Student and parent activists from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 teens and staff members were shot to death last week by a 19-year-old gunman, will hold a rally on Wednesday at the state capital, calling for a ban on assault-style rifles.
Last week's massacre, the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in U.S. history, has reignited a national debate about gun rights. It's also prompted the young people from Marjory Stoneman Douglas and across the United States to demand action for stricter firearms controls.
The students arrived at Leon High School in Tallahassee late Tuesday after a 400-mile trip on three buses. They said that they are fighting to protect all students.
About 100 students began marching from the Tucker Center on the campus of Florida State University, where they spent the night, to the Capitol building Wednesday morning where they will meet with politicians in their push for gun law reform following the deadly scene last week.
Those students will not appear at a rally in front of the old capitol building after State Senator Lauren Book, a Democrat from Broward County who helped organize the events, said she was concerned that gun rights advocates at the rally would be too much for students to deal with just one week after their classmates and teachers were killed.