Close to 2,000 people gathered on the Capitol steps for today’s “Enough is Enough” rally against gun violence – most of them high school and junior high students. “If you leave here knowing anything, I want it to be that your voice will not be lost,” student organizer Collette Raptosh told the crowd at the close of the rally. “Your presence will not be ignored. You can create change … and I encourage you all to do so.” You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.

Carrying signs with slogans including, “Books! Not Guns,” “#enough Save the Kids,” “We Call BS,” “Kids Deserve Safe Schools,” and “The answer is NOT more guns,” the students chanted, cheered, and called for action against gun violence. “I have great teachers, and I don’t remember ever learning of a time when more weapons led to greater protection,” 17-year-old Boise High senior Acey Norris told the crowd. “Let the teachers teach and let the students learn – lawmakers, it is on you. Enough is enough.”

People circulated throughout the crowd with clipboards, signing attendees up to register to vote. A frequent comment that was heard: “Oh, you’re too young?”

Democratic candidate for governor Paulette Jordan was the lead-off speaker, telling the cheering crowd, “Because of students like you, I’m hopeful about gun safety in our country for the first time in a decade. I’m hopeful that you will help strengthen universal background checks. I’m hopeful that you will help bring about laws that mandate training and licensing as a required part of gun ownership. And I am hopeful that your activism will help remove guns from the hands of people who seek to harm all of you.”

One counter-protester waved a confederate flag at the back of the crowd; the students booed loudly, but Norris exhorted them, “Ladies and gentlemen – this is a free speech opportunity. Ignore him!” Later, sign-carrying protesters surrounded the man, moving with him wherever he went in the crowd.

At one point in the rally, organizers called on the attendees to lie down in silence as the names of the victims were read; they did so, though the students were packed so tightly onto the steps that many up there had to settle for sitting and leaning against one another.

At the close of the rally, the crowd poured into the state Capitol building, with many heading to the fourth-floor House and Senate galleries to observe the lawmakers in session, and the rest filling all floors of the rotunda, chanting, cheering and shouting; the sound in the Capitol rotunda was deafening.

Yet, those in the galleries remained silent and respectful. “They did well,” House Speaker Scott Bedke said. “Nothing but respect was shown, yet the message was sent and received. I think we’re all thoughtfully pondering what our next steps should be.”

Bedke noted that state schools Superintendent Sherri Ybarra has floated plans for a major investment – possibly as much as $20 million – into making Idaho’s school buildings safer. But he acknowledged that such a major proposal was unlikely to gain traction in the waning days of this year’s legislative session.

Georgia Williams, an 18-year-old Boise High senior, said she decided to come to the protest today after talking with friends. “I felt like if I could afford the attendance, that I had a right and a responsibility to come down and stand for what I believe,” she said. “I believe that when people are shot down in schools, they should not be easily forgotten. I believe that we should have stricter gun laws. We need to take the situation more seriously.”