'It's truly saddening;' March For Our Lives rally held in Detroit as gun violence peaks in America

Worries over gun violence have reached a fever pitch in Michigan and across America. From day-to-day gun violence to mass shootings at schools, deaths linked to firearms have reached the highest levels ever. 

And with recent instances of the shootings showing they aren't slowing down, voices calling for legislative changes to reduce the violence are growing louder. 

In Detroit, young people held a March For Our Lives rally - the latest in a series of protests hosted in cities around the country. 

"To see school shooting after school shooting happen and to see how young people are impacted - not only physically but mentally due to the repercussions of school shootings," said Jayanti Gupta, who organized the event. "It's truly saddening and difficult to constantly see."

The first March For Our Lives rally was held following the 2018 mass shooting at a Florida high school when more than a dozen students were killed.

While the protests have continued, with young people leading the charge, violence from gunfire has continued rising. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more Americans died from gunfire in 2020 than in any year on record - 45,000 deaths. 

Whiles there is wide scale support for stringent background checks and red flag laws, there's been little progress in gun safety legislation in recent years. 

Michigan, which has seen its own share of violence, including widely reported instances like what happened in Oxford in 2021.

On June 11, folks young and old met at a protest off of Atwater Street to call for change. Young people's presence is important, Gupta said.

"This means that I’m using my voice and my platform as a means to uplift those that have survived school shootings and prevent future school shootings," she said.