March For Our Lives In Baltimore: Live Coverage

BALTIMORE, MD — Baltimore students and their supporters gathered Saturday outside City Hall and marched to Key Highway to advocate for tighter gun laws. A rally in front of City Hall kicked off the event, with students, teachers and politicians calling for an end to gun violence.

Students urged upon the hundreds who turned out for March for Our Lives Baltimore to vote for lawmakers who would call for bans on assault weapons. Community members also drew attention to systemic issues such as poverty driving violence in Baltimore, where there were more than 300 homicides last year.

"USA Today named us the most dangerous city in the nation last month. This is because we have the most homicides per capita than any other city. We need to end gun violence nationally but also in our own city," organizers say.

Watch the rally live below or on the Baltimore Patch Facebook page.

Here is the lineup of speakers from the March For Our Lives Baltimore rally, according to organizers:

• Emcee Anne Hilger, freshman at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (Poly)
• Poly freshman Juno Ada Conway Owings
• Poly junior Barrett Wynn
• Poly freshman and march co-organizer Maddie Jaffe
• Roland Park Elementary Middle School teacher Ms. Young
• Poly freshman and march co-organizer Tejal Schwartz
• Hug Don't Shoot representative Kenny
• WEAA radio personality Dr. Kaye Whitehead
• Poly freshman Alana Hines
• Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen

Watch the march. Here's the end on Key near the Baltimore Museum of Industry and Little Havana:

Watch the start of the march from City Hall:

See the post-march rally, with a call for participants to vote in November:

The event was coordinated by three students from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Freshman Anna Hilger, who founded Poly's Student Activist Association, told the Baltimore Fishbowl that the city's notorious distinction as the "Most Dangerous City in America" prompted her to stray from her original plan, which was to join the march in Washington, D.C., and instead start another one.

"Why not just do it here?" Hilger said to the Baltimore Fishbowl. "...we need to unite together to get rid of gun violence nationally but also to show that it's not OK here too."

RELATED: Baltimore Named Most Dangerous City In America

Other student organizers are Maddie Jaffe and Tejal Schwartz, both of whom are slated to speak at the event during a rally from 10 to 10:45 a.m., before the march, at War Memorial Plaza near City Hall.

"We want students, faculty, and their families to come," organizers said before the march. "Students aren’t the only ones being killed in these massacres."

More than 1,200 people had registered for the event as of Friday evening, organizers told Patch.

Beforehand, students set up a GoFundMe page to raise donations for the Baltimore march. Organizers say the money is going toward AV equipment, permits and a stage. The goal was to raise $1,000, which has been exceeded.

The rallying cry for the March for Our Lives Baltimore is similar to the 800-plus planned around the country on Saturday, March 24.

"Not one more," organizers say on the Baltimore March for Our Lives event page. "We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives."

After a shooting at Great Mills High School in St. Mary's County on Tuesday, the March for Our Lives Baltimore organizers asked: "How many more shootings do we have to have until a change is made?"

While the marches in Baltimore and across the country call upon lawmakers to pass gun reform legislation in the aftermath of the school shooting on Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida, organizers of the event in Baltimore say they are calling for the entire city to become a safer place.

"...many students in Baltimore feel safer in their schools than they do on the streets of our city," according to organizers. "Gun violence has long been a problem here and affects the lives of children, families, and communities. We see and want to change this everyday violence, as well as school shootings."

The Baltimore March for Our Lives took place from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 24. It begin at City Hall, 100 Holliday Street, Baltimore, MD 21202. There was a rally in front of City Hall from 10 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. Then participants marched from City Hall past the Inner Harbor to Little Havana. The route ran from Gay Street to Commerce Street to Pratt Street to Key Highway, concluding at Little Havana, 1325 Key Highway, Baltimore, MD 21230.

This article will be updated.

See the route:

Photos by Elizabeth Janney.