Parkland students return to Washington to keep pressure on

Activists meet with members of Congress in push for more gun control

WASHINGTON – One by one, South Florida students told their stories. Although they knew it would help, everyone listening knew it still hurt.

Although upset and angry, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School came to Washington Wednesday to take action. They spoke not to just South Florida U.S. Reps. Frederica Wilson and Ted Deutch, but to national leaders like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. They still need help.

The students have become outspoken advocates for stricter gun laws after the February mass shooting at their school left 17 people dead. 

"I remember hearing the gunshots and screams while I was in that closet," said Alfonso Calderon, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "The reason why we're here … is despicable."

In the nearly 100 days since the mass shooting, little has been done at the federal level. Small measures like grant money to help schools have passed in the federal budget, but major items such as universal background checks -- despite being floated by President Donald Trump himself -- have not happened.

South Florida lawmakers have tried, introducing measures to do just that, but there simply is not enough national political will.

"We're going to listen to the children," said Wilson, a Miami Gardens Democrat. "There are just too make damn guns in America."