Days after a gunman opened fire at a Madden video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, killing two and marking the country's latest mass shooting, Rebecca Heimbrock was leading a team of fellow teenagers through the halls of Congress.
Their mission: hold protests outside the offices of several Republican senators supported by the National Rifle Association. That included Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Mitch McConnell, the majority leader from Kentucky.
At each senate office, the teens shared letters from their peers and a simple message.
"We are completely fed up," said Heimbrock, a 15-year-old high school sophomore from Maryland who organized these protests at the U.S. Capitol. "We are tired of this cycle of shootings."
Heimbrock is one of thousands of fledgling youth advocates around the country pressuring lawmakers to reform gun laws following a long and growing string of high-profile shooting sprees. It's part of a new wave of gun control activism being led by teenagers that also highlights how millennials in the United States are dealing with firearm violence compared to their peers around the globe.
Young people around the world are reacting to the series of shootings that have unfolded in the U.S. with surprise and confusion.
Cailley Wiggins, a 21-year-old from Beith, Scotland, said she doesn't worry about gun violence on a daily basis because firearms are highly regulated, partially in response to a school shooting in the United Kingdom during the 1990s. But Wiggins said the public reaction in the U.S. following every new shooting seems to follow a disturbing pattern.
"It feels like the same thing happens every time," she said. "People are horrified and heartbroken, then outraged and a debate begins. Then it fizzles
