March For Our Lives: Thousands Say 'Never Again' In Washington DC

WASHINGTON, DC — Hundreds of thousands of people — children, parents, politicians and celebrities —gathered for "The March For Our Lives" — jamming onto a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue extending nearly from the White House to the U.S. Capitol in what may have been the biggest rally for tighter gun controls in American history. Emotional speeches from students, celebrities and a granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr. drew cheers and tears from the crowd, which sang "The Times They Are A-Changin'" with Jennifer Hudson to cap the event.

Watch videos from the rally below:

The rally was held a little more than a month after 17 students and teachers were killed by a gunman armed with an AR-15 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Survivors there said after the shootings that they would not settle for words of sympathy and unkept promises to make schools safer. They would pressure the government to do something real, they promised, and so far they have been true to their word.

After encouraging school walkouts nationwide on March 14, on Saturday they led a massive rally, which may have numbered 500,000 strong, according to the National Park Service. Some 800 local marches were held in cities across the country and as far away as Japan.

Michele Clay of Detroit and her 8-year-old-daughter, Natalie, took a bus from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to march Saturday in the nation's capital.

"We are here because we need to change our country for our youth," Michele Clay told Patch. "We need to change our country for our youth on the streets of Chicago to Detroit and across the (country), not just in schools, but everywhere."

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

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

He also told Patch that a student questioned the recent school walkouts. “One of my kids in my classes asked me, ‘Mr. Shumaker, why are they walking out if they can’t change anything?’ They are the ones that die when a gunman walks in...that’s why I support them” Shumaker replied.

The Parkland organizers have faced withering and often cruel attacks. Right-wing websites have accused them of being "crisis actors." Donald Trump Jr. liked a tweet saying one of the most vocal students had been coached by his FBI-agent father to peddle “anti-Trump rhetoric and anti-gun legislation.”

Gun-rights advocates, led by the National Rifle Association, have managed to thwart calls for tighter gun controls following other school shootings but the students from Parkland have been persistent. Few gun supporters were at the Washington rally, and no problems were reported among the crowd.

The day before the march, the host of an NRATV show, Colion Noir, said the students were hypocrites and were acting as if they were running a "reality show" with no regard for freedom. He said he wished St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Deputy Blaine Gaskill, who shot a student who had opened fire in a Maryland school last week, had been in Parkland for that shooting.

“To all the kids from Parkland getting ready to use your First Amendment to attack everyone else’s Second Amendment at your march on Saturday, I wish a hero like Blaine Gaskill had been at Marjory Douglas High School last month because your classmates would still be alive and no one would know your names, because the media would have completely and utterly ignored your story, the way they ignored his,” he said.

In cities racked by gun violence, organizers stressed that school shootings were not the only reason for restrictions on guns. In Baltimore, the nation's most violent city in the past year per capita with 343 homicides last year, organizers at the city's march told the crowd that so many killings in most other cities would be deemed a national crisis. It was time to fight back, they said.

See the bottom of this story for links to coverage in cities around the country.

In Washington, large crowds gathered hours ahead of the kickoff with participants holding a sea of signs that urge action by Congress. Hundreds of buses carrying people from outside of the district moved onto its streets. Metro trains were jammed.

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Cameron Kasky, a Parkland, Florida, student and an organizer of the national march, began the rally by reading the names of all the Parkland victims. He saved Nicholas Dworet for last because Saturday was a particular special day for him and his family.

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

It would have been Dworet's 18th.

President Trump was golfing in West Palm Beach during the protests. The White House issued a written statement.

. “We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today,” White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in the statement, in which she added that “keeping our children safe is a top priority of the President’s.”

Trump had indicated he would support raising the minimum age to purchase some firearms from 18 to 21 but backed off a day later.

“I’m marching because I believe that there should be no guns inside of a classroom. This is really for Parkland. I feel passionate about the need for gun control and admire all of the young people for organizing the march,” Hannah Olson, 22, of Washington, D.C., said.

Dan, a demonstrator rom Poolesille, Maryland, who did not want to give his last name, said “It’s gotta stop. The NRA has bought our politicians and they don’t even speak for their membership anymore. There are a lot of NRA members that don’t believe in their stance.”

The march has attracted donations from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, George and Amal Clooney, Stephen Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and a host of other big names. Celebrities like Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson, and Demi Lovato were to be at the rally.

Here are live streams and replays of marches from across the country. Approximate starting coverage (all times Eastern):

• BALTIMORE, MD, 10 a.m.
  
• HOUSTON, TX, 10 a.m.
• TOMS RIVER, NJ, 10 a.m.
  
• BOSTON, MA, 10 a.m.
• NEW YORK CITY, 11 a.m.
• DALLAS, TX, 11 a.m.
• CHICAGO, IL, noon
  
• AUSTIN, TX, 1 p.m.
• SEATTLE, WA, 1:30 p.m.
• FRANKFORT, IL, 3 p.m.
  

(Lead photos of Washington DC marchers and protestor at Trump Hotel by Patch Editor Dan Taylor; protest sign photos by Patch Editor Cameron Luttrell; sign photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)