Flanked by two area high school students, a pediatrician and the mother of a gun violence victim, U.S. Rep. Bill Foster told a community forum audience Monday the Second Amendment should be up for reinterpretation as new generations come into power.

“It always has been up for reinterpretation,” Foster, D-Naperville, said during an event focused on gun violence. “The technology changes, and the weapons thought to be too dangerous to be in private hands change. A civil war cannon is frankly much less dangerous than weapons we are allowed to carry on the streets in many of the states and cities in our country today. This is something where technology changes and public attitude changes and both are important in each of the generations.”

The forum hosted by Foster drew a crowd of about 200 people to the Yellow Box theater at Community Christian Church in Naperville. The event was held less than two months after a shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school left 17 students and school employees dead and spurred student movements across the country to tighten gun restrictions.

Two area high school students, Rohan Chakrabarty and Jacob Baron, who helped lead walkouts at their schools in response to gun violence last month, helped answer audience questions, called for action and agreed with Foster on some possible solutions.

“It’s up to generations to interpret parts of the Constitution. We have changing technology, changing needs, changing groups of people living in the country,” said Rohan, a senior at Metea Valley High School. “We should continue to progress our views on something like the Second Amendment.”

Jacob Baron, a senior at Naperville North High School, grew up in Newtown, Conn., where 26 students and staff members where killed in a school shooting in 2012. Jacob said even though his family moved away before the shooting, thoughts of how he would respond to a school shooting ran through his mind.

“Planning escape routes, ideal places to hide — that’s no way to go about my school day every single day,” Jacob said.

“It’s hard to not feel unsafe in school, especially with the culture of having lock-down drills every month. Arming police officers in school is a good idea, that’s my individual belief. It isn’t a downside having trained professionals keeping people safe.”

People have a responsibility to positively impact and change the world and to voice opinions on the right to vote, Jacob said.

“I firmly believe the student-led movement I’ve been able to take part in will instill a passion in my generation,” he said.

While some people at the forum Monday heckled Foster and other members of the panel, the Congressman said it’s important to talk about the next steps, even when gun violence legislation is not being discussed in Congress.

“The single most important thing is to have people raise their voices and talk about what they think the sensible next steps are,” Foster said. “There are a large number of pieces of legislation pending in Congress that we’re not even allowed to have a vote on, and as long as that persists, you cannot have the voice of the people being heard on these.”

Foster didn’t have an opponent in the March primary election, but will face Darien Republican Nick Stella, a cardiologist, in the November election. Stella’s campaign did not respond to a request for the candidate’s opinion on the issue of gun violence.

Foster said he doesn’t think dumping money into beefing up security in schools is the way to solve the issue of gun violence in schools.

“I doubt that’s the most effective way to control gun violence,” Foster said. “The most accurate predictor of the rate of gun homicides, if you look at the statistics, is actually the number of guns per person in the state or in the community.”

ehegarty@tribpub.com