US STUDENTS in their thousands walked out of schools and colleges today in a coast-to-coast protest against gun violence, united by the slogan “We want change.”

The National School Walkout spread across the US time zones from east to west as each area of the country timed its action for 10am.

Hundreds gathered in front of the White House in Washington DC, telling elected politicians that they are the future and would soon be old enough to vote them out of office if they don’t hear the demand to curb gun ownership.

Hours before the walkout officially began, students from Montgomery Blair High School in Maryland, escorted by slow-moving police cars, marched to a Metro station, where they boarded a train to the White House.

Each of the local protests was scheduled to last 17 minutes  to commemorate the 17 students and staff killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14 — the latest in a series of massacres to have plagued US schools in the past two decades.

Many protests lasted longer than that, especially where school boards had refused permission to hold the demonstrations.

In New York City, crowds of students poured into the streets of Manhattan, many dressed in orange, the colour of the gun-control movement.

“Thoughts and prayers are not enough,” read one sign, in response to the rote response many politicians give after mass shootings.
At 10am, the hundreds of students sat down on the pavement, filling half a city block, and fell silent.

In Parkland, thousands of students slowly filed onto the Stoneman Douglas school American football field to applause from onlooking families and supporters as law enforcement officers stood by.

The walkouts were part of a burgeoning grassroots movement that grew out of the Parkland attack.

Some of the survivors have lobbied state and federal legislators, while others met President Donald Trump, to call for new restrictions on gun ownership.

Protesters chanted an assortment of slogans, including an updated Vietnam war volley at the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby group: “Hey, hey, NRA, how many kids did you kill today?”