March For Our Lives: Scenes From Protests Across U.S.

Amid chants of "never again" and "vote them out," students and allies across the country marched Saturday to demand change, joining forces with the teenagers from Parkland, Florida, who have responded to the slaughter of 17 of their school members gunned down on Valentine's Day by making tighter gun controls the issue of their generation.

The students and fellow protesters made it clear on Saturday that they would not be silenced and would do everything in their power to enact gun control legislation, whether that is voting out elected officials, registering people to vote or continuing the conversation around topics of gun violence.

Tens of thousands of students and allies gathered communities across the U.S. on Saturday, from Washington D.C. to New York, Boston, Baltimore, Seattle, Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Some thousands had gathered in New York City where along with the protesters, there were more than a 100 volunteers stationed throughout the rally to register people to vote.

"It is not America at war that scares me but it is America as war that scares me," a speaker at the Baltimore March For Our Lives rally told the crowd.

Eric Branman, a teacher at LaGuardia High School in New York City who is with a group called Gays Against Gun told Patch his first priority was his students and the idea of giving up his life to protect them is "incredibly humbling but also incredibly terrifying."

Students in Boston broke out in chants of "hey, hey, ho, ho, the NRA has got to go," and in New York City, they shouted "vote them out," referencing elected officials who won't act on common sense gun legislation.

"We really want to make sure this is not just a moment but a movement," Becca Munoz, a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who is now a student at Northeastern University told Patch. Munoz helped co-organize the march in Boston.

"I think that it is so urgent for us as humans and as students to put an end to the violence," Piper Kilman, a junior at The Chicago Academy for the Arts, said. "I think it's so ridiculous that there is something that can be stopped, that isn't being stopped."

Also among those who marched were celebrities affected by gun violence. Paul McCartney, whose Beatles bandmate John Lennon was gunned down near Central Park marched in New York. Amy Schumer addressed the crowd in Los Angeles. At a screening of Schumer's movie Trainwreck in 2015, a gunman opened fire and killed two people at a Louisiana theater.

At the main rally in D.C., a number of diverse student leaders who have been affected by gun violence addressed the crowd.

Cameron Kasky, one of the student leaders from Parkland, read the names of all 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting at the D.C. march. He read Nicholas Dworet's name last because March 24 would have been Dworet's birthday.

"Nicholas we are all here for you," Kasky said. "Happy birthday."

Another student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and a survivor the shooting, Samantha Fuentes, led the crowd in singing happy birthday to Dworet.

It wasn't just the teenagers who attended the marches. Rallies across the country also saw much younger students who spoke out.

Two young girls in Atlanta, Georgia, Abby and Layla, told Patch they were at the rally because they want everybody to be safe. Asked if they had one thing they could change, the two girls said they would "stop violence in schools."

One of the speakers in D.C. was 11-year-old Naomi Wadler, said she was there to represent black women affected by gun violence. 9-year-old Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., made a surprise appearance on stage in Washington. Like her grandfather, she said she had a dream that "enough is enough."

The protesters also called attention to the daily gun violence that plagues communities of color.

"You should care just as much about shooting in the South Bronx and the Southside of Chicago as you do about any other," organizers with Black Lives Matter said at the march in New York City.

Three speakers in Washington D.C. were students from Chicago, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles, each of whom had lost a sibling to gun violence.

19-year-old Trevon Bosley who addressed the rally said he was there to represent the youth of Chicago who are surrounded by gun violence. Bosley said his own brother, Terrell Bosley, was shot and killed while leaving church.

Edna Chavez, 17, a student from South Los Angeles, paid tribute to her brother Ricardo, a victim of gun violence. Saying she learned to duck bullets before she learned how to read, Chavez said arming teachers or adding more security to schools was not the answer. Zion Kelly, a senior at Thurgood Marshall High School, cried as he remembered his twin brother, Zaire, who was shot and killed in D.C.

Emma Gonzalez, a Marjory Stoneman Douglas student who has been one of the leading faces of the movement, closed out the rally with a powerful speech. Gonzalez read the names of all 17 victims of the Parkland shooting and then remained silent for 6 minutes and 20 seconds, the amount of time it took for the Parkland shooter to kill 17 people.

At the rally in D.C., marchers spoke out in support of gun control.

Sam Shumaker, an American history teacher at Franklin Middle School in Baltimore County, Maryland, marched in Washington, D.C., because he believes the federal government should standardize gun laws across states. “I’ve heard a lot about teachers being armed with guns. If I wanted to do that I would’ve joined the military or become a police officer.”

His school was on lockdown recently with over 200 concerned parents showing up concerned. “I don’t want to work in an environment like that.”

Eight-year-old Natalie Clay of Detroit and her mom, Michele, took a bus from Michigan to march in DC. When asked about the Parkland school shooting and safety in schools she said, “I hope people can stop coming into our schools and shooting people and I hope we can update our schools so that people can’t come in and try shooting people.”

The Parkland students have already bulldozed roadblocks that had stymied gun-control advocates for years. Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association, signed a bill that raises the minimum age for buying an assault rifle from 18 to 21, creates a waiting period for purchasing firearms, allocates money for school security and allows police to confiscate weapons from people deemed dangerous. The law was named after Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The students spurred the national school walkout on March 14, when tens of thousands of students streamed out of their classrooms in protest of gun violence. The students left their classrooms for 17 minutes, one minute to remember each person killed in Parkland.

The students marching Saturday have the support of a number of political heavyweights. Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama wrote a letter to the Parkland students that said they were inspired by their resilience, resolve and solidarity. (You can read the full letter, which was obtained by Mic.com here.) On Saturday, Obama said in a tweet that both he and Michelle Obama were inspired by the young people who made Saturday's marches happen.

"Keep at it," Obama wrote. "You’re leading us forward. Nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change."

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have also both publicly expressed their support for the students leading the charge and making their voices heard. And on Friday, former Vice President Joe Biden said the Parkland students are going to win.

In the wake of Parkland, the Trump administration and Congress have reacted with piecemeal legislation. A modest measure strengthening the federal background check system for gun purchases and additional money for school safety was included in the $1.3 trillion government spending bill signed Friday by President Trump.

Trump initially appeared to back a proposal that increases the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons to 21 but has since said he would leave decisions to states. Trump's plan also leaves the question of arming teachers to states and local communities.

Patch reporters Danielle Woodward in New York City, Elizabeth Janney in Baltimore, John Barker in Atlanta, Dan Taylor, Cameron Luttrell, Emily Leayman and Kimberly Johnson in Washington DC, Amber Fisher in Chicago and Jenna Fisher in Boston contributed to this report.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

All photos by Patch