PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Thousands of people throughout the Portland metro hit the streets Saturday as part of a nationwide day of marching for increased gun control.

Just weeks after the massacre at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, activists, students and community members brought back the March For Our Lives, pushing for something to be done about gun violence sweeping the country.

Marchers in downtown Portland started at PSU before making their way to City Hall and up SW 4th Avenue, remaining peaceful while calling on local leaders for gun control. One teacher told KOIN 6 News she marched 4 years ago after the Parkland school shooting and it’s frustrating to be doing the same thing years later.

“I want to teach my students and I don’t want to die with them. Because every time I walk into my classroom, I’m always thinking about locking the door or the weapons we have on hand, but we all know a stapler isn’t going to destroy an AR-15,” said Ceci Brunning, a history teacher at De La Salle North Catholic High School. “I think protests are helpful and they put pressure on the people in power and it’s very cathartic to kind of come together, but we need Congress to do something before we die.”

Local marches were held in Portland, Beaverton, Longview, Vancouver and Sherwood. Many chanted phrases like “enough is enough” and “no more silence, end gun violence.”

“As an elected official, as a mom, and I’m an ER doctor, so many perspectives that I hold and identities I hold are essential to stand up and call out the need to address gun violence,” said Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran. “People cannot be out enough, saying, calling for our elected leaders to be out here, leading. We’re supposed to be leaders.”

The day of protest was first launched by survivors of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed and 17 others injured.

March For Our Lives protests didn’t just happen in Oregon and Washington. More than 400 cities throughout the US also planned marches, with one of the largest in Washington D.C.., where an estimated crowd of tens of thousands gathered.

  • Students, activists and protesters gather in front of City Hall in Portland on march for gun control as part of a nationwide day of protests, June 11, 2022. (KOIN)
  • Students, activists and protesters took to the streets in Portland near the PSU Urban Plaza to march for gun control as part of a nationwide day of protests, June 11, 2022. (KOIN)