In Photos: Hundreds of Thousands Demand Gun Control Across the US

The marches took place more than a month after 17 people were killed in a school shooting in Florida.

Demonstrators hold signs during a “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control, on 24 March in Chicago. 

(Photo: AP)

In a historic groundswell of youth activism, hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the US against gun violence on Saturday, 24 March, vowing to transform fear and grief into a "vote-them-out" movement and tougher laws against weapons and ammo.

Looking west, people fill Pennsylvania Avenue during the “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control on 24 March in Washington.

They took to the streets of the nation's capital and cities such as Boston, New York, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, in the kind of numbers seen during the Vietnam era, sweeping up activists long frustrated by stalemate in the gun debate and bringing in lots of new, young voices.

People taking part in a march against gun violence walk along 6th Avenue in New York on 24 March.  

They were called to action by a brand-new corps of leaders: Student survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead on 14 February.

A child holds up a placard during a “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control on 24 March in San Francisco. 

Deangelo Davis, 12, holds a picture of his late uncle Raymond Davis during a silent march to protest gun violence in the community on 24 March in St. Louis. 

"If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking," Parkland survivor David Hogg said to roars from the protesters packing Pennsylvania Avenue from the stage near the Capitol many blocks back toward the White House.

Some of the young voices were very young. Yolanda Renee King, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr's 9-year-old granddaughter, drew from the civil rights leader's most famous words in declaring from the stage:

I have a dream that enough is enough. That this should be a gun-free world. Period.

Yolanda Renee King, Martin Luther King Jr’s granddaughter

Zachary Chakin holds up a sign as crowds of people participate in the “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control on 24 March 2018 in San Francisco. 

A woman holds up a placard against the National Rifle Association during the “March For Our Lives” rally in San Francisco on 24 March. 

By all appearances — there were no official numbers — Washington's March for Our Lives rally rivalled the women's march last year that drew far more than the predicted 3,00,000.

The March For Our Lives rally in Washington on 24 March. 

Jennifer Hudson, accompanied by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, gather on stage to end the “March for Our Lives” rally in support of gun control in Washington on 24 March. 

US Representative John Lewis leads a march of thousands through the streets of Atlanta, Georgia on 24 March. Participants in Atlanta and across the nation rallied against gun violence and in support of stricter gun control.

The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter as the protests unfolded, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence on 14 March when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message "I'll control my own guns, thank you."

President Donald Trump was in Florida for the weekend and did not weigh in on Twitter either.

White House spokesman Zach Parkinson said: "We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today." He pointed to Trump's efforts to ban bump stocks and his support for school-safety measures and extended background checks for gun purchases.

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.

This satellite image captured by DigitalGlobes WorldView-2 satellite on 24 March shows downtown Washington and the site of the “March for Our Lives” rally for gun control.

(This article has been published in an arrangement with AP. The article has been edited for length.)

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