There are more than 800 rallies and marches against gun violence planned for around the world today. The flagship student-organized March for Our Lives starts at noon on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington.
Thousands of marchers are already out on Pennsylvania Ave. 
There is a fair bit of student snark out here.
The early crowd just past the Trump Hotel:
There’s a lot going on here
A lot of young people have brought older people into the streets today. Ella, 13, and grandmother Lilo, 75.
Corina Tipton, 16, left, says her classmates have regular conversations about how they could hide from a school shooter. “Someone will look toward the stack of textbooks in the corner and say ‘do think you can remove the ceiling tiles and climb up there?’”
Zion Foster, 16, took a bus 12 hours from Ohio with about 100 classmates. His friend, 17, was shot dead in her apartment. “I just want to do what I can for her.”
“It’s the most empowering and cool thing I’ve ever done in my entire life,” says Kendal Neel, 17, marching for the first time. She says she’s been worried since Sandy Hook about being shot at her small-town school: “I’m always asking the question: am I next?”
Sign-holders are taking various approaches to the NRA.
Douglas student activist Sarah Chadwick tells politicians who reject action on gun control: “Get ready to get voted out, by us.”
“We will not allow a price to be put upon our lives,” she says.
“We will not allow a price to be put upon our lives,” she says.
A Maryland pro-gun-rights group called Patriot Picket has showed up in the middle of the gun control march to counter-protest. People are shouting at them.
The speakers at the DC rally are students from around the country who have been affected by gun violence. They’re putting an emphasis on voting, and chants of “vote them out” are periodically erupting.
“You have chosen death,” Douglas student activist Alex Wind says of politicians who accept NRA money or refuse action on gun control.
“We choose life!” Wind shouts.
“We choose life!” Wind shouts.
“Inaction is no longer safe,” Douglas student activist David Hogg tells politicians.
“When politicians send their thoughts and prayers with no action, we say: no more. ...We will get rid of these public servants that only serve the gun lobby. And we will save lives.”
“When politicians send their thoughts and prayers with no action, we say: no more. ...We will get rid of these public servants that only serve the gun lobby. And we will save lives.”
Speaker Mya Middleton, 16, of Chicago, tells the story of a man pointing a pistol at her face and telling her he’d find her if she ever said anything.
“And yet I’m still saying something today,” she says.
“And yet I’m still saying something today,” she says.
Speaker Matt Post, 18, of Maryland: “Our nation’s politics are sick with soullessness. But make no mistake: we are the cure.”
Martin Luther King’s little granddaughter Yolanda Renee says, “I have a dream that enough is enough. And that this should be a gun-free world, period.”
Douglas student activist Jaclyn Corin says America can’t be great if it’s not safe, “and 96 deaths by firearms every single day is not what I would call great.”
Douglas student activist Sam Fuentes got sick while performing a poem on stage, then shouted: “I JUST THREW UP ON INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION AND IT FEELS GREAT.”
The teens are good at the memes
There’s near-complete silence on Pennsylvania Ave. as Douglas student activist Emma Gonzalez lists the things her slain friends will never again get to do, then stops speaking.
Gonzalez maintained her emotional silence until the length of the massacre had elapsed. Lots of crying people.
The Afful sisters, university students from Maryland. Bethel, 18, right, had never protested before, got Zoe to come and got their parents to sign petitions. “A lot of people might think one person coming to march isn’t going to spark change. But...there’s a domino effect.”
Sign-ing off from the gun control march:
