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On Saturday, Rebecca Schneid plans to pull on her sneakers, sling a camera over her shoulder and march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington with thousands of other students demanding an end to the gun violence that has cut through so many American communities. But to Ms. Schneid, a survivor of the school shooting that killed 17 people last month in Parkland, Fla., the march is just the beginning — a moment of political awakening, she hopes, that will put the nation on notice that young people plan to be a greater, more organized force than teenagers and college students in the past. (Burns and Turkewitz, 3/22)

Before the assembly, before the mayor spoke and people cheered, before TV cameras packed the gymnasium at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Southeast Washington on Thursday, Dakota McNeely drew a purple heart on her hand in ink. Then, through its center, she carved a crack.It was an homage to her friend, James Smith, 17, who was shot dead in an apparent robbery a few days before Christmas last year. It was a way to feel Smith’s presence as she joined her classmates and Parkland, Fla., teenagers in calling for stricter gun laws. (Lang, 3/22)

Hussein Abdi, 19, had never given much thought to the gunmaker down the street from his high school. He often passed the Smith & Wesson factory and its flashing marquee touting the company’s deep ties to the city, “Since 1852.” Nyasia Jordan, 18, knew it only as the place where her mom used to work. It’s one of the city’s largest employers. Others saw Smith & Wesson’s presence as another detail central to Springfield’s identity, the place where basketball was invented, Dr. Seuss was born and guns are made. (Frankel, 3/22)