Dalton Thompson shared a terrifying memory from his first grade: a lockdown at his school due to an unauthorized person on the premises with a gun. Speaking to about 200 people on the steps of the Arkansas Capitol on Saturday, he recounted how this fear wasn’t a one-time occurrence but a regular part of his school experience. “We had at least two lockdowns per year all through high school,” said Thompson, a University of Central Arkansas graduate, an incoming law student, and the national representative for the Young Democrats of America from Arkansas.

“How many days did we waste away cowering in fear in a dark classroom, just in the corner, wondering, ‘Are we about to die? Are we about to be slaughtered? Are we about to have our names on signs?'” he asked the crowd.

The rally was one of many held across the nation on Saturday, part of a renewed surge of gun control activism in response to a series of recent mass shootings. The deadliest occurred at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed.

Dee Sanders, a former Moms Demand Action Arkansas chapter leader who is now running for the state House of Representatives as a Democrat in Conway, read the names of the 21 Uvalde victims aloud for the rallygoers to repeat back. “The turnout today is heartening,” she said. “This was organized fairly quickly for a march.”

The protesters marched to the Capitol building from the intersection of Capitol Avenue and South Izard Street, carrying signs advocating for stricter gun control and chanting slogans like “Kids, not guns” and “No more silence, end gun violence.” The messages on their signs included “Enough is enough,” “Legislation, not thoughts and prayers,” and “Arm teachers with pencils, not guns.”

On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a package of gun control measures, which included raising the legal age to purchase certain firearms from 18 to 21 and creating new federal offenses for gun trafficking and the sale of high-capacity magazines. However, all of Arkansas’s Republican representatives—Rick Crawford, French Hill, Steve Womack, and Bruce Westerman—voted against the legislation, which is not expected to pass in the U.S. Senate.

Kate Fletcher, a Little Rock resident and spokesperson for Moms Demand Action in Arkansas, criticized the Congressmen’s decisions and called for them to be voted out of office. “After this week, after these votes by these so-called Christian men, I can no longer tell my 6-year-old daughter that monsters don’t exist because they do,” Fletcher said.

Several Democratic elected officials attended the rally, including State Senator Clarke Tucker and State Representatives Fred Love and Andrew Collins, all from Little Rock; David Barber, a state Senate candidate from Conway; gubernatorial nominee Chris Jones; and lieutenant gubernatorial nominee Kelly Krout.

The U.S. has experienced more than 250 mass shootings in 2022 so far, and in 2020, one American died from gun violence every 12 minutes. Tucker pointed out that this would mean three people died between the start of the march and his 10-minute speech, which he began with 21 seconds of silence to honor the victims of the Uvalde shooting.

He noted that while making schools safer has been a primary focus for Republicans in the Legislature following the Uvalde tragedy, he believes the conversation needs to be broader. “I’m for making schools safe, but what about grocery stores like in Buffalo, N.Y.? What about hospitals like in Oklahoma? What about funerals like in Iowa? What about where we are right here, right now?” Tucker asked, referencing other recent mass shootings. “Are we going to turn every public space in America into a prison or a war zone?”

In addition to the gun control measures that passed the U.S. House, the rallygoers also expressed support for universal background checks, a mandatory waiting period before buying a gun, and red flag laws to keep firearms away from individuals who may pose a danger to themselves or others. Tucker also voiced his support for a “safe storage law” that would ensure guns are kept out of reach of children and anyone who might steal a gun from a family member.

He emphasized that failing to enact these measures at the federal level is “an indictment of the political system.” “In the wake of Uvalde, if you fail to act now, at least be straight with me,” Tucker said. “Just tell me that these slaughtered children are the cost of your definition of a free society. Be honest, but here’s my question: When is that cost too high? If the next school shooting happens in Arkansas, is the cost too high then?”

Thompson echoed this frustration with both Democratic and Republican officials and urged the crowd to work tirelessly to elect candidates who support gun reform. “We have to get people to vote because that’s how we break this gun-horny supermajority, that’s how we elect Democrats, and that’s how we change the system. And then, once we do that, we hold the Democrats accountable,” Thompson said.

Jessica Taverna, an art teacher at Little Rock Central High School, read a quote from feminist writer bell hooks: “There can be, and usually is, some degree of pain involved in giving up old ways of thinking and knowing and learning new approaches. I respect that pain.” Taverna expressed that being both a teacher and a parent makes school lockdowns stressful and painful. She described school employees in America as “sitting targets with less and less hope.”

Zulkifl Qazi, a rising junior at Central High and a member of its Students Demand Action chapter, recalled an incident in October 2021 when shots were fired in a nearby neighborhood, and bullets broke two classroom windows. The ensuing lockdown ended with students being sent home early. “I was on the third floor, and right below the window, all the parents were piling up, wanting to open the doors and see their children,” Qazi said.

Rose Wise, a mother and grandmother from Hot Springs Village, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that she is grateful not to have children in school today. She said elected officials “have blood on their hands” for not enacting gun regulations despite the numerous shootings. “Thoughts and prayers are not going to help anybody,” Wise said. “They’ve got to be backed up by action. A thought and a prayer without action is hypocritical.”