The gun-control advocacy group March for Our Lives, founded in 2018 after a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, held marches in New York City, San Francisco, Orlando, and other cities across the United States on Saturday to push for tighter restrictions on firearms.
"If our government can't do anything to stop 19 kids from being killed and slaughtered, it's time to change who is in government," March for Our Lives founder David Hogg told a crowd of thousands in Washington, D.C., referring to last month's mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
In D.C., a local ABC affiliate reported that the crowd briefly ran for cover after someone yelled "Gunshot!" but organizers were able to stop the stampede before it got out of hand. Police said the person who caused the panic was "detailed by officers" and did not have a weapon.
The Democratic-controlled House passed several gun-control bills last week, but negotiators from the two parties still "don't have an agreement that could pass the Senate," The Wall Street Journal reports. Any bill tightening firearms restrictions would require 60 votes to overcome a Senate filibuster, meaning at least 10 GOP senators would have to vote for it.