FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Gun control activists submitted 200 signatures for certification Monday at the Broward County Board of Elections office in Fort Lauderdale.
Their goal is to get a proposal to ban assault weapons to appear on the 2020 ballot.
"This common sense approach supported by the majority of Floridians will save lives and it will help to prevent the types of massacres that we've seen in our state like Parkland and Orlando," said Gail Schwartz, whose nephew, Alex Schachter, was killed in last year's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
The group called Ban Assault Weapons NOW includes MSD survivors and their loved ones.
Their proposal would only appear on the ballot if they collect more than 766,000 certified signatures -- a difficult and controversial task.
"Our bipartisan coalition is not trying to take anyone's guns or Second Amendment rights," said Ann Marie Milano, of Americans For Gun Safety Now. "We are simply trying to keep the grade of military-grade assault weapons in the hands of military and law enforcement who are trained to use them."
With the anniversary of the MSD massacre fast approaching, student-turned-activist David Hogg said the pain is still fresh.
He said in the year since the shooting, the March For Our Lives movement has made huge progress.
"We've nearly doubled youth voter turnout for 18- to 29-year-olds compared to 2014. We've gotten over 70 new gun laws passed," Hogg said. "We also have hundreds of young people who are starting to run for office at the local level."