The Latest: Raleigh March for Our Lives concludes with emotional song, thanks

A slate of speakers across a range of races and ages urged a crowd of thousands in Raleigh Saturday to commit to voting in the 2018 mid-term elections and beyond, and to stand up for common-sense gun legislation.

The day began at City Plaza where people lined up before 9 a.m. Many spent much of their Saturday in an unseasonable chill to cheer speakers and sway to musical interludes as they demanded action in the wake of a series of mass shootings.

A 12-year-old speaker got some of the loudest cheers for his composed and emotional remarks. As he left the stage, the crowd chanted.

A Leesville High School student who organized her school's walkout warned incumbents that her peers would soon be old enough to vote and they would demand action on gun control.

North Carolina Sen.Jay J. Chaudhuri spoke to the Raleigh March for Our Lives as a parent and a lawmaker, urging listeners to stay committed to the cause of gun control.

He pointed to the State Legislative Building and told the assembly that they must be ready to "walk in" and confront lawmakers with their demands for change.

A Sanderson High School junior took the microphone in Halifax Mall to detail how school shootings have desensitized her generation to gun violence.

"Because of this, I am angry," she said.

A speaker from Moms Demand Action echoed that anger.

"We want change and we want it now," she said.

Speakers at the Raleigh March for Our Lives ranged from student organizers to the Raging Grannies, a group of "ladies of a certain age" who formed around the Moral Monday movement.

Student organizers took the microphone in front of a crowd of thousands, declaring, "We're the future, and we can be the change we want to see in the world."

They pointed to groups doing voter registration, and called out politicians who answer mass shootings with "thoughts and prayers."

"We are going to vote for candidates who actually follow through on their promises for common-sense gun legislation," one speaker said.

An aerial view from Sky 5 shows Raleigh's Fayetteville street packed with people – young, old, black, white – many carrying signs and breaking into chants as they make their way to Halifax Mall.

People chanting "Enough is enough" and "Hey hey ho ho, NRA has got to go" are gathered on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh.

Signs read "We deserve better" and "Fight domestic terrorism. Stop the NRA."

In Raleigh, a march begins at 9:45 a.m. at 400 Fayetteville St. in City Plaza. Marchers will proceed north to Halifax Mall for speakers and a rally. Organizers encouraged participants to wear orange or royal blue. Signs are allowed, but musical instruments are not.

The mission statement on the organizers’ website says the marches on Saturday are to “demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues.”

Several of the Stoneman Douglas students have spent the last few days meeting with political leaders.

Jaclyn Corin, 17, a junior and lead organizer, will give a speech at the rally, and in an interview she compared the march to protests against the Vietnam War and rallies for civil rights. She recently spoke with Rep. John Lewis, a key player during the civil rights era. “He said he saw himself and his friends and his movement in us, in our movement,” she said.

The event will be a show of strength for a group that will soon have access to the ballot box — something marchers plan to emphasize.

“What we’re doing is because we’re not scared of these adults,” Corin said, “because we have nothing to lose, we don’t have an election to lose, we don’t have a job to lose — we just have our lives to lose.”

A group called HeadCount is sending roughly 5,000 volunteers to register people at 30 marches across the country.

The student activists also hope to elevate gun control as a key issue in the coming midterm elections, and to build support for candidates with whom they are aligned on issues such as universal background checks and bans on assault-style weapons.

Organizers of the March for Our Lives rally are hoping to draw 500,000 to Washington, D.C., to call for an end to gun violence and a change to gun laws in the wake of the Valentine's Day shooting spree that claimed 17 lives at a Parkland, Fla., high school. More than 800 marches are planned in cities across America and dozens of locations overseas to be held at roughly the same time.

Survivors of that shooting – students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School – have used social and mass media to keep the focus on their call for stronger gun-control legislation. They have also partnered with well-funded liberal groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control advocacy group founded by former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

Polls indicate that public opinion nationwide may indeed be shifting on an issue that has simmered for generations, and through dozens of mass shootings. A new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 69 percent of Americans think gun laws in the United States should be tightened. That's up from 61 percent who said the same in October of 2016 and 55 percent when the AP first asked the question in October of 2013. Overall, 90 percent of Democrats, 50 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of gun owners now favor stricter gun control laws.

But even with claims of historic social momentum on the issue of gun control, the AP poll also found that nearly half of Americans do not expect elected officials to take action. Among the questions facing march organizers and participants will be how to translate this one-day event, regardless of turnout, into meaningful legislative change.

One way is by channeling the current energy into mid-term congressional elections this fall. Students in Florida have focused on youth voter registration and there will be a registration booth at the Saturday rally.