'March for Our Lives' event today

SANDPOINT — Students across the world will march the streets of their respective communities today as proponents of gun reform, and Sandpoint is no exception, in the movement dubbed "March for Our Lives."

Sandpoint High School students secured a city permit to march through town, beginning at 10 a.m. in the area of City Beach, with parking available in the Sand Creek lot or City Beach.

"Their purpose is to demonstrate for sensible gun reform," said Rebecca Holland with North Idaho Women, the group that organized the local "Women's March" in January and assisted the students in securing the permit from the city.

More than 800 communities across the nation, as well as 90 international marches, will be held simultaneously, the largest of which will be held in Washington, D.C. The movement was sparked by students in Florida after 17 people were killed in a school shooting at Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. Students also hosted a National School Walkout a month later on March 14 for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 who were killed.

Holland reiterated that the movement is for common sense gun reform, with universal background checks as the number one priority. Another priority, she said, is outlawing the semi-automatic weapons with "bump stocks," which increase the weapons rate of fire.

"That's what the student's are calling for, because their motto is 'enough is enough,'" Holland said.

Holland said today's high school seniors are a generation who were born just after the Columbine High School shooting in April 1999, where two teens killed 13 people and injured more than 20 others before committing suicide.

According to history.com, it was the worst high school shooting in U.S. history at that time and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety, as well as a major investigation to determine what motivated the gunmen. As a result of the Columbine shooting, many schools across the country began hosting active shooter drills, and Holland said today's teens are those who grew up with those drills in the classroom.

"And they hear of the massacres that are happening at schools, and this last one was, again, much like the Columbine thing," Holland said. "And kids recognize that it is more than just gun reform that is needed, there are a lot of aspects to it, but guns are part of the problem."

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.