One million students expected at anti-gun-violence marches

NEW YORK (AP):

Students from the Florida high school where 17 people were fatally shot last month expect more than one million participants in upcoming marches in Washington and elsewhere calling for gun regulations, students said yesterday.

More than 800 March for Our Lives demonstrations are planned around the world Saturday, sparked by the February 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida.

"It just shows that the youth are tired of being the generation where we're locked in closets and waiting for police to come in case of a shooter," Alex Wind, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, told The Associated Press.

"We're sick and tired of having to live with this normalcy of turning on the news and watching a mass shooting," he added.

Since the massacre, Stoneman Douglas students have been at the forefront of a push to tighten gun restrictions and protect schools.

RALLIES

They have led rallies and lobbied lawmakers in Washington and Florida's capital, Tallahassee. Last Wednesday, tens of thousands of students around the United States walked out of their classrooms to demand action on gun violence and school safety. Stoneman Douglas students fanned out Monday to discuss the marches with media outlets in New York, including NBC's 'Today' show and CBS's 'This Morning'.

The National Rifle Association didn't immediately respond to an inquiry Monday about the upcoming marches. The group has said any effort to prevent future school shootings needs to "keep guns out of the hands of those who are a danger to themselves or others, while protecting the rights of law-abiding Americans".

Amid the wave of activism, Florida passed a law curbing young people's access to rifles; the NRA has sued to try to block it. Some major United States retailers decided to curb the sale of assault-style rifles or stop selling firearms to people younger than 21.

But Congress has shown little appetite for new gun regulations.