About 40 students and adults from coastal Maine and elsewhere gathered Wednesday in front of Bangor's Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building to stage a silent vigil against gun violence in the United States, and to let Maine's congressional delegation know that they want safe schools.
The demonstrators held signs calling for new firearms restrictions and outright bans on sales of assault weapons similar to the one used last week in the Parkland, Fla. where high school mass shooting that left 17 people dead.
“I think our main goal is making sure that people are aware that there is a problem and it's a very real issue,” said Emily Homer, a Southwest Harbor student at Mount Desert Island High School. “It's not something that's necessarily going to go away soon or quickly, and we're just trying to resolve it in the best way possible.”
While at the federal building, some of the demonstrators also visited the offices of Maine's congressional delegation to register their opposition to gun violence.
“We are just demanding gun safety," said Amy Roebuck, also of Mount Desert. "We're not demanding repeal of the second amendment, we're just demanding safety. We're demanding common sense steps. Make the step, start somewhere.”
This story was originally published Feb. 21, 2018 at 3:50 p.m. ET.