We Want Our Voices To Be Heard" March for Our Lives protesters In Their Own Words

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March for our lives..

Marchers descended on Washington DC from around US to call for gun reform in the "march for our lives " demonstrations. Lois Beckett spoke to some of those taking part.

"We have not forgotten what happened inm Sandy Hook and Columbine and Virginia  Tech. Those things happened a long time ago,and people tried putting them in the back of their minds,but we are showing here that we have not forgotten about any of that," said Ruqaiyah

The shooting that first affected her directly was sandy hook, she said. "i was very young" she said. " i was nervous, i did not really understand what it was about. i remember being afraid".

For Amanah, it was "when it happened here" there was a school shooting nearby in maryland last week.

The father and daughter came to washington to show their support for the parkland students and to advocate for a ban on assault weapons.

"i think the second amendment needs to be repealed and amended. i don't think the right to own a gun should be unlimited," Steve graig said.

Maddie Graig said she thought social media had changed the gun control debate, allowing students to speak directly to each other and share their experiences. "for columbine, there wasn't that social media presence."now, she said, "you can hear every student's opinion. there's a lot more awareness of what's going on across America."

Alice Gambino,age 42,Silver spring,maryland

gambino's two sons, age 15 and 8, were too afraid to come to the rally, worried that the large crowds would attract "gun crazies" and that there might be another act of violence.

"you don't have to go. i'll go for you,"she told them.
 Gambino said this was her first protest for gun control. "i think i was waiting for someone else to do something," she said.

"seeing that the kids in the last attack had to rally themselves, i felt very guilty. we the parents should have already been in the streets and we shouldn't have left until we made the change for them."

Jasmine Meelock,17 and Kaeleigh Wedin,16 Greak mills, Maryland

Meelock and Wedin came to the march for our lives just four days after shooting at their high school in southern
Maryland, which left one of their classmates killed, one injured, and a third,the shooter,dead after a confrontation with a school police officer.

The two teenagers had hidden in their classrooms during the shooting,listening to the principal call over the loudspeaker to exit the halls.

"it was a little bit scary at first when the police officers came into our classrooms. They had guns. It was really chaos. they kicked down the door. it was really loud. A lot of us hadn't seen guns before,"said Meelock.

" I was close to it." said Wedin. "We went on lockdown, we were all waiting to know if we were going to be Ok. If there was a threat to us. We were all planning what we were going to do if we had to get out throught the window."

The shooter had posted on social media and in private messages before the shooting that he was depressed and guns, they said.

Ayana Trottier,17,Turtle Mountain reservation,North Dakota

Trottier had traveled as part of a group from the Turtle
Mountain Indian reservation in North Dakota near the canadian border. Her school's student council had organized the trip to show their support for parkland students, and in reaction to the series of threats their school and town had faced in recent weeks.

It was the teenagers' first march, Trottier and the other young women wore ceremonial ribbon skirts to show the importance of the march. "They're very sacred," she said.

" We want our voices to be heard," she said. "As minorities we understand feeling speechless or not being heard."