World joins U.S anti-gun marches
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers and their supporters staged rallies in Washington and other cities across America yesterday to press for gun control in one of the biggest youth protests since the Vietnam era.
In Scotland relatives of Dunblane massacre victims were among hundreds of people who protested outside the US Consulate in Edinburgh in support of the campaign.
Florida shooting survivor David Hogg, who has emerged as one of the student leaders of the movement, told the March For Our Lives rally in Washington: “If you listen real close, you can hear the people in power shaking.”
Chanting, “Vote them out!” the protesters packed Pennsylvania Avenue between the Capitol and the White House.
Large rallies with crowds estimated in the tens of thousands in many cases also unfolded in cities including Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Parkland, Florida, the site of the February attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead.
Speakers at the Edinburgh rally included Jack and Ellie Crozier, whose sister Emma was killed in the Dunblane shooting, and Ali Ross, whose sister Joanna also died.
They read a letter of support to those affected by the Parkland tragedy.
Catherine Wilson, who lost her sister Mhairi in Dunblane, also took part in the event, reading her poem For Parkland/ The Public I.
She said: “I am so overwhelmed and impressed by the teenagers in America who are demonstrating today.”