On Friday, one day before the 20-year anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School, roughly 200 students at John Burroughs High School in Burbank staged a “walkout” to rally behind gun reform legislation.

Members of the Students Against Gun Violence club at the school organized the walkout at the school’s football field, where they were joined by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, who has spoken frequently about gun reform.

“Your generation has to fight to get this done, because our generation has so miserably failed,” Schiff said.

“All around the country, there are cities and towns and schools that are known not for the greatness of the education that they provide, not for the cultural enhancements that the community offers, not for industry, not because people call these places home, but because they have been punctuated by the worst forms of gun violence,” Schiff said, noting that students’ efforts are helping to bolster accountability of politicians who answer to the National Rifle Association.

Congressman Adam Schiff addresses students and faculty of John Burroughs High School during Students Against Gun Violence schoolwide walkout at John Burroughs High School Football Field in Burbank on Friday, April 19, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Babette Wagener, 18, a member of John Burroughs High School’s Students Against Gun Violence Club, addresses students and faculty of John Burroughs High School during Students Against Gun Violence schoolwide walkout at John Burroughs High School Football Field in Burbank on Friday, April 19, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

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Mahmoud El-Farra addresses students and faculty of John Burroughs High School during Students Against Gun Violence schoolwide walkout at John Burroughs High School Football Field in Burbank on Friday, April 19, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Congressman Adam Schiff leaves the podium after addressing students and faculty of John Burroughs High School during Students Against Gun Violence schoolwide walkout at John Burroughs High School Football Field in Burbank on Friday, April 19, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

Mahmoud El-Farra addresses students and faculty of John Burroughs High School during Students Against Gun Violence schoolwide walkout at John Burroughs High School Football Field in Burbank on Friday, April 19, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)



Mahmoud El-Farra addresses students and faculty of John Burroughs High School during Students Against Gun Violence schoolwide walkout at John Burroughs High School Football Field in Burbank on Friday, April 19, 2019. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Contributing Photographer)

About half a dozen student members of the anti-gun violence club addressed the students gathered at the football field with calls to vote and demands for legislators to pass stricter gun control laws.

“We’re the ones who grew up with school shootings, with Parkland, with Sandy Hook, with Columbine,” Zach Hagen-Smith, a senior, told students who had walked out of the school for the rally. “We’re the ones who have known nothing else, and so it is for us for this problem to be solved. Now, more than ever, we need to be loud. We need to have our voices heard.”

Mahmoud Samer El-Farra said progress has been made at the state level in gun reform legislation, but more needs to be done. He noted bills currently being processed in Sacramento to encourage voting on college campuses and AB 61, to expand the state’s Gun Violence Restraining Order procedure to allow employers and others to petition to temporarily take away a gun from someone who poses a danger.

El-Farra helped organize an anti-gun violence walkout last year at Tesoro High School, where he graduated in 2018. He’s now director of the California chapter of March for Our Lives, the anti-gun violence movement that grew out of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

“We can set an example for our entire country to follow here in the state of California,” he said. “We need to be calling our representatives and holding them accountable every single day, to ensure that they’re listening to us.”

Arya Desai, a junior, ran through a list of mass shootings from past decades worldwide, comparing the response in countries like New Zealand to enact legislation to the response in the United States.

“As I see it, New Zealand is changing their gun laws just two days after the massacre,” Desai said, speaking about the pair of terrorist attacks at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, last month that killed 50 people, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement shortly after of a ban on military-style semi-automatic guns.

“We’ve been mourning and moving on for 20 years,” Desai continued

Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, told the students they have legislators’ ears.

“The politicians may not listen to me,” she said. “But I’ll tell you who they will listen to. They will listen to all of you. You all have the power. … The only good thing to come out of these tragedies is that young people have found their voices and they are making their voices heard.”

About 2,500 students attend John Burroughs High School, and the walkout was optional for any to attend.

Twelve students and one teacher were killed on April 20, 1999, by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who also killed themselves in the shooting. Since then, according to a Washington Post report, 226,000 students have experienced gun violence.