Students arrested protesting gun violence outside Paul Ryan’s office

Police arrested four Maryland students for protesting gun violence outside Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) office on Friday, hours after 10 students were shot and killed in a Texas high school. 

A U.S. Capitol Police spokesman confirmed to HuffPost that the students were arrested outside Ryan’s office building in Washington on charges of “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding.”

The arrests came after eight students from Montgomery County Students for Gun Control staged a sit-in to demand action on gun control, a reaction to gun violence at another school after a series of school shootings this year.

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Police in Santa Fe, Texas, have taken a suspected student gunman into custody after nine students and one teacher was killed on Friday. The suspect is being held on murder charges without bail. 

Nate Tinbite, who identifies himself as a member of the group Montgomery County Students For Gun Control, posted a video of the event on Twitter, showing students laying down on the floor in the hallway of a congressional office building.

Sit in @ House Office Building – @moco4guncontro https://t.co/Uu3TLLEYDJ

— Nate Tinbite (@NateTinbite) May 18, 2018

And David Hogg, a teenage gun control activist and survivor of February’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla., tweeted his support for the students and blamed the arrest on Ryan.

“I love these kids almost as much as @SpeakerRyan loves arresting students practicing their First Amendment rights to peacefully protest,” he said.