Image 1of/12

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 12
Image 2 of 12
Image 3 of 12
Image 4 of 12
Image 5 of 12
Image 6 of 12
Image 7 of 12
Image 8 of 12
Image 9 of 12
Image 10 of 12
Image 11 of 12
Image 12 of 12

ALBANY — Capital Region students and others massed in Albany at West Capitol Park on Saturday for a March for Our Lives demonstration against gun violence and in support of stricter gun control laws as a response to school shootings in the U.S.

Local high school students organized the Albany event in solidarity with similar actions taking place nationwide -- the largest of which is in Washington, D.C.

Chanting "Vote them out" and "Not one more," the Albany marchers — numbering more than a thousand — joined a chorus begun by students at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Fla., who survived a Valentine's Day gun massacre that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers at their school.

Unsatisfied with politicians' inaction to stem the tide of gun violence, students from Parkland began organizing. Earlier this month, their efforts led to a nationwide school walk out day on March 14, in which students across the U.S. walked out of school for 17 minutes to memorialize those killed in Parkland and to call attention to need to end gun violence.

Related Stories

Students graduating from high school this year are among a generation who have grown up with lockdown and shelter-in-place drills at school due to the prevalence of gun violence on campuses.

They are organizing around the issue and are reminding politicians that many of them are old enough to vote or will be soon.