Thousands of students across the Triangle joined a nationwide push for gun safety laws. The group Students Demand Action led more than a hundred walkouts across the country, including several in North Carolina.
“We want to raise awareness and make it clear that not only do we have a voice, but they’re tangible things that can be done in order to respond to what we want,” Biruk Yidnekachew, a student organizer, told WRAL. “We want to ensure that these community leaders are seeing what we have to say and doing something about it.”
Days after a mass shooting occurred at the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, North Carolina students reached out to Congressional members and state lawmakers to call for more common-sense gun safety measures. Students advocated for closing loopholes on mandatory background checks, banning assault rifles, and requiring permits to purchase firearms.
In the latest legislative session, North Carolina Republicans passed a bill that would allow people to carry concealed handguns in public without a permit. North Carolina Democratic Governor Josh Stein vetoed the harmful bill. A bill that features a measure that would remove permit requirements, which 77% of likely voters in North Carolina oppose.
Republican lawmakers vote to override Gov. Stein’s veto of the permitless carry bill in the Senate. The bill is currently in the House, where Republicans have yet to vote on a veto override.
“I know that state lawmakers currently are trying to override the governor’s veto of SB 50,” Sam Mell, a chapter leader for Raleigh Students Demand Action, told WRAL. “I would hope, after this, that they actually maintain the governor’s veto and they do not override it, because that law is something that is going to put a lot of North Carolinians at risk.”
North Carolinians Against Gun Violence and community members voiced their concerns about the bill last month.
“More people will die in NC if the House overrides Gov. Stein’s veto. The Senate already has,” Becky Ceartas, executive director of North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, said. “We cannot let this happen. Too much is at stake. Lives are on the line.”
According to Moms Demand Action, when state Republican lawmakers voted to eliminate North Carolina’s handgun purchase permit in 2023, handgun sales increased from 34,826 to 378,546— compared to the prior 12 months.
In that same period, handgun sales surpassed the total from the previous 22 years combined, and an increase in mass shootings occurred across North Carolina.
According to Everytown, there have been five shootings at K-12 schools since the fall semester started, and at least 91 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in 2025.
“I just don’t want to get hurt when I’m going to school every day,” Yidnekachew said. “This is a place that I go every single day, and it’s supposed to be a safe place.”
