The March for Our Lives was a student-led demonstration that took place on March 24, 2018, in Washington, D.C., with over 800 sibling events throughout the United States and around the world. According to data from Getty Images more than 830 demonstrations took place. Student organizers planned the march in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety. The event followed the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which was reported by some media outlets as being the tipping point for gun control legislation.
Protesters urged for universal background checks on all gun sales, raising the federal age of gun ownership and possession to the age of 21, closing of the gun show loophole, a restoration of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and a ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines in the United States. With two million marching across the United States, it was the largest student protest in American history, one of the largest marches on Washington in history, and the second largest march in American history, with millions more estimated to have marched throughout the world.
Following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, Cameron Kasky, a junior at the school, and his classmates, announced the march four days later. Also joining the march efforts are Alex Wind of Stoneman Douglas High School, who along with four friends created the "Never Again" campaign. Emma González and David Hogg, also survivors of the shooting, have been vocal supporters of the march.
The date was chosen in order to give students, families and others a chance to mourn first, and then on March 24, talk about gun control. Organizers filed a permit application with the National Park Service during the week of February 23, and expected as many as 500,000 people to attend. However the National Mall, which was the planned site of the main march in Washington, D.C. was reportedly already booked for March 24; the application, filed by an unidentified local student group, claimed it was for a talent show. A permit was later obtained for Pennsylvania Avenue. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced it would operate extra trains for the march.
The Enough! National School Walkout was held on the one month anniversary of the Stoneman Douglas shooting. It involved students walking out from their classes for exactly seventeen minutes (one for each of the victims of the massacre) and involved more than 3,000 schools across the United States and nearly one million students. Thousands of students also gathered and staged a rally in Washington D.C. after observing 17 minutes of silence with their backs to the White House. After the success of the walkout, Hogg posted a tweet that included a provocative, NRA-style advertisement calling out lawmakers for their inaction on or opposition to gun control efforts, asking "What if our politicians weren't the bitch of the NRA?", and ending with a promotion for the upcoming March.
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