Warwick high school students speak their mind

It is Friday afternoon, April 20. I've just returned from Stanley Deming Park - inspired and, hopeful, finally. The students of Warwick Valley High School left their building and marched to assemble and practice what we Americans honor: their constitutional right to free speech.
And speak they did in a manner we older Americans have failed to do toward an American government which refuses to enact strict gun control legislation despite regular massacres.
Gun violence is inherent to an American society which, in the words of Martin Luther King "is the greatest purveyor of violence..." at home and around the world.
I was touched by these Warwick students who clearly got it historically - i.e. our conduct in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. That a nation which foments violence world-wide is destined to experience massive killing domestically.
Only in America, after Sandy Hook, Columbine, Las Vegas, Charles, S.C., Parkland - add a mass killing of your choice - do gun sales increase.
It took only one heinous mass killing in Australia for that government's rapid response to enact strict gun regulations.
And speaking of militarism, it is high time we end militarism in our schools, namely military recruiters and JROTC. Bring back the Peace Corps.
As my hiking partner so cogently observed shortly after the Las Vegas massacre, in America any one of us could be the next victim.
And as the former Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens poignantly stated recently, it is time to repeal the Second Amendment.
So, thank you students of Warwick Valley High School for your assertiveness and conviction. You might be our only hope for a more peaceful world.
Russ Layne
Chester