BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo "March for Our Lives" could draw as many as 2,500 people to Niagara Square on Saturday as a part of nationwide rallies against gun violence, Mayor Byron Brown said during a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
The rally will begin Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at the steps of City Hall before a march proceeds through downtown. Most high-profile elected Democrats in Buffalo and Erie County are expected to attend, according to the mayor's office.
Georgia VanDerwater, a senior at East Aurora High School, said she'll be speaking at the March for Our Lives as a student advocate.
"People often say that students and young people aren't politically active or aren't active in their world," VanDerwater said. "I think it's really gonna prove that statement wrong and show we care about what's happening."
Buffalo's rally is among at least 700 scheduled in cities across the country on Saturday afternoon. The central March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., a student-organized event in light of last month's Parkland shooting, could draw as many as 500,000 people, according to the Washington Post.
Pioneer High School senior Erin Byers will be traveling to D.C. with a few of her friends and a trusted teacher. They will leave for their road trip on Friday afternoon at 2:30 — right after school lets out.
"It's very historic and such a huge thing," Byers said, "and to be a small part of it is such an honor."
If the March for Our Lives in Washington actually draws 500,000 people, it will be on par with the 1963 March on Washington and the Million Mom March of 2000, which was the most significant anti-gun violence rally in recent memory.
Saturday's March for Our Lives, though, will be a generational landmark for millions of young people across the United States, a movement fueled largely through the savvy use of social media.
Over the past 36 days, students have used Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms to highlight their desire for specific policy changes, including expanded background checks and stronger measures to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Their well-formulated arguments — although not universally accepted by all sides of the political spectrum — have afforded them an unprecedented level of media attention.
Still, while some state legislatures have seen movement on gun control issues since the Parkland shooting, Congress has largely failed to act so far.
"Once they see that six weeks after this shooting happened, we're still here and here in such huge numbers, maybe they'll take into account how serious we are about this," Byers said, "and how serious we are about voting on this in November."