Survivors of gun violence in west Kentucky led protests against the Friday visit of National Rifle Association leader Oliver North to a Republican rally at Murray State University[1].
Oliver North was invited by the Marshall and Calloway County Republican parties as the featured speaker for their ‘Night Before Fancy Farm’ event. The invitation of North to speak at a local GOP rally sparked an uproar from a community that experienced a deadly school shooting less than seven months ago.
North is a retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel and in May was named the next president of the NRA. He is also infamous for his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal[2].
Despite the visit's backlash, the local Republican parties hosting North said insensitivity was not their intent[3].
The west Kentucky region saw two deadly school shootings in a roughly 20-year period: The 1997 Heath High School shooting in McCracken County and the Marshall County High School shooting last January. A group of students from the latter organized the Friday demonstration. Survivors from those shootings delivered speeches before protesters marched through campus.
16-year-old Cloi Henke of Marshall County told the crowd that adults rationalized their decision in inviting Oliver North by saying that the students speaking out are “just kids.”
“We haven’t been kids since what happened at our school,” Henke said. “We haven’t been able to feel like kids or even act like one.”
Hollan Holm is a survivor of the Heath High School shooting. He said the NRA wants to make a conversation about gun violence prevention a conversation about taking away guns.
“We don’t want to take your guns, we just want your guns to not take
