"We will not back down." Amherst High School senior Kelsey Dux was emphatic speaking on the steps of City Hall to start Buffalo's 'March for Our Lives'.
The March 24 rally took place nationwide, and drew a crowd of 3,000 on a chilly Western New York Saturday afternoon. Student leaders began the demonstration after working to put together the event. Dux took the podium first to roars of the crowd gathered in Niagara Square.
"While trying to learn I should not have to think about how to rearrange a room from a gunman," said Dux, who was drowned out moments later by cheers from the crowd.
Politicians and singers joined the students on stage to share their thoughts. The guests of the day, though, were two students from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in Buffalo for a hockey tournament. Justin Colton and Ryan Walsh took the stage with Mayor Brown before the march itself began.
"It was crazy, it was not good and we should never have to go through that," said Colton about the February shooting. He was shot twice in the frenzy. "We can't just have sayings, we need people to actually do something about these events."
Dux says Saturday's rally "is just the beginning." WNY schools are planning another demonstration on April 20, the 19th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.
