The March for Our Lives, the anti-gun violence protest occurring in cities around the world today, saw thousands of protestors band together in pursuit of stricter American gun laws. Organized by initiators of the #NeverAgain movement and survivors of last month’s school shootings in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead after an attack at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the marches are predominantly developed “for kids and by kids,” an initiative that follows the National School Walkout earlier this month. And with the movement’s youth and student-focused spirit came passion and creativity in full force. From calling for action from politicians to scrutinizing the NRA, the impactful signage from the march put America’s epidemic of gun violence on full display.

Below, see the best signs from the march. </s> On Saturday, activists in Washington, D.C. and across the country will hold “March for Our Lives” rallies to protest gun violence. The rallies were planned in response to the mass shooting last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,but they’ve quickly grown into a global initiative. Now, there are 838 marches planned worldwide. Here’s a guide to the main U.S. march in the nation’s capital.

Who are the organizers? Student activists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are helping lead the march in Washington, D.C., and students at other schools around the country holding similar rallies Saturday. The events were planned in collaboration with larger gun reform organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety.

Who is marching? Student activists from Washington to Indianapolis — where high school students are protesting a rise in local homicides — to Los Angeles, where a number of celebrities are expected to attend a rally. According to the March for Our Lives website, there will also be official marches in a number of countries, from Italy to India and Ghana. American students have also organized marches in Austria and Spain.

Who is funding the rallies? Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber, Steven Spielberg and George and Amal Clooney, who donated $500,000, provided a significant portion of the funding. The overall cost for the rally in Washington is unclear, but by comparison, the Women’s March on Washington last year raised more than $2 million through direct donations. Organizers have said that all of the donations would go towards covering the expenses for the Washington march, including the permits to hold the event as well as lobbying efforts, voter registration and ballot initiatives.

What are they trying to achieve? While gun control advocates have a broad-ranging agenda, most have focused on pushing for comprehensive gun reform legislation that they say would prevent mass shootings. Organizers have also zeroed in on school safety, and are calling for lawmakers to ensure there are no mass shootings inside schools in the future.

“The march on Saturday means that we are on our way to getting real common sense gun safety done,” Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland shooting, told the PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff on Thursday night. “It means that, in a very short period of time, these kids and the people of this country have stepped up and spoken up and said, enough. And I think what you’re going to see is, not just in Washington, but around the country, possibly the largest number of people ever marching.” </s> Several hundred people are expected at a March for Our Lives event in Vancouver Saturday morning to rally against gun violence in the United States.

The march, which begins at Jack Poole Plaza at 10 a.m., is one of hundreds of similar marches happening across the United States and around the world. Survivors of the deadly shooting at a Parkland high school planned to lead thousands of students, teachers, parents and concerned citizens in a rally in the U.S. capital.

The Vancouver event will focus on “calling for American lawmakers to pass common-sense gun safety legislation and make student safety a priority,” according to a press release by the organizers of the Vancouver event.

The march is being organized by Democrats Abroad Vancouver, a local chapter of the Democratic Party’s overseas contingent, in partnership with March On Vancouver (the organizers of the Women’s March) Youth Seeking Change (a local student activism group), and Rock Your World (a California-based initiative encouraging students to become involved in advocacy work).

Half a dozen speakers are expected to address the crowd at Jack Poole Plaza, followed by a march through downtown Vancouver, past the U.S. consulate, before returning to the plaza.

“The gun violence epidemic in America touches both Americans and Canadians living in Vancouver. Anyone who travels to the US or has family and friends in the US could be impacted by gun violence in America, and many already have been,” said organizer Bodil Geyer, an American living in Vancouver.

A fake Facebook page caused confusion over the time of the Vancouver march, but organizers expected a good turnout Saturday morning. </s> Thousands turn out for gun violence protest in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Several thousand people braved freezing wind chills and light snow Saturday to participate in the "March for Our Lives" rally near downtown Omaha.

Marian High School freshman Callie Cavanaugh says she's tired of school gun violence across the country, noting that she has cousins who live close to Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.

Also among the crowd was 14-year-old Melina Piperis, an eighth-grader at St. Vincent de Paul in Omaha, who said she wants to use her First Amendment right to call for gun control measures.

Westside Middle School student Aden Newmyer says "students have a voice, too," and wants Congress to see that people are angry about lax gun laws.

Omaha's was one of hundreds of marches planned Saturday in cities across the globe to protest gun violence and mass shootings. </s> Students across the United States walked out of classes on Wednesday in a nationwide call for action against gun violence following the shooting deaths last month at a Florida high school.

Hundreds of students from Washington area schools gathered outside the White House chanting "Never again!" and "Enough is enough!" and holding signs reading "Protect People Not Guns."

At 10:00 am (1400 GMT), students in numerous cities held a moment of silence to honor the 14 students and three adult staff killed on Valentine's Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The "National School Walkout" was intended to last for 17 minutes, one for each victim.

But it quickly became apparent that many students at schools on the East Coast decided not to go to classes at all and to demonstrate instead.

The nationwide protest is being held one month to the day after Nikolas Cruz, a troubled 19-year-old former student at Stoneman Douglas, unleashed a hail of gunfire on his former classmates.

The event to honor those slain at Stoneman Douglas is also an act of protest against the firearms violence plaguing the United States, which has more than 30,000 gun-related deaths annually.

Organizers come from the same group behind the Women's March, which saw millions of demonstrators take to the streets in cities across the country in January 2017 to protest Donald Trump's White House inauguration.

Trump had momentarily signaled support for increasing restrictions on guns, but now stands accused of bowing to the powerful US gun lobby. </s> Just days after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, students-turned-activists echoed the words “never again” and “not one more,” pushing lawmakers for increased gun control and better school safety.

Many of the Parkland students, who have primarily taken to social media to champion these issues, have met with President Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., among others to demand action.

One shooting survivor Cameron Kasky, a junior at the high school, wrote an op-ed about his experience, demanding Congress to take action.

In addition to the 17-minute National School Walkout on March 14, which honored those killed in the massacre and protested gun violence, student activists planned a march in Washington, D.C. called a “March for Our Lives.”

Ahead of the event, here’s what you need to know.

When is March for Our Lives?

The march is slated to take place on Saturday, March 24, around 12 p.m., organizers said.

Where is it?

The primary march will take place in Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania Avenue between 3rd and 12th street NW, according to the March for Our Lives website.

Initially, organizers wanted to hold the event on the National Mall, but were forced to choose another location because their request conflicted with a film crew’s permit, the Washington Post reported.

Many other cities — such as Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; Philadelphia, New York City, San Francisco, Dallas and Chicago, among hundreds of other places — are holding “sister marches.” Overall, there are more than 800 sibling marches across the country, organizers said.

To see if your city is holding a march, you can check here.

Why are the marches being organized?

“This is such a unifying experience, it’s truly nonpartisan” said Ellie Boan, 19, a freshman at the University of South Carolina. She plans to attend a sister march in Columbia on March 24.

“Not everyone necessarily agrees how [gun reform] should happen. But different viewpoints are coming together and all agree that no American child should feel unsafe in school,” she said.

For Boan, who has been working with local high schools and student organizations on her campus to help organize the event, the shooting itself “doesn’t get anymore close to home.”

Boan is originally from Parkland, Fla. While she didn’t attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, her older brother did. On top of that, her parents’ home is “just five minutes away from the school” where the Valentine’s Day mass shooting unfolded.

“I was on the phone with my mom during the shooting,” she said, adding that helicopters heading toward the high school could be heard in the call’s background.

“[Parkland] was the last place in America I ever expected for this to happen,” she said. Once known for its picturesque golf courses and safety, Boan added, the city will now be remembered as the site of one of the “biggest mass shootings in U.S. history.”

Shortly after the suspected shooter, Nikolas Cruz, was identified, Boan had a chilling realization: She knew him, albeit not well.

“His name sounded familiar, even though I didn’t want it to,” she said.

At that moment, Boan realized that she and he had attended the same middle school.

“He even had a presence back then,” she said.

Coming to that realization was the “most difficult thing to deal with,” Boan said. “I knew someone who was capable to inflict that kind of damage.”

But Boan has since channeled her emotions — which have ranged from sadness to fear to anger — into activism.

“I wanted to do something even though I couldn’t be there [Parkland],” she said.

Participating in the march later this month is the “most effective way to process what I was going through,” she added. “Students are directly telling legislators what they want to be done. I hope that continues.”

Perry Bradley, founder and executive director of Building Better Communities, a community outreach organization in South Carolina, is helping organize the sister march in Columbia that will end on the steps of the city’s statehouse.

Students, local lawmakers and state representatives are slated to speak at the event.

“Parkland opened our eyes,” Bradley told Fox News. “Adults are embracing what kids have to say [about gun reform].”

“I think that we have finally reached a breaking point in America,” 21-year-old Antwon Stephens, who plans to participate in a sister march in Atlanta, told Fox News. “Both sides are tired of the answer being nothing.”

Stephens, who said he comes from a family who “firmly believes in the Second Amendment,” echoed Boan — he also thinks the March for Our Lives movement presents an opportunity for unity, adding that both sides of the political aisle should work in a “non-partisan way” to understand “why things like this keep happening.”

“I think it is going to take a whole lot of elbow grease to keep this movement going strong,” he said. “But this movement is most powerful because it’s led by students.”

For family and the future

“I was numb. I was in shock for three days after I heard about the shooting,” said Jennia Taylor, a senior at Spelman College who also plans to attend a sister march in Atlanta.

Hailing from Parkland, Florida, the shooting greatly impacted Taylor not only because it occured in her hometown, but also because the 21-year-old is a 2014 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, she told Fox News.

“[Stoneman Douglas] is a big family; it was like hearing that someone invaded your home,” Taylor said, who added that she first found out about the massacre through her family’s group chat.

“I lived there in high school,” she said. “I saw my teachers and coaches more than I saw my parents.”

The day of the shooting, hearing about students and faculty who had been injured or killed affected Taylor the most, she said. It was also unnerving, she added, because Taylor’s younger cousin is a freshman at the school.

She was also worried for her former classmates as well, as many of them have younger siblings or family members who are current students at the high school, she said.

“We all kind of know each other, she said. “It’s so intertwined, it’s kind of crazy.”

Taylor’s heart sank when she heard that Aaron Feis, a beloved football coach at Stoneman Douglas, had been shot and killed shielding students from a rain of bullets.

Taylor’s two brothers, also graduates of Stoneman Douglas, played football at the school and her family was well acquainted with Feis. As a result, the loss hit her hard.

“It’s really hard for my family knowing him, and knowing his family,” she said.

As for her participation in the March for Our Lives, Taylor said she’s excited to “see people from all walks of life who have been affected by gun violence come together and march for a purpose,” she said. “[They’re] putting opinions aside to make sure we have a safe community and safe society.”

“I’m going to grow up and have kids. I don’t want to fear that every time they leave they’re going to get shot,” she said. “After it happened in my hometown, I realized that it’s time to take action.”

How many people are slated to attend?

The National Park Service told the Washington Post that at least 500,000 people are expected to attend the march in D.C. alone.

How is the event funded — and who’s supporting it?

The event, which is being organized and led by Stoneman Douglas students and shooting survivors Emma González, Cameron Kasky, among others, is mainly funded through donations.

Kasky created a GoFundMe page to help pay for the event, raising more than $3.3 million in a month.

“Half of the funds raised on this GoFundMe will go toward the March For Our Lives Action Fund,” Kasky explained on the fundraising page. “The other half of the funding raised on this GoFundMe will provide relief and financial support to the victims and families of the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School via the Broward Education Foundation.”

Celebrities such as George and Amal Clooney and Oprah have donated $500,000 to the event, as have Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, Deadline reported.

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and CEO of Twitter, announced on March 9 that he also donated $500,000 to March for Our Lives.

“I’m so inspired by all the conversations the Stoneman Douglas students are leading!” he tweeted.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for stronger gun control, and Giffords, an anti-gun violence group that was started by former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, among other national organizations, are also working with march organizers — either through donations or planning and logistics.

“Students are making history and demanding that our elected officials protect them. Everytown is proud to help them make their voices heard on March 24, and we look forward to more Americans following their lead to forge meaningful change to our country’s gun laws,” John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown, said in a statement after the organization announced its $2.5 million grant to support sister marches around the country.

The ride-hailing company Lyft also announced that it will offer free rides to Stoneman Douglas students participating in the march.

Additionally, many celebrities are supporting the event by performing at the march in D.C. Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, among others, are slated to perform at the rally.

The event is not a political one, organizers claim.

“School safety is not a political issue,” a mission statement on the organization’s website reads. “There cannot be two sides to doing everything in our power to ensure the lives and futures of children who are at risk of dying when they should be learning, playing, and growing.”

While the activists “support the right of law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms, as set forth in the United States Constitution,” they also have a list of demands, urging members of Congress to pass laws to end the sale of high-capacity magazines, improve background checks and more safety measures. </s> MONTREAL — More than a dozen Canadian cities hosted marches Saturday to call for stricter gun control laws in both Canada and the United States in the wake of a deadly high school shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Fla.

In both Montreal and Toronto, several hundred people joined local events in support of the massive March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., which was organized by American students calling for change in the wake of the tragedy.

In one of Montreal’s two marches, hundreds of protesters swayed together singing to the tune of “Glory, Hallelujah” before setting off towards the city’s U.S. Consulate.

Ellen Gozansky Malka, a Montrealer now living in Parkland, told the crowd that two of her children were at the school during the shooting and saw things no child should see.

“Our children should never fear going to school, and they should never jump at the sound of a book falling on the floor,” she said to appreciative applause.

“This will have a lasting effect on our community. We have to make sure this will never happen again anywhere, anywhere in the world.”

A few blocks away, a slightly smaller event was organized by 11-year-old elementary school student Lexington Vickery, who led about 150 cheering classmates and supporters on a raucous march in support of American children.

“Its about making them feel better, and making them feel more supported and working to help them so they can have more courage to go to the government and get their gun legislation,” the sixth-grader explained in an interview beforehand.

In Toronto, marchers carried signs protesting both gun violence in the United States and recent shootings that have plagued the city as they marched from a downtown square to the U.S. Consulate.

An organizer told local news station CP24 that while Canada doesn’t experience mass shootings on the same scale as the U.S., Toronto has seen a number of high-profile fatal shootings recently.

Police have said that last weekend, an innocent man was gunned down in a “cowardly” attack after visiting friends. The following day, two people were shot and killed outside of a bowling alley — one of the victims was allegedly targeted, and the other was described by police as a bystander.

“I think it’s important to have this march today in solidarity with students in the United States because gun violence is taking its toll on families, individuals, communities across North America. In Toronto we’ve seen a hundred per cent increase in gun violence homicides over the last three years,” said Louis March, a co-founder of Toronto’s Zero Gun Violence Movement.
• Police: Brother of Parkland shooting suspect trespassed onto school grounds to ‘soak it in’
• ‘Spike’ in online threats to Canadian schools following deadly Parkland shooting: police
• NRA breaks silence after Parkland school shooting to attack teenage survivors, law enforcement and media

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the march in Washington, D.C., with smaller gatherings to take place in hundreds of cities across the world. </s> Just days before massive gatherings affiliated with the student-led March for Our Lives are predicted to further focus the nation’s attention on stemming the tide of gun violence, Great Mills High School, about 70 miles south of Washington, D.C., became the site of the 17th school shooting nationwide since Jan. 1.

Tuesday’s gunman, a student armed with a handgun, was fatally shot by a school resource officer after the teen opened fire, injuring two students. It was a much different outcome than what took place Feb. 14, when a former classmate gunned down 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. But for the distraught parents and students coping with the ongoing threats of gun violence, even the Maryland event this week is one shooting too many.

Laurie Leavy, of Coral Springs, Florida, had to wait 45 minutes huddled with other mothers and fathers last month under an overpass near Stoneman Douglas before learning that her 15-year-old son, Jason, was safe. “It was excruciating,” she says. “Terror was the closest thing I felt.”

She relates that “he was in the building on the third floor, locked in a classroom with other kids and a teacher.” Like so many others that day, he heard gun shots and screaming, crying and calls for help. Two members in his marching band were among the fatalities.

That week, Leavy emailed every Florida legislator in the state who received donations from the National Rifle Association, and sent about two-dozen checks made out for “Thoughts and Prayers.” A stay-at-home mom (she has an 11-year-old son as well) and Sisterhood co-president at her synagogue, she had to do something.

While earlier this month Florida passed bipartisan legislation for gun restrictions and increased school-safety measures, led by Republican Gov. Rick Scott, advocates say a lot more needs to be done.

“It’s like a Band-Aid on a cut finger,” says Leavy, who will participate in the March 24 walk in Cleveland, where her family is going for spring break. “It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough.”

There are an estimated 300 million guns in the United States — one for nearly every man, woman and child.

To be fair, a great number of Americans feel that guns remain a Second Amendment right, and as such, should be left well enough alone. There is nevertheless some wiggle room on background checks, age limitations for purchases, the types of guns that can be bought legally and certain modifications that can be made on them, like bump stocks.

The issue of general access to semiautomatic rifles — the type of weapon used by the Parkland shooter — remains one of the main concerns.

“It’s unbelievable that our country allows this, these kinds of weapons,” says Leavy, noting that so many other places around the world do not.

In fact, while Washington, D.C., is the main venue for the March 24 event, the momentum will be felt as related events are scheduled in locales as far away as Cork, Ireland; Helsinki, Finland; Bogatá, Columbia; Mumbai, India; Vilnius, Lithuania; Tokyo, Japan; all over Western Europe; and in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Sarah Clements, 22, will participate in the Washington march, joined by her mother. The Georgetown University senior is also scheduled to speak on Friday afternoon at a university-sponsored forum titled “What Makes Movements Successful? How Students Can Change Policy.”

For the past five years, Clements has become used to the idea of being a leader, showing up at all kinds of events advocating for gun-control legislation and school safety.

It’s not really that surprising. After all, she grew up in Newtown, Connecticut.

In fact, her mother was a second-grade teacher on Dec. 14, 2012, when a young gunman shot and killed 20 children — between 6 and 7 years old — and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Of the multiple weapons he brought with him was a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle.

“I think I was always interested in politics, but after the shooting happened, after the shock of it, I felt so much anger,” says Clements, who at the time was a junior at Newtown High School. Along with people of all ages, she joined the Newtown Action Alliance and hasn’t looked back.

“We started changing the discussion about guns, school safety and the public interest,” she says. “What happened at Sandy Hook first opened the doors to ongoing conversation about these issues.”

Now, she says the Parkland students have taken off, prompting a wave of social action that has crossed the country and the world. And that makes Clements feel “cautiously optimistic.”

She points out that she is not against guns, per se. The person who wants to hunt or to have a handgun for their own protection is not on her radar. She is pushing for common-sense gun laws and getting guns out of the hands of the wrong people.

At the same time, she aims to invigorate students, so they become involved in their communities, register to vote and take their newfound energy to the ballot box.

Like others who are seeing young people find their voices, being engaged gives her hope. A double major in government, and justice and peace studies, who is active in Georgetown’s Jewish Students Association, she says she wants to tell her grandchildren one day how she was part of change for the good. How in the Jewish notion of tikkun olam, she helped make the world a better place.

“This is a huge moment for our country,” she states. “We’re literally talking about people’s lives.”

Lauren Bell has also been busy since Parkland.

The 17-year-old resident of Sarasota, Florida, decided that she could help get teens registered and even pre-registered to vote (in Florida, teens can pre-register at ages 16 and 17). To that end, she has been encouraging teens in person and via social media to do so, and plans to continue these efforts through November.

She also took the bullhorn and spoke on National School Walkout day on March 14 in front of 300 students at Riverview High School who were protesting gun violence and advocating for school safety. Another national walkout is planned for April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine High School mass shooting.

“I want to stress the importance of voting, in all elections, at the state and local levels, too,” says Bell, whose father’s side of the family lives in the Philadelphia suburbs. “I want to focus on the positive.”

She says students have had enough with lockdown drills and Code Reds; they want to be able to go to school and simply feel safe. As such, she is pushing for more security measures on campus. She’s also part of a group at her school called “Students Stand Up.” And on Saturday, she is set to march locally in Sarasota, where she is also scheduled to speak.

“I want to see change,” insists Bell. “This can’t happen again. We shouldn’t have to live in fear at school.”

Rabbi Moshe Rapoport, program director at the Peltz Center for Jewish Life in Mequon, Wisconsin, notes the uncertainty young people feel today — a feeling of being unsettled.

He says that isn’t likely to go away as high-schoolers head to college campuses, where in addition to concerns about guns and physical safety come worries about religious safety as well, including anti-Israel sentiment.

“There is a great wealth of negative energy in the world today,” he says. “You can’t control what happens in life, but you can work to bring about positivity. That can happen in the form of good deeds, of everyday kindnesses. It’s very powerful.”

Rapoport, a Chabad rabbi who has worked with teens and college students for more than 20 years, stresses that this idea isn’t naïve; it’s not blind. Still, in relation to gun violence, small moves may seem … small.

“It doesn’t solve the big problems, the big discussions,” he acknowledges, “but it does empower people, intellectually and spiritually. This is something teens can do. They can educate; they can be positive.”

He also talks about how to heal. A statement in Proverbs, written by King Solomon, reads: “Anxiety in the heart of a person causes dejection, but a good word will turn it into joy.”

“We all need that,” he says. “Even rabbis.”

He noted that just last month, shortly after the Parkland shooting, more than 2,500 teens participated in the annual CTeen Shabbaton in New York City, where on a Saturday night in Times Square, a Torah was dedicated to those who lost their lives at Stoneman Douglas. Many students from the Florida community were there; all teens got to write a letter in the new scroll.

“To see so many come together, thousands, to dedicate in memory something to people they never met before, it brings some comfort. It shows that others are not alone in their pain; the whole Jewish nation feels it,” affirms Rapoport.

Public action and attention is changing the way America views gun violence and school safety — all because of these kids.

“They are finding their voice and pushing for a seat at the table,” states Amy Krulik, CEO of the Kaiserman Jewish Community Center outside of Philadelphia. “And they are harnessing the power of technology to get the word out and mobilize their friends.”

Krulik recalls a time when student engagement meant handing out fliers, hanging posters, wind-shielding cars or hitting the phones. “This generation’s method of promotion is much more wide-reaching, much more effective in sheer numbers,” she says. “Their proactivity has been years in the making. The kids have been paying attention.

“This is their moment — a moment in our political time, in our national psyche, about seeing certain things change,” says the mother of two grown children. “Parkland was the tipping point. It made them stop and say, ‘Wait, we can be heard, too.’ ”

Consider the fact that those voices joined together to help organize more than 800 events taking place worldwide on Saturday related to March for Our Lives.

As for Krulik, she knows a thing or two about school safety. In January 2017, she and other staff members led the evacuation of more than 225 people, many of them preschoolers, as a result of a bomb threat — one of many made to JCCs across the country. The Perelman Jewish Day School adjacent to their building evacuated another 200 elementary-school-age children.

She looks at it as part and parcel of her job.

As does Rabbi Rapoport. After all, what is the alternative?

“Our youth,” he says, “is the greatest resource we have.” </s> LITTLETON, Colo., (Reuters) – Demanding an end to gun violence and tougher restrictions on firearm sales, thousands of students again walked out of classes across the United States on Friday in hopes of putting pressure on politicians ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Timed to coincide with the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, students left classes at midmorning, many waving placards with slogans including “I should be worried about grades, not guns,” and “Enough is enough.”

Organizers said students from more than 2,600 schools and institutions were scheduled to take part, but that was fewer than participated in a similar walkout last month. In some places, demonstrators even met with resistance from school administrators.

“Today is about being proactive and being empowered and really funneling all that energy and anger we have as young people into some productive change,” one of the student organizers, Lane Murdock of Connecticut, told Reuters.

Olivia Pfeil, a 16-year-old sophomore from a high school in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, held a sign bearing the names of mass shooting victims. “We’re expecting change or come next election cycle we will support politicians who are listening to the voices of the youth,” she said.

It was the second student walkout since the Feb. 14 massacre of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and the emergence of a national student movement to end gun violence and toughen restrictions on firearms sales.

Many of the demonstrators wore orange, a color that has come to represent the movement against gun violence. A 13-second silence was observed in honor of the 13 killed at Columbine.

At the Texas statehouse in Austin, about 1,000 students, many waving signs and chanting anti-NRA slogans, demanded stricter gun control measures.

“Because we can’t vote, this is the only way we can make our voices heard,” said Graeclyn Garza, a second-year student at McCallum High School in Austin, who waved a sign reading “Enough.”

Outside the White House, protesters sat in silence while they listened to the names of gun violence victims read aloud.

“It happened like 20 years ago,” said Ayanna Rhodes, 14, a student at Washington International School, referring to Columbine, “And we are still getting mass shootings in schools.”

Two gunman went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, leaving 12 students and a teacher dead before killing themselves in a massacre that stunned the nation. But since then, school shootings have become commonplace.

Even as students prepared for their protest on Friday morning, news broke that a 17-year-old student had been wounded in a shooting at a high school near Ocala, Florida. A suspect was arrested soon afterward, police said.

The latest gun violence unfolded about 225 miles (360 km)northwest of the Parkland high school, where two months ago a former student killed 17 people in the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.

Despite widespread revulsion over the school shootings, the issue of gun control remains sensitive in Colorado and across the country, where the Second Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms.

Dudley Brown, president of the Colorado-based National Association for Gun Rights, said the gun-control movement seeks to have the government take away constitutional rights.

“The main objective of these students is to ban firearms completely, and confiscate the firearms of law-abiding Americans,” Brown said. “We will oppose them at every step.”

In some conservative school districts, administrators told students they could face disciplinary steps if they walked out.

In suburban Dallas, a dozen students dressed in orange chanted “End gun violence!” as they huddled in a parking lot across the street from North Garland High School.

Freshman Victoria Fierro, 14, said school administrators blocked the doors when about 50 students tried to leave, so a small group exited through a side door.

“They told us we would get in trouble if we walk out, and we told them it was a peaceful protest, we’re not causing any damage,” Fierro said. “This is over a serious topic that people are pushing aside.”

The principal declined to answer questions from Reuters.

It was not immediately clear whether Friday’s turnout matched those of earlier protests. More than a month ago, tens of thousands of students from some 3,000 schools participated in the #ENOUGH National School Walkout to demand tighter gun control regulations.

On March 24, “March For Our Lives” rallies in cities across the United States were some of the biggest U.S. youth demonstrations in decades, with hundreds of thousands of young Americans and their supporters taking to the streets.

On the evening before the walk-outs, Colorado gun control activists rallied near Columbine High School.

Carlos Rodriguez, a 17-year-old junior from Marjory Stoneman, traveled to Columbine for the anniversary and said he found a sense of solidarity in the outpouring of support.

“That’s the only thing that’s keeping us Douglas students alive right now: the distraction of fighting for our rights and advocating for our lives,” Rodriguez told Reuters.

There was no walkout on Friday at Columbine, which has not held classes on April 20 since the massacre. Students were encouraged to take part in community service instead.
Hundreds of thousands of people participate in the March for Our Lives protest around the world regarding gun violence, mass shootings and school shootings in the United States.