Americans in Israel gathered in Tel Aviv on Friday to join the global "March for Our Lives" protest for stricter gun control. Participants included survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters rallied across the U.S. against gun violence Saturday, vowing to transform fear and grief into a "vote-them-out" movement and stricter laws against weapons and ammunition.
They took to the streets of the nation's capital and other major cities, such as Boston, New York, Chicago, Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Oakland, California, in the kind of numbers seen during the Vietnam era, sweeping up activists long frustrated by inaction in the gun debate and bringing in lots of new, young voices.
By all appearances – there were no official numbers – Washington's March for Our Lives rally rivaled the women's march last year that drew far more than the predicted 300,000 marchers.
The National Rifle Association went silent on Twitter as the protests unfolded, in contrast to its reaction to the nationwide school walkouts against gun violence March 14, when it tweeted a photo of an assault rifle and the message "I'll control my own guns, thank you."
The U.S. Congress is expected to approve a massive spending bill this week with grants to help schools prevent gun violence, improvements to background checks and an assurance that a key government agency can conduct related research.
The provisions are Congress' response to intensified public anger and frustration over mass shootings and follow the Feb. 14 massacre at a Florida high school in which 17 people died.
