Students from Alexandria City High School went to Richmond last Thursday to push for gun safety legislation with lawmakers as they hope the odds for passage have increased under the Democratic trifecta.
ACHS’ Students Demand Action chapter took part in Advocacy Day at the state capital, which included conversations with several legislators representing Alexandria — House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D-4), State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39), Dels. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5) and Alfonso Lopez (D-3). They were joined by Virginia Moms Demand Action and other SDA chapters statewide.
The students feel more confident about legislation making progress under Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D), as bills passed by the General Assembly in previous years were vetoed by then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Democrats continue to control the Virginia Senate and House.
“The new governor, Abigail Spanberger, was a Moms Demand Action volunteer,” Ruby Gerstein, founder of ACHS’ SDA chapter, told ALXnow. “So, it gives us real hope that people in power are actually finally ready to listen to us.”
On Monday, the Democratic-led Senate Courts of Justice Committee advanced bills on assault-style gun restrictions, gun storage, concealed carry reciprocity, ghost guns and weapons in public places, including a bill by Ebbin.
The legislation would expand probation on carrying assault firearms in public. It was inspired by a 2019 incident in which a man openly carried an assault-style firearm at the Old Town Farmers’ Market, according to Virginia Mercury.
Gerstein said an assault-style weapon ban bill by State Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim (D-37) would be significant, noting “it’s the gun of choice for mass shooters, because it can kill so many people in such few seconds.”
“We went to Richmond to make it clear that our generation shouldn’t have to trade our sense of safety just to get an education,” Gerstein said. “We wanted our lawmakers to hear our voices and hear that students are demanding change and don’t want to live in a world with school shootings.”
The chapter of students also want to see measures like enhanced background checks for gun buyers and a gun surrender process for people convicted of domestic violence crimes, among others.
As a 7-year-old at the 2018 March for Our Lives rally, Gerstein had held up a sign reading “love your kids, not your guns.” She reused that message during the 2025 ACHS student walkout to protest gun violence.
After living out of the country for several years growing up, she had to participate in school shooting drills upon her return to the United States.
“I was immediately put into lockdown drills and being told to run zigzag in the hallways to avoid getting shot,” Gerstein said. “My history teacher had a drawer full of lacrosse balls, and he demonstrated what he would do if a school shooter came to the room and threw them at the door. I remember being just shocked by it all, and I was really confused and sad, and all my peers are just normalized to this.”
Gerstein became familiar with Moms Demand Action through her mother and founded the ACHS chapter when she began high school.
She noted previous incidents involving guns at the school system, including when a school resource officer accidentally fired a gun at George Washington Middle School in 2018. In 2023, an ACHS teacher confiscated a gun from a student, and in 2021, an armed student was arrested outside the King Street campus.
Weapons detectors launched at ACHS and other secondary schools in spring 2023. Gerstein says she feels safer, but believes legislation will address the issue more effectively.
“Weapons detectors make me feel safer just because I have such a fear of school shootings,” Gerstein said. “But then, once again, it’s just something that shouldn’t be happening in the first place, and lawmakers should be taking action to make it not even be necessary to have detectors in there in the first place.”
