BRISTOL — Joining with their peers across America, Mt. Hope High School students walked out of class Wednesday morning and shivered in the cold to honor the victims of the nation’s most recent mass shooting — and to demand lawmakers change gun laws across the country.

School leaders knew about the walkout ahead of time and worked with the students to stage a peaceful “protest.” Bristol police officers set up a perimeter around the school, and at 10 a.m., they filed out to the front of the building along Chestnut Street.

They remained silent for 17 minutes, to honor the 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School shooting exactly a month ago.

When that period passed, student leader and Mt. Hope junior Ashlyn Giroux, speaking through a bullhorn, delivered a speech that evoked tears from some of her classmates. She ended by challenging the National Rifle Association and its leaders, and to demand that the United States change its gun laws.

She talked about how she has been alive for 11 of the nation’s largest mass shootings, and she ended her remarks by screaming, “we’ve had enough!”

Days before the walkout, school leaders at both Mt. Hope and Kickemuit Middle School sent letters to parents letting them know about their authorization of students’ actions.

“I was proud of the way, the manner in which they have handled organizing this,” Mt. Hope Principal Deb DiBiase said of the students on Tuesday. “They came to us and asked for our support and to work with us so we can make sure everybody is safe and that this is done in an appropriate and respectful manner.”

Following are the comments from Ashlyn Giroux, delivered at the conclusion of Mt. Hope’s 17 minutes of silence.

“On April 20, 1999, two gunmen stormed Columbine High School, in Jefferson County, Colo., and claimed the lives of 12 students and 1 teacher that lasted for 49 minutes. The victims are:

Rachel Scott

Dave Sanders

Daniel Rourbough

Kyle Velasquez

Steven Curnow

Cassie Bernell

Isaiah Shoels

Matthew Kechter

Lauren Townsend

John Tomlin

Kelly Fleming

Daniel Mauser

Corey Depooter

“Almost 19 years later, we have 14 students and 3 teachers murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., one month ago today. This shooting only lasted for 3 minutes but claimed the lives of:

Nicholas Dworet, he was supposed to begin school at the University of Indianapolis in the fall for their swim team;

Gian Montalto, she was a member of the school’s color guard team;

Alyssa Alhadeff, she played on a traveling soccer team;

Scott Beigel, he was a geography teacher;

Martin Duque-Anguiano;

Aaron Feis, he was an assistant football coach;

Jaime Gutenberg, she dreamed of working at the Paley Institute to help kids with limb deformities at just 14 years old;

Chris Hixon, he was the school’s athletic director;

Luke Hoyer, he played basketball and was the youngest of three children;

Cara Loughran, she danced at an Irish Dance School in South Florida;

Joaquin Oliver, he had just become a naturalized citizen in January of last year and an avid basketball fan, he was buried in Dwayne Wade’s jersey;

Alaina Petty, she had volunteered to help those affected by hurricane Irma in September;

Meadow Pollack, she was supposed to begin school at the University of Boca Raton this fall;

Helena Ramsey, she was extremely brilliant and was planning on attending college in the fall;

Alex Schachter, he was in the school’s marching band and played baritone and trombone;

Carmen Schentrup, she was a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist;

Peter Wang, he was just 15 years old and had dreams of going to West Point military academy, which he was admitted into at his funeral for the Class of 2025.

“Nineteen years after Columbine, and we saw the largest mass school shooting in this country in Newtown, Conn., at Sandy Hook Elementary School, on Dec. 14, 2012, where 20 6- and 7-year-olds were gunned down along with six of their teachers.

“We saw the largest mass shooting in our country’s history on Oct. 1 of last year, that killed 58 at a concert at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“Just over a year before that, we saw 49 killed on June 12, 2016, at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

“I’m 17 and I’ve been alive through 11 of 19 of the largest mass shootings.

“Why haven’t there been changes made to stop these? Why do we have to come to school every day in fear of being shot to death along with our classmates? Why do we have to worry about going to movie theaters, concerts, church, or for being a person of color or being LGBTQ+, and having the last thing we ever hear be a bullet coming towards us at 2,500-feet-per-second?

“Nobody can stop a bullet, or bring back time, but we can make change. The victims of Parkland are not going to be another statistic. We’re not letting it pass us by as another mass shooting, and all of you here today are helping to make the change.

“We are calling on Congress for their inactions after these events, to pass the bills we need to keep AK-47’s and AR-15’s out of the hands of civilians, not just the mentally ill. No day-to-day person needs this in their home.

“Make the changes we need to prevent these shootings from reoccurring again and again. Pass stronger background checks, pass longer waiting periods, pass bans on bump stocks and accessories to make semi-automatic weapons fully automatic.

“Dana Loesch, head of the NRA, is just the head of people targeting the students of Parkland by saying their actions in the aftermath of the shooting are not effective. She put out an ad saying, “to every lying member of the media and to every Hollywood phony, your time is running out, the clock starts now,” and to that we say to Dana Loesch, and all of the NRA and lobbyists, we are sick and tired of you rivaling changes trying to be passed to ensure all of our safety.

“In 10 days we will take to Statehouses all around the country for the March for Lives to protest the NRA and to push for the gun control we need.

“Dana, YOUR time is running out. The clock starts now. We’ve had ENOUGH!”