Young Mississippians are making their voices heard on their desire for stricter gun laws

A recent tragedy in Nashville inspired the student body at Warren Central High School to organize a "sit-in" protest, where students chose a time to leave their classrooms and sit in the hallway. The interruption of learning was meant to start conversations about gun legislation.

Paul Winfield is a junior at Warren Central and is a member of the Students Demand Action advocacy group. He says they are asking for "common sense" gun laws, and Mississippi's Governor has the power to get that legislation started.

"I would ask him to make background checks universally mandatory," he said. "I would ask that we have red flag laws so that people with known mental illness and known instability don't have access to guns that could kill dozens of people in a matter of minutes."

Mississippi has one of the highest gun death rates in the nation, and six people were recently killed in a mass shooting in Tate County. Winfield says by not taking action, lawmakers are choosing for students to learn and live unsafely.

"We live in a gun culture and there's nothing wrong with that... everybody has guns, it's for protection." he said. "But to say that someone can buy a gun without any regulation? To say they don't even have to register? ...I just think those things are common sense. There are things that our state legislator, our governor and our national leaders can do, but they're choosing not to do it."

President Biden called for Congress to act on stricter gun laws after Monday's shooting in Kentucky.