long time,” Paschal High School sophomore Gabby Price said. “Thoughts and prayers didn’t stop the 254 mass shootings that have already taken place in the United States this year. Instead of thoughts and prayers, we march so that number won’t become 255, or 256, or 257, or 300 or 1000.”
During a Spanish-speaking student’s speech, shouting and bullhorns from the back of the crowd grew louder and louder. A small group of anti gun-reform protesters gathered and began arguing with other attendees for a few minutes.
“You don’t take away my grandkids rights to bear arms,” said a woman who was waving a black flag that read “2nd Amendment” with a skull on it. Others yelled at the counter-protesters to be silent and allow the students to talk.
“Those are children. Let them be heard,” one woman said.
This story was originally published June 11, 2022 at 3:33 PM.
