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Published: March 14, 2018

Thousands of U.S. students walked out of classes at mid-morning Wednesday to protest the lack of congressional action to combat gun violence in American schools and to remember those killed in a mass shooting last month at a Florida high school.

The protests lasted for 17 minutes, one for each of the 14 students and three adults killed on Valentine's Day when a troubled 19-year-old gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. There, a month to the day when the shooting rampage unfolded near the end of a normal school day, hundreds of students streamed onto the school's football field to protest and remember the mayhem in their midst.

Organizers said nearly 3,000 walkouts were planned across the country, with other protests occurring in front of the White House and Capitol in Washington.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told protesters in Washington, "Thank you for bringing your urgency to the doorstep of the Capitol."

Some local school administrators supported the protests, but others said students would be disciplined with suspensions for walking out of classes without authorization.

The protests occurred as acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich told lawmakers in Washington that the country's top criminal investigative agency had received a "very explicit" tip five weeks ahead of the attack on the Florida high school that the accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, was planning the assault, but for some unknown reason did not pass the information on to local police to investigate. Authorities have previously said they also had other warning signs about Cruz but did not act on them.

Prosecutors have charged Cruz, who was expelled last year from Stoneman Douglas, with 17 counts of premeditated murder and say they intend to seek the death penalty. At a brief court hearing Wednesday, a Florida judge entered a not-guilty plea on Cruz's behalf. His lawyer said Cruz would plead guilty if prosecutors waive the possibility of capital punishment.

In some communities, parents carrying protest signs joined their children in calling for stiffer gun controls in the U.S., where the Constitution enshrines gun ownership and Congress has long blocked proposals to tighten laws about gun purchases 

Women's March Youth Empower, the youth branch of the Women's March group that has protested against President Donald Trump, said it planned the walkouts "to protest Congress' inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods."

"Students and staff have the right to teach and learn in an environment free from the worry of being gunned down in their classrooms or on their way home from school," the organizers said.

"We are not safe at school. We are not safe in our cities and towns. Congress must take meaningful action to keep us safe and pass federal gun reform legislation," the group said.

David Hogg, a Stoneman Douglas student who has become a key spokesman for the protests, told the MSNBC network, "If our elected officials don't take responsibility for their inaction on both sides of the [political] aisle, then we are going to kick them out of office."

So far, however, national lawmakers, beyond voicing their grief and anger at the latest U.S. mass killing, have not acted.

Trump initially said he supported increasing the age limit for gun purchases from 18 to 21 but backed away from the proposal in the face of adamant opposition from the National Rifle Association (NRA), the country's top gun lobby. Trump is calling for arming some teachers and school administrators after extensive training as a way to prevent more school shootings. Teachers are armed in some U.S. communities, but the idea is generally opposed by national teacher groups as dangerous.

Student protesters are calling for a ban on sales of assault weapons like the one used in the Florida shooting, but that is highly unlikely to occur.

In Florida last week, state lawmakers increased the gun-buying age from 18 to 21, with the NRA immediately filing suit to block the change.

Wednesday's walkouts are among several protests planned for the coming weeks.

The March for Our Lives rally for school safety is expected to draw hundreds of thousands to Washington on March 24. Another round of walkouts is planned for April 20, the 19-year anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

Since last month's shooting, students at Stoneman Douglas have taken the lead calling for gun control reform, forming Never Again MSD, a student-led gun control organization.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the students who helped found the Never Again MSD, gave a speech shortly after the shooting in which she called out politicians for not addressing mass shootings.

"Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have ever been done to prevent this, we call BS," Gonzalez said. "They say that no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS."