LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Hundreds of Angelenos marched and rallied in downtown Los Angeles against gun violence and in support of increased gun regulations.
The march, which began at Grand Park, was one of hundreds nationwide on Saturday. It was followed by a rally outside City Hall.
The L.A. March for Our Lives was prompted by a recent spate of mass shootings that included an elementary school in Uvalde Texas, and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left a total of 31 people dead. The nationwide movement was inspired by students after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that resulted in 17 deaths.
"Students are here leading this march and every other march across this country today because our futures are at stake and our generation is at stake," Shaadi Ahmadzadeh, 19, a UC Berkeley student and a co-organizer of the event told the Los Angeles Times. She called for universal background checks, an increase in the age for legal gun possession from 18 to 21 and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
"I remind you, this movement here is led by students, not by politicians, by students like me," she told the newspaper.
"We are the ones who have to go through the active shooter drills every semester. We are the ones who wake up in the morning and wonder if our school is next. We are the ones who go off to college or into the workforce and text our younger siblings to make sure they've made it home that night," she told the paper.
Hassan Piker called for the banning of military style assault weapons and told the crowd there were now more guns in circulation than people in the country.
Studies show there are 6 guns for every 5 people in the U.S.
NBC4 reported there have been 41 mass shooting events in the three weeks since the attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
Another man told the crowd there was nothing in the Constitution that guaranteed a right to own assault weapons.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a sweeping gun regulation bill that experts say appears doomed in the Senate. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of senators is trying to work out a compromise on gun legislation that would include so-called red-flag laws, background checks and age requirements.