Student-led rallies around the country on Saturday aimed to show support for gun rights, though their effort drew smaller-than-expected crowds in a bid to counter the well-funded and organized youth gun-control lobby that emerged after the massacre in a Florida high school earlier this year.
Here in Chicago, people rallied in a corner of Millennium Park. In Los Angeles, protesters yelled "gun rights are human rights" as they marched near Pershing Square. In Washington, an American flag billowed against a backdrop of the Capitol as attendees said guns are being used as scapegoats and that society's problems run deeper than firearms.
Students who say their views have been silenced in recent months as vocal gun-control advocates have been monopolizing attention used the marches as a way to raise awareness of their fears that hasty solutions could lead to an erosion of the Second Amendment.
Colin FitzSimmons, 13, of Algonquin, Illinois, spoke at the Chicago rally, sounding alarms that liberal gun-control efforts really want to "to disarm the populace." People held signs reading "we're not going away" and "take back gun rights."
"Our generation isn't going to embrace gun control," Colin said, noting that any changes to gun laws need to be carefully considered. "The devil is in the details."
The rallies come amid a wave of gun-control activism sparked by the February shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It led to nationwide marches and backing from large groups and donors.
Organizers of Saturday's marches said many conservative students feel as though their views are not being taken into consideration in the debate about school shootings, and the marches on Saturday were planned as a way to show that not all students support gun control.
