Via Helena IR:
About 200 people gathered Saturday at Kalispell’s Depot Park for a “Rally for Our Rights,” where speakers and gun rights advocates demonstrated in support of gun ownership, and where students called for solutions for protecting schools without resorting to gun control.
The rally, which was student-organized and led, gave voice to those who have felt their right to own guns threatened by the nationwide marches and politicians calling for gun reform after the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. Similar rallies were held around the country Saturday, most of them at state capitals, in response to massive gun-control rallies held after the Parkland shooting. About 35 people staged a pro-gun rally in Helena Saturday.
In Kalispell, attendees carried signs that read “Disarmed citizens are subjects,” and waved yellow “Don’t Tread On Me” flags. Some brought their rifles or handguns, which stayed slung across their backs or strapped to their waists throughout the rally.
The rally began with the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem, after which Cole Medhus, a sophomore at Glacier High School, spoke about solutions to gun violence that don’t limit gun access.
“I understand the emotion and the outcry by the students of Parkland High School to the U.S. government to fix it. To fix things so no one has to experience these terrible events. By things of course, I mean they want gun control.”
Medhus said it doesn’t make sense to blame the gun for the shooting, but the shooter. He said the United States’ culture is to blame, as it leads to mental health issues and bullying.[…]
Braxton Shewalter, a senior at Columbia Falls High School, said he helped organize the pro-gun rally after all the school walkouts, which he at first supported.
“At first, I saw it was a way to get out of class. I was for that. Then, I heard it was to memorialize the victims of recent school shootings. I was for that. But then I saw the main message, and it was clear as soon as I saw it: that it was an attack on our God-given freedom, an attack on responsible gun owners, the NRA, Congress, and President Trump. And I was not for that.”
Shewalter organized students at his school to walk out, but in support of the Second Amendment, and he said dozens of students who felt similarly joined him.