U.S. citizens in Canada join Washington rally for gun control

A bus chartered by Democrats Abroad, an offshoot of the Democratic Party, left Toronto's Union Station Friday evening for the nine-hour trip to the rally. 

The group says there was strong demand in Canada to attend the event.

"It's very moving, and nothing like anybody has seen the '60s," Julie Buchanan of Democrats Abroad Toronto told CBC News. "Children haven't stepped up before in a way politicians will listen." 

The event comes after two school shootings in recent weeks. Seventeen people were killed on Feb. 14. at a Parkland, Fla., high school, sparking a groundswell of protest led by some of the students who were at the school that day.

One student died from her wounds after being shot Tuesday in southern Maryland. 

Student Connor Allison, one of the Americans in Canada making the trip, says he's seen enough of the gun violence that has plagued the U.S. in recent years.

"Student should have to focus on academics, studying, not having to dodge some bullets," Allison said. "I think we've seen decades of mass shootings and enough is enough." 

500,000 expected in Washington

Organizers of the event in Washington are hoping Saturday's rally will prove that the country has reached an emotional tipping point on gun violence, with teenagers seizing the initiative and leading the demand for change.

More than 800 other concurrent marches are planned in cities across the U.S. and dozens of locations overseas.