Hundreds of people came together Saturday in Mineola, joining others nationwide to try to put an end to gun violence.
Rallygoers started at Nassau County Supreme Court and ended at the legislative building where they made their voices heard.
Groups from "Moms Demand Action" and "March for Our Lives," founded by a group of students from Parkland, Florida, with chapters all over the United States, are focused on gun violence prevention.
Linda Beigel Shulman, whose son was fatally shot at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, was also at the rally.
"I am begging you. Turn your grief and pain and turn your anger into activism," Shulman pleaded.
The groups are pushing for stronger gun laws on the federal level in the wake of recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and in Buffalo.
"They don't want to see dying children anymore, they don't want to be worried about going to the supermarket, they don't want to be worried about going to a place of worship. I feel it's incredibly important," said rally organizer Nicolette Carion.
Here on Long Island, there have been at least a dozen school violence threats in the past two weeks alone.
Robert Gaafer, of Rockville Center, survived the Las Vegas mass shooting in October 2017. He felt the need to participate at the rally because he wants to see federal gun violence prevention laws passed, like raising the age to buy certain guns to 21, banning ghost guns and passing the red flag law.
"We are not gun grabbers. The new laws that have been passed will only strengthen the Second Amendment. We are really focused on keeping the guns out of the hands of the people who want to do something violent with them," Gaafer stressed.
Dozens of marches took place throughout the nation, including in Brooklyn, Washington D.C., and Parkland, Florida, where 14 students were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
President Joe Biden expressed his support for the marchers, saying it's important and it has to become an "election issue."
The first March For Our Lives nationwide rallies were held in 2018 in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting.