ALLENDALE, Mich. — Grand Valley State University students rallied for change Saturday, following Monday’s deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University, which killed three students and hurt five others.
Students told FOX 17 Saturday that the tragedy could have been prevented.
“I’m just so sick and tired of all of this. It keeps happening and nothing seems to be done about it,” Quinten Proctor, a sophomore at GVSU, said. “I have so many friends from high school that attend MSU. Thankfully, to my knowledge, they are all physically okay, but I cannot even begin to imagine, like, how they’re feeling.”
Proctor says he wants to be there for the Spartan community in any way he can, which included attending Saturday’s rally and demanding change.
“I just want to remind my friends here at Grand Valley, we’re all in this together. Contact your legislators and demand change,” Proctor added.
Some state legislators also attended Saturday’s rally at GVSU, including Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, and state representatives John Fitzgerald and Carol Glanville.
“I was a victim of gun violence about 30 years ago when I was your age,” Representative Glanville explained. “And I know how that feels. To have it sneak up on you at any moment in time. We need to do better. We have folks who have been in our legislature, who were incumbents when Oxford happened and refused to act.”
“It is long past time for real, measurable change because I sit at home with a 10-week-old daughter and I’m not willing to sit by and have another active shooter generation raised in America,” Representative Fitzgerald added.
“I’m here today to tell you that I am going to do everything in my power to keep you safe, to keep something like what happened at Michigan State University from happening right here at Grand Valley,” Congresswoman Scholten said.
GVSU student Nancy Hoogwerf organized the rally. She says they’ve been calling for action for years.
“Everybody here knows someone at MSU. We’re, you know, we either graduated together, or they’re our neighbors, or friends or family, and I think it really impacted us that our friends and our neighbors and our family are so traumatized by something that could have been prevented by laws,” Hoogwerf told FOX 17.
