Many Redhawk students joined the thousands in downtown Dallas and McKinney in Saturday’s “March for our Lives” event to advocate for stricter gun control following the shooting in Parkland on Valentine’s Day.

“I participated today because I’ve lived in Connecticut for 14 years, and during the Sandy Hook incident I lived 30 minutes away, and I’ve waited since then for any type of gun reform to happen. However, nothing happened,” junior Amina Syeda said. “The last time it happened was 2008 under the Bush administration. So, I’m here to actually advocate for some sort of change, also I’m near the age of voting so I feel like it’s the perfect time for me to go out and advocate for something I believe in.”

Thousands gathered in Dallas and hundreds more in McKinney holding creative posters voicing their beliefs on gun control.

“Once people see that there’s actually a lot of people fighting for a change and wanting a certain cause, then they’re going to realize that we need to listen to the people and do what they need,” junior Dena Assad said.

The march is not the only step being taken to advocate for change.

“We are going to actually have a Liberty walk out on April 20, and you can support us by walking out with us,” Syeda said. “We are going to have voter registration outside for anyone 17 years and 10 months older, and we are also going to have a sign up or anyone younger so that we can make sure that they actually get reminded to come register to vote.”

It’s easy to think that someone under 18 can’t do anything for what they believe in because they can’t vote, however freshman marcher Chloe Zonis sees things differently.

“Hopefully it will cause a lot of attention in the media and catch the eye of legislators and change the way that they think,” Zonis said.”I believe that there should be more regulations on gun control, so I did my part because I can’t vote so what I could do was I could march.”