An agitator who tried to storm the stage at the March for Our Lives in Washington DC on Saturday shouting “I am the gun” sparked a near-stampede as hundreds of protesters fled in panic.
The unidentified man attempted to break through a security cordon during a moment of silence and appeared to throw an object, while shouting: “I am the gun I am using! I am not shooting a school”.
The incident sent a wave of terror through the crowd, with footage showing hundreds of attendees running away from the stage.
The speaker at the time, Erica Ford of the New York City Crisis Management System, appealed to the crowd to remain calm.
“Do not run! Please do not run. There is no issue here,” she said into the microphone.
The US Park Police said no weapons were found on the man, and he was escorted away from the rally and detained. They said that no threat to the public was found.
An estimated 40,000 people attended the Washington DC rally, while tens of thousands more took part in more than 400 cities across the United States.
The protests were sparked by recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo in New York.
March For Our Lives was set up by survivors of the Parkland school shooting in Florida in 2018.
Co-founder David Hogg, who spoke at the DC rally, appealed to politicians of both parties to come together to pass meaningful gun control laws.
In New York, Mayor Eric Adams joined hundreds in marching across Brooklyn Brudge.
“There are so many rivers that we have to dam that’s feeding the sea of violence, particularly gun violence in our city,” he told the crowd.
“But here’s the real problem that a lot of people are now facing: the Far Left and the Far Right, by them shooting at each other, the victims are impacting our entire city.”
