March For Our Lives: Thousands Rally In Tampa For Gun Control

TAMPA, FL - Thousands of teenagers and adults marched for stricter gun control measures at the March for Our Lives rally in downtown Tampa on Saturday. The message from students who organized the rally was clear: Adults have failed to stop gun violence and now it's up to us.

More than 3,000 filled Curtis Hixon Park to hear speeches from local students and then march down Kennedy Boulevard to the University of Tampa chanting: "Enough is enough" and "This is what democracy looks like." Many in the crowd carried signs expressing the desire for more gun control measures and the end to school violence.

Some of the messages included: #Never Again; I Want To Read Books. Not Eulogies; and If You Hunt With An Assault Rifle. You Are A Bad Hunter.

Thousands of students and adults gathered in cities across the nation on Saturday, from Washington D.C. to New York, Boston, Baltimore and Atlanta. Other rallies were held in the Tampa Bay area at Poynter Park in St. Petersburg and at Bayfront Park in Sarasota. Volunteers were stationed at the Tampa rally to register people to vote.

Tampa's March for Our Lives was organized by Plant High School student Brooke Shapiro and three friends who say they "will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar."

Prior to the speeches, the crowd held a moment of silence for the 17 killed in the Parkland shooting. The shooting deaths at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland has galvanized a call for more gun control measures. The surviving Parkland students have led the movement.

Shapiro, who spoke first at the rally, said the purpose of the march was to honor the survivors of the Parkland shootings. But also to demand comprehensive and effective laws to address gun violence.

"Today, we are not settling for thoughts and prayers," she said.

In her Facebook invitation for students to join her Shapiro said: "No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legislation to effectively address the gun violence issues that are rampant in our country."

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn also addressed the crowd, asking if those at the rally were tired of politicians who spend more time caring "about the NRA than the PTA." He added that adults had failed in approving stronger gun control legislation. "The grown-ups have screwed this up," he said.

"Stand up young people. This is your moment. This is your time. We need you. March on young people," Buckhorn said.

The Parkland students have already bulldozed roadblocks that had stymied gun-control advocates for years. Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association, signed a bill that raises the minimum age for buying an assault rifle from 18 to 21, creates a waiting period for purchasing firearms, allocates money for school security and allows police to confiscate weapons from people deemed dangerous. The law was named after Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The students spurred the national school walkout on March 14, when tens of thousands of students streamed out of their classrooms in protest of gun violence. The students left their classrooms for 17 minutes, one minute to remember each person killed in Parkland.

At the Washington D.C. march, Cameron Kasky, one of the student leaders from Parkland, read the names of all 17 victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. He read Nicholas Dworet's name last because March 24 is Dworet's birthday.

"Nicholas we are all here for you," Kasky said. "Happy birthday."

Patch reporters Feroze Dhanoa and Danielle Woodward in New York City contributed to this report.

Photos by Don Johnson, Patch staff