Parkland students rally in Wisconsin for gun laws as part of Road to Change tour

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Students from Parkland, Fla., took their summer Road to Change Tour to the Janesville office of House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday ahead of two other Wisconsin stops.

A tearful Matthew Gifford, 18, of Waukesha gives a hug to Emma Gonzalez, one of the group of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who stopped Friday at the Pontiac Convention Center in Janesville.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Alfonso Calderon said the students dropped off a copy of H.R. 4240, a bill that includes legislation for universal background checks on firearms. The bill was discharged from consideration in February by the Committee on the Judiciary.

Calderon criticized Ryan for his lack of action on the measure despite polling showing widespread public support for universal background checks.

"Paul, you are a failure as speaker of the House," Calderon said.

About 25 students were bused from Milwaukee and Waukesha to attend the event, billed as a meet-and-greet with the Parkland students, whose activism since 17 were killed and another 14 were wounded in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has ignited a call for action on gun violence. Former student Nikolas Cruz, 19, is charged in the shootings.

Alfonso Calderon, 16, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HIgh School, castigated House Speaker Paul Ryan for not supporting gun control during a stop in Janesville Friday.

For Emayu Edari-Sellassie, a recent graduate of Madison West High School, the message of the March for Our Lives movement is something personal. Edari-Sellassie grew up in Milwaukee, where gun violence was an everyday issue in her neighborhood.

"As you see tragedies, you become desensitized to it — you don't care," Edari-Sellassie said. "And it's disturbing to me, to have kids like me and my little brother who can't bring ourselves to care anymore because it's common."

Parkland student David Hogg said he recognized the tragedy at his high school is only one episode in an epidemic of gun violence taking place in communities around the country every day.

"It's important for us to realize that, as Parkland students, that this happened to us as one day, while this happens to people every day," Hogg said. "This is not (just) a black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian issue, this is an American issue which we will not be able to solve unless we listen and work together as allies, as American people."

Edari-Sellassie said the accessibility of weapons in Milwaukee is shocking, and a background check measure could keep weapons out of the hands of someone aiming to commit violence.

A voter registration event as part of the Janesville meet-up was canceled because of rain, but another registration event was planned in Madison later Friday.

Friday's gathering came about two months since the 50 Miles More march from Madison to Janesville. Road to Change stated it is stopping in places that have been affected by excessive gun violence or are especially pro-NRA.

Jordan Dunn, a spokesman for Ryan, said in a response statement to Friday's events that Ryan "appreciates (the student's) contributions to the discussion on how to keep our kids and schools safe." Dunn referenced the STOP School Violence Act OF 2018 that was enacted in March to target threats to school safety.

The tour kicked off last week in Chicago. The Parkland students, accompanied by activists from other stops along their tour, will continue to Milwaukee on Saturday. The Saturday gathering is at 5 p.m. at the Wisconsin Center.

Jennifer Walter can be reached at JWalter@gannett.com or on Twitter.