Hundreds of thousands of students and adults across the United States bowed their heads in a moment of silence on Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that left 17 people dead.

“It’s a permanent sore spot,” said Fort Lauderdale High School junior Jake Lynch.

The massacre on February 14, 2018 inflamed the national debate over guns, turned students and survivors into political activists and gave rise to some of the biggest youth demonstrations since the Vietnam era.

A moment of silence at more than 1,000 Florida schools was held at 10:17am local time, though the shooting actually began in the afternoon.

School officials picked a different time because Stoneman Douglas students were being dismissed early to avoid being on campus at the hour of the attack.

The time 10:17 was selected to denote the 17 slain.

Many Stoneman Douglas students arrived to school on Thursday wearing the burgundy #MSDStrong T-shirts that have become an emblem of the tragedy.

Outside the school, clear plastic figurines of angels were erected for each of the 14 students and three staff members killed. 

Reporters were not allowed inside the school, but students worked on service projects as a way of trying to turn the tragedy into something positive, and grief counselors and therapy dogs were made available along with massages and pedicures.

An interfaith service was scheduled for later in the day at a park nearby.

‘A second chance at life’

Freshmen Jayden Jaus and Matthew Sabia, both 14, helped mark the day by packing lunches for children in Haiti, putting rice, vitamins and soy into bags.

Jaus told the Associated Press the moment of silence was “a bit emotional and a little intense” as the principal read the victims’ names over the public address system.

Many other Stoneman Douglas students skipped school. For some it was too emotional; others did not want to be in the spotlight.

Sophomore Julia Brighton would not go inside, instead she placed flowers at the outdoor memorial.

She told the Associated Press she suffered with nightmares for months. Staying outside “felt like it would be a better experience for me instead of being at school and putting myself through that,” she said.

Alexis Grogan, a junior, said she was spending the day picking up rubbish on the beach, dedicating her work to those who died.

“I survived something, and I don’t want to waste what I call a second chance at life because those who have passed don’t get that,” she said. “We have to make a difference for them,” she added.

Classes were almost over last Valentine’s Day when authorities say 19-year-old former student Nikolas Cruz stormed the place with an AR-15 assault rifle. Cruz, now 20, had a long history of emotional problems and threats. He is awaiting trial.

Victims’ families who have spoken publicly said they would spend the day quietly, visiting their loved ones’ graves or participating in low-key events like a community walk. 

“We don’t need (the anniversary) to remind us what happened. We live with it every day,” said Andrew Pollack, whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow died in the attack.

The massacre led some Stoneman Douglas students to form the group March for Our Lives, which holds rallies around the country for tougher gun regulations and registers young people to vote.

Teen students have also partnered with media organisations to documents the stories of children killed by a gun. Over the past year, more than 1,200 children were killed in gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Archive.  

Weeks after the massacre, Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature and GOP governor raised the age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21 and passed a so-called red-flag law allowing judges to take away the weapons of those who are considered a danger to themselves or others.

Several other states have followed suit.

But other states moved in the opposite direction, making it easier to carry weapons in public and strengthening legal protections for people who claim they shot someone in self-defence.

Overall, 40 states passed some kind of legislation related to guns in 2018, either imposing restrictions or expanding gun rights.

Schools elsewhere also marked the anniversary.

London, United Kingdom – The United Kingdom‘s beleaguered prime minister has suffered another symbolic defeat in parliament over the next steps in her bid to secure a Brexit deal with the European Union.

Theresa May‘s effort to secure continued backing for her attempt to wring concessions from Brussels on a key sticking point in her deal over Britain’s withdrawal from the bloc was defeated by a majority of 45 on Thursday.

It is another humiliation for the prime minister that makes it less likely she will secure changes to the controversial “backstop” mechanism to avoid the creation of a hard customs border in Northern Ireland after Brexit.

Professor Anand Menon, director of the UK in a Changing Europe academic think tank, said: “It damages her strategy in the sense that it might give the EU some pause for thought because they will be a bit concerned that the majority she thought she had is sizzling away.”

Although Thursday night’s defeat has no practical effect, it reverses a modest achievement chalked up by the British PM two weeks ago when she secured a majority for a Brexit motion – calling for changes to the backstop – in a parliament that remains deeply divided.

Conservative opponents of the backstop say this plan to avoid the creation of a border in Northern Ireland – which would contradict the UK’s commitments under the Good Friday peace agreement – would keep Britain in a permanent customs union with the EU.

However, the latest vote now shows that May is once again losing control of her own Conservative party in the absence of a formal deal with the EU as the clock ticks ever closer to March 29, when the UK is due to leave the bloc – deal or no deal.

Menon said the government must now “think long and hard” about its tactics for February 27 – when May is due to return to parliament with an update on her talks with Europe – because of the real danger of losing a vote on a key amendment aimed at blocking a “no deal” Brexit.

The cross-party move led by Labour MP Yvette Cooper and Conservative Oliver Letwin would mean that if the PM has not got a deal through parliament by March 13, MPs could vote to require her to seek an extension of the March 29 “Article 50” deadline.

Menon said: “Everything has crystallised around the 27 February. If the Cooper-Letwin amendment goes through, it means the prime minister has got to say that either she wants no deal or to extend Article 50 – and then the credibility of her threat which has been ‘Either sign my deal or there will be no deal’ will dissipate.”

Following the latest vote, EU leaders may be less likely to bend to May’s pleas for the concessions on the “backstop” that will convince Conservatives who hate it to support her because Brussels knows she has not got a Commons majority behind her Brexit strategy.

‘Soft’ Brexit

EU leaders may now even step up pressure on May to agree with the opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on his proposals for a “soft” Brexit that keeps the entire UK in a customs union with its European neighbours.

With just 41 days until the Brexit deadline, Corbyn is due to hold talks with Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier in a bid to break the deadlock and persuade May to accept a customs union.

Although a Labour motion was also defeated in the latest round of voting on Thursday night, the result will cheer the party’s leadership as it shows growing support for their cross-party approach and a “softer” Brexit.

Corbyn said after Thursday night’s vote: “The government cannot keep on ignoring parliament or ploughing on towards March 29 without a coherent plan.

“She can’t keep on just running down the clock and hoping that something will turn up that will save her day and save her face.”

May’s defeat will again focus attention on a hardline group of her own MPs in the so called European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteers, who abstained in the vote on her motion, resulting in her defeat.

Although the ERG was itself divided, its members rebelled because supporting May would have confirmed parliament’s recent instructions to the government to avoid a “no deal” Brexit.

Economists say a “no deal” Brexit – by which the UK would walk away from the EU without a negotiated agreement – would be disastrous.

ERG supporters say ruling out “no deal” removes the UK’s negotiating leverage in Brussels as May tries to change the terms of the “backstop”.

Critics of the ERG claim they want a “no deal” Brexit because – despite the threat to peace in Northern Ireland – they believe this would give the UK more future flexibility in negotiating trade deals globally and would enhance the country’s sovereignty.

Lexus Skyy posted a picture of her two-year-old son David Jermaine “DJ” Hall, dressed in a miniature bow tie and suspenders, on Facebook on November 3, 2018. 

“It is with heavy hearts that we honor and say goodbye to our previous Prince David Jermaine Hall,” the post read. 

Hall died after being shot on October 29, 2018, in Montgomery, Alabama. 

Skyy later told a student reporter at Since Parkland, a website documenting a year of child victims of gun violence, that her son rarely left her side. 

“You see me out shopping, you see DJ. You see me getting my hair done, you see DJ,” she was quoted as saying. “I realised that God kept you close so I could cherish every moment.”

Hall is one of at least 1,200 children killed by a gun over the past year – more than 80 of whom were under the age of three.

Since Parkland, a project involving more than 200 teen reporters nationwide who worked with The Trace, The Miami Herald and other McClatchy news group newspapers, tells their stories.

The project was started the summer after a gunman opened fire in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. Seventeen students and educators were killed. 

Since Parkland was “conceived as an antidote to” the imbalance between the large-scale media coverage of mass shootings and little attention paid to “chronic gun violence that exposes children in some city neighbourhoods to danger everyday”, the website said. 

Students start movement, make gains

While mass shootings have plagued the country for years, the Parkland shooting marked a pivotal moment in the US as students-turned-activists led a nationwide movement to end gun violence. 

Parkland shooting survivors David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez, among others, remain national figures.

After the shooting, they immediately organised and planned the March For Our Lives, held on March 24, 2018 to call for a ban on assault weapons, a halt to the sale of high-capacity magazines, tightening of the background check process, the limiting of firing power on the streets, the disarmament of domestic abusers and an end to gun trafficking.

Millions of people across 800 cities took part in a global protest under the banner #NeverAgain to end gun violence and demanded action from Congress, according to March for Our Lives website.

“Just because a bullet has not touched your life does not mean you or any of our American communities are safe,” reads the March for Our Lives mission statement.

“Our country must make the safety of its citizens a number one priority, and we must hold those in power accountable for perpetuating the root causes of this violence.”

Since the march, the students have travelled the country by bus to amplify their message, made countless television appearances and taken to social media to call out politicians and groups for not doing more to support stricter gun control laws. 

Their efforts prompted a number of companies, including First National Bank and Enterprise, to end partnerships with the National Rifle Association (NRA). 

Polls show Americans favour tougher gun laws after decades of mass shootings. But the political might of the NRA made supporting gun restrictions a risky proposition for many officials.

On the political front, the administration of US President Donald Trump moved to ban bump stocks, a device that allows a semiautomatic rifle to fire at the rate of a machine gun. 

A bump stock was used in the October 2017 Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 people. The ban takes effect next month. 

According to the Reuters news agency, at least 20 states are set to examine gun safety bills this year. And with the Democrats back in control of US House of Representatives, politicians recently introduced legislation that would regulate ammunition magazines that accept more than 10 rounds and prohibits their future manufacture for civilian use.

Nearly 40,000 people killed from US gun violence

The most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that gun violence is on the rise.

The CDC recorded 39,773 gun deaths in 2017 across the country, an increase of more than 1,000 from the previous year. The number is the largest in the CDC’s 50-year long database.

Nearly 24,000 of the gun deaths in 2017 were suicides, while about 14,500 were homicides. Data from 2018 is not available. 

In May 2018, a gunman opened fire at a school in Texas, killing 10 people and wounding 13 others. 

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were more than 300 mass shootings – defined by the FBI as an incident in which four or more people are killed – in 2018, including in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Thousand Oaks, California, and Annapolis, Maryland. 

But Since Parkland hopes to highlight the stories of gun violence that often do not land in the headlines, giving an “an unprecedented account of the full scale and contours of gun violence as it impacts American children”.

Four-year-old Ava Grace Field and her two-year-old brother, Ashen, along with their mother were shot dead by their father in March 2018. Ava “lived in a world of pigtails and constant smiles,” the website reported

Onjeray “OJ” Devereaux-Hale, 14, was killed in August 2018 when he and his friend were playing with a gun. He was a “kind-hearted athlete,” the website said. 

Nequacia Porsha Jacobs-Lewis, 18, was shot dead on February 24 while looking outside her window in Dallas, Texas. She had planned to go to the University of Texas. 

The Senate on Thursday confirmed William Barr to be the next attorney general of the United States despite Democratic concerns over how he would oversee special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

The Senate approved Barr’s nomination in a 54-45 vote, with three Democrats joining nearly every Republican in support.

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Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) split with most in their party to back Barr. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was the only Republican to oppose Barr’s nomination, citing his record on privacy issues.

Senate Democrats this week continued to express alarm over how Barr would oversee Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.

Democrats blasted Barr for a memo he wrote last year to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, that described Mueller’s investigation into possible obstruction as “fatally misconceived.” They have also raised concerns that Barr wouldn’t make public Mueller’s final report on the probe.

“The memo calls into serious question Mr. Barr’s ability to impartially oversee the obstruction of justice issue in the Mueller investigation at a moment in history when that is an essential question,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Wednesday. Durbin added that he is “alarmed by Mr. Barr’s continued hedging about what he will do when Mr. Mueller completes his investigation.”

Barr has noted that under Justice Department regulations, the Mueller report is confidential but has pledged to be as transparent as he can.

At his confirmation hearing last month, Barr pledged his independence from Trump and vowed that he wouldn’t fire the special counsel without good cause.

“I will not be bullied into doing anything I think is wrong by anybody whether it be editorial boards or Congress or the president,” he said. “I am going to do what I think is right.”

Barr will replace former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who angered Trump after recusing himself from the Mueller investigation. This is Barr’s second stint as attorney general, having previously led the Justice Department under President George H.W. Bush.

Republicans argued Democrats should be pleased that a veteran DOJ official was taking the post.

“When it comes to Bill Barr, I can only tell my Democratic colleagues there is nobody better that I know to recommend to you,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said this week. “This is as good as it gets on our side.”