Warning: The above video is live and may contain graphic language. Viewer discretion is advised.Thousands of protestors are rallying in Washington, D.C., Saturday and in separate demonstrations around the country as part of a renewed push for nationwide gun control. Motivated by a fresh surge in mass shootings, from Uvalde, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, protestors say lawmakers must take note of shifting public opinion and finally enact sweeping reforms.Organizers expect the second March for Our Lives rally to draw around 50,000 demonstrators to the Washington Monument. That's far less than the original 2018 march, which filled downtown Washington with more than 200,000 people. This time, organizers are focusing on holding smaller marches at an estimated 300 locations."We want to make sure that this work is happening across the country," said Daud Mumin, co-chairman of the march's board of directors and a recent graduate of Westminster College in Salt Lake City. "This work is not just about D.C., it's not just about senators."The first march was spurred by the Feb. 14, 2018, killings of 14 students and three staff members by a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. That massacre sparked the creation of the youth-led March For Our Lives movement, which successfully pressured the Republican-dominated Florida state government to enact sweeping gun control reforms.The Parkland students then took aim at gun laws in other states and nationally, launching March for Our Lives and holding the big rally in Washington on March 24, 2018.The group did not match the Florida results at the national level, but has persisted in advocating for gun restrictions since then, as well as participating in voter registration drives.Now, with another string of mass shootings bringing gun control back into the national conversation, organizers of this weekend's events say the time is right to renew their push for a national overhaul."Right now we are angry," said Mariah Cooley, a March For Our Lives board member and a senior at Washington's Howard University. "This will be a demonstration to show that us as Americans, we're not stopping anytime soon until Congress does their jobs. And if not, we'll be voting them out."The protest comes at a time of renewed political activity on guns and a crucial moment for possible action in Congress.Survivors of mass shootings and other incidents of gun violence have lobbied legislators and testified on Capitol Hill this week. Among them was Miah Cerrillo, an 11-year-old girl who survived the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. She told lawmakers how she covered herself with a dead classmate's blood to avoid being shot.On Tuesday, actor Matthew McConaughey appeared at the White House briefing room to press for gun legislation and made highly personal remarks about the violence in his hometown of Uvalde.The House has passed bills that would raise the age limit to buy semi-automatic weapons and establish federal "red flag" laws. But such initiatives have traditionally stalled or been heavily watered down in the Senate. Democratic and Republican senators had hoped to reach agreement this week on a framework for addressing the issue and talked Friday, but they had not announced an accord by early evening.Mumin referred to the Senate as "where substantive action goes to die," and said the new march is meant to spend a message to lawmakers that public opinion on gun control is shifting under their feet. "If they're not on our side, there are going to be consequences — voting them out of office and making their lives a living hell when they're in office," he said.___Associated Press writer Ian Mader in Miami contributed to this report.

It's been four years since 17 students and staff were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14, 2018.Seventeen others were injured.The gunman, Nikolas Cruz, assembled his AR-15 rifle in the stairwell and opened fire in the "freshman building." "Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers. I think we got shots fired. Possible shots fired, 1200 building," could be heard on the radio communications.Cruz eventually dropped the gun and fled by blending in with the other students as police stormed the building. He was captured an hour later walking through a neighborhood.Shortly after he was arrested, he confessed and said the voices in his head told him to do it.The FBI came forward in the days after the shooting, saying they had received tips about Cruz.Video below: Cruz interrogation video releasedIn the fall of 2021, the shooter pleaded guilty to all charges connected to the school shooting. Prosecutors now plan to seek the death penalty.For many families, they said there will never be closure for the loss of their loved ones.Students and families turned into activists. Jim Gard, a math teacher that day, said they were all victims.“These kids that were in the class, just because they weren’t hit doesn’t mean they weren’t hit,” he said.And since that day, so many of those victims have refused to just sit back and do nothing. In the days following the shooting, a movement called March For Our Lives was born.David Hogg was one of the founders.“When we started doing the march, we thought there would be about 90 people that we could get up to DC,” Hogg said. “We got near a million.”Four years later, March For Our Lives is still going strong with chapters across the country.They’ve helped pass state laws designed to keep guns away from violent offenders. They’ve worked to get more federal funding to control gun violence.Video below: March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C. It’s become a full-time job nobody wants.“We want our job to be done so we can go back to being college students or high school students and young people and young professionals,” Hogg said.When they watched the Parkland shooter plead guilty to the murders he committed, both Hogg and Gard were pleased to see this chapter end.Video below: Cruz pleads guilty in courtThey just ask you not to call it closure.“It’s the parents of the kids, the parents who lost their children, I don’t know if there can ever be closure on that,” Gard said. “I know for a lot of the people that I talked to, families that I talked to, there is not closure that can come. There’s nothing that will ever bring their kids back, their siblings back, their best friends back.”Video below: Cruz makes statement to court, familiesThe Broward County School District announced in Dec. 2021 that it will pay more than $26 million to the families of the victims."While we recognize no amount of money can make these families whole, it is the school board's hope that this settlement will show our heartfelt commitment to the MSD families, students, staff, faculty and to the entire Broward County community," said Marylin Batista, the board's interim general counsel. President Joe Biden released a statement Monday morning, saying in part:"On this difficult day, we mourn with the Parkland families whose lives were upended in an instant; who had to bury a piece of their soul deep in the earth. We pray too for those still grappling with wounds both visible and invisible. And, as we remember those lost in Parkland, we also stand with Americans in every corner of our country who have lost loved ones to gun violence or had their lives forever altered by a shooting, in tragedies that made headlines and in ones that did not."Out of the heartbreak of Parkland a new generation of Americans all across the country marched for our lives and towards a better, safer America for us all. Together, this extraordinary movement is making sure that the voices of victims and survivors and responsible gun owners are louder than the voices of gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association." Remembering those whose lives were lostCan't see the visual? Click here.If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, call 211 or the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.