Montgomery County Students Walk Out, March For Gun Control In DC

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hundreds of students from Montgomery County schools have descended on Union Station in D.C. Wednesday to demand action on gun control in the wake of the shooting of 17 students in Parkland, Fla. last week.

Local high school students could be seen chanting and holding signs seeking stronger gun control outside of Union Station. The fatal shooting of 17 students with an AR-15 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 set off a huge nationwide debate about gun control, with Democrats demanding action to restrict access to guns and Republicans shifting the blame to mental illness.

The crowd of teens were from Montgomery County and headed to the Capitol as of around 11 a.m. The march organizers sent out a news release saying students from Richard Montgomery, Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Blair are rallying, along with students from other suburbs and Washington, D.C.

"We will use this opportunity to put Congress on notice that they must take action now to pass common sense gun control legislation into law, that includes a ban on assault weapons," the statement said.

The hundreds of students left their schools scattered around the County and walked to the closest Metro station to get to D.C.

On a Facebook post, student organizers wrote: “All people in this country, particularly children, should feel safe and should not live in fear of a gunman killing them in their school, place of worship, or a nightclub. We expect our leaders to do whatever is required to keep us safe. That has not happened.”

Students from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring marched to the Metro with police escort.

U.S. Rep Jamie Raskin, D-Md., spoke to the students at the rally.

"This is a pretty impressive turnout for three schools," Raskin said to the chanting crowd.

"I saw on T.V., one of our friends in Florida, a high school student, come out and say 'Either you are with us or against us,'" Raskin said. "I came out of my office to say, I am with you 100 percent."

Raskin commended the students for standing up to change America, "when nobody else would do it."

He said he reserved the Silver Spring Civic Building on Saturday morning so they could have a rally there. Patch reached out to Raskin to hear more about the rally.