One week after a student shot two of his classmates at Evergreen High School, hundreds of Denver area high schoolers campaigned at the Capitol Wednesday for measures to prevent further gun violence.

Among the messages they shared were feelings of anxiety about going to school and participating in active shooter drills, as well as concerns about the strength of the National Rifle Association in protecting the current status quo when it comes to firearm laws.

“It just makes us angry, and it’s important that we do something about it,” said East High School student Iris Osmulski, discussing the shooting in Evergreen. “Even if it doesn’t affect our school, it affects everyone in our community.”

Last Wednesday, a student used a revolver to shoot two of his classmates and himself just after noon at Evergreen High School, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. While the perpetrator is the only one who has died from his injuries so far, the shooting has left a lasting and heavy impact on the small, close-knit town.

Organized by affiliates of Students Demand Action, an activism group started as a national initiative in the days following the shooting in Parkland, Florida, according to its website, Wednesday’s protesters congregated on the Capitol steps before marching on several streets downtown.

About 160 people signed up for the initial event, said Osmulski, an organizer. As the group began marching down Colfax Avenue, the number of participants grew into the hundreds.

As the students marched down 15th Avenue Wednesday, Denver Police Department officers blocked traffic from approaching the roadway, some riding motorcycles down the sidewalks to get in front of the group as it pressed on. After several blocks, the group turned left and made its way back to the Capitol.

While the crowd was made up of students from several schools across the Denver area – including Regis Jesuit High School, East High School, Denver South High School, Cherry Creek High School and George Washington High School, Omulski said – there were a notable contingent of students from Evergreen as well.

“I had a couple students reach out to me from other students in Jefferson County, just letting us know this was happening,” said Tyler Gylton, a senior at Evergreen High School. “Gun violence is going to happen again next week, and then the week after that. Unless real change happens, it’s going to keep happening.”

While Gylton and other students declined to share many specific policy measures they wanted to see instituted in the wake of the shooting, organizers led the group through several anti-NRA chants during the group’s march downtown.

“Keep in mind that the people in this building, a lot of them have been bought and paid for by the NRA,” one student standing on the Capitol steps yelled into a bullhorn. “The other side isn’t about freedom. It’s about money. It’s a billion-dollar industry that’s built off the blood of American schoolchildren, and we’re not going to stay silent while our classmates are gunned down in our hallways.”

In addition to the students and a collection of adult chaperones, a handful of legislators attended the protest. One, District 8 Rep. Linday Gilchrist, spoke about her experience going to Denver Public Schools during the Columbine shooting.

Another legislator, District 25 Rep. Tammy Story, an Evergreen resident, spoke about how difficult it has been to process everything that happened since the shooting last week.

“I’ve lived in the foothills of Jefferson County for 38 years. That is my community, it’s the people I know, it’s my friends and neighbors, my kids were born and raised here,” Story said. “It’s horrible what happened. Educators, students, families, they’re all suffering. It was such a traumatic, horrific incident and lives are forever changed.”

Story, like others, declined to discuss any specific policy measures that she wanted to see put in place in wake of the shooting, citing the continuing investigation and not knowing all the facts yet. Despite not knowing exactly what to point at, she noted that, despite Colorado’s robust gun violence prevention policies, there was space for the state to continue to improve.

“I’m passionate about trying to ensure that schools are safe places to go to,” Story said. “The students can go and learn and don’t have to feel like they’re in a fortress. I think marches like this matter because our state needs stronger gun violence prevention measures.”

Further south, a district spokesperson for Colorado Springs D-11 confirmed that walkouts occurred at each of its four high schools while a spokesperson for Widefield D-3 confirmed walkouts at its three high schools and some of its junior high schools. At Colorado Springs City Hall, hundreds of William J. Palmer High School students gathered with signs to protest gun violence at local schools. 

Gazette reporter Eric Young contributed to this report.