Some gun-rights groups hold counter-protests

“Any assault on the Constitution to take away the rights of its citizens is a domestic assault and threat to the Constitution, which I must defend”, he said.

Among the groups marching are Mom’s Demand Action.

Meanwhile, several people on Twitter, including comedian Kathy Griffin, were also quick to point out the successful turnout of the march, comparing it to President Donald Trump’s more, say, lean inauguration.

On Friday, the Hempfield Area High School senior marched in a Greensburg rally at the Westmoreland County Courthouse. The city’s Board of Elections also set up a table to register voters, including 16-year-olds who will be eligible to vote in the 2020 election. She was at the march for them.

“I hope (the march) draws attention what we need from our representatives and makes our movement much more serious than it is perceived to be”, said Audrey Bellmer, a Cheney High student and student council member. “We are out here to express opposing views”.

Student protesters called for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-type weapons like the one used by the killer in Parkland, comprehensive background checks, and a higher minimum age to buy guns. They just want our schools and communities to be safe. “Don’t worry, we’ve got this”. “Today and every day we will continue to fight for those things that are right. we will continue to fight for our dead friends”. Many Miami Beach marchers tied the tags to their wrists or backpacks. “They are collectively our government, and they need to do something”.

Protesters calling for greater gun control have massed in Washington DC and in cities around the world. “He should be listening to us and to the kids specifically”.

So students, teachers and their supporters will take to the streets because they “will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar”, the organizers said. They said they will not have firearms with them during the rally.

“Why don’t the people who have the power care?” she said. So hopefully that’s the difference.

Still, she remained hopeful that the student-led push bring change in the nation’s gun laws. Teens waved homemade signs (“Hunting Season is Over”; “No, I’m Pretty Sure Guns Kill People”) and huddled together for photos. “I don’t understand why kids and adults can have a gun like that”.

Parkland, Florida school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez is pictured on a sign during a March for Our Lives demonstration demanding gun control in Seattle, Washington, March 24, 2018. “I was crying. I want to support them”. “I’m not against guns. But it’s not for killing individuals”.

A rally in Toronto that brought out hundreds was just one of many happening across North America as part of the #MarchForOurLives movement, a campaign started by students in the USA following a shooting at a Florida high school six weeks ago. “I mean, they [most of the marchers] are not wrong – we do have a problem with gun violence in this country”, he said.

“One of the aspects of anonymity is that you don’t know where that resistance is going to come from”, he said. The teenager spoke of sending the last text messages with his brother while he walked home. “Everyone has a grieving process through someone who is taken”.

“The Parkland students are fierce, articulate and inspiring”, Feinblatt said. “I think there should be more security measures put in place, and the ones that are being put in place are ineffective”. People are waking up to the fact that the NRA they remember is not the NRA of today.

About 30 gun-rights supporters staged a counter-demonstration in front of the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington, D.C., standing quietly with signs such as “Armed Victims Live Longer” and “Stop Violating Civil Rights”.