A dummy sits at a school desk in the middle of a bullseye made of roses. In place of a face is a mirror. Below it in blood red are the words "Am I next?"

One passing student wipes his eyes as his face is reflected back.

Nearby looms an even less subtle message. Giant letters facing the Capitol building just across the way spell out: "YOUR COMPLACENCY KILLS US."

They mean it literally.

Giant letters spell out a message to Congress as part of the March For Our Lives art installation on the US Capitol lawn. ( ABC News: Emily Olson )

March For Our Lives, an anti-gun violence organisation, was born from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, which left 17 people dead on Valentine's Day last year.

On Tuesday, teenagers involved with the organisation began work at 3:00am on an unseasonably chilly Washington DC morning to install art on the Capitol's east lawn. It marks the first anniversary of the 2018 March For Our Lives protest, which brought 800,000 activists to the streets of DC.

Donuts, coffee and the sense of something historic fuelled the students' work.

They're fighting against organisations like the National Rifle Association to change US gun laws, while also working through a grief so strong it led two survivors to take their own lives this month.

Survivors suggest that Canberra avoid the NRA altogether

The art installation is demanding political action on gun violence. ( ABC News: Emily Olson )

The art installation coincides with the release of a 90-minute documentary detailing how Australia's One Nation party wanted millions of dollars in political donations from America's NRA and discussed softening gun ownership policies.

In the program, a senior NRA lobbyist in Washington DC tells the One Nation representatives that it'd be easier to push back against Americans' calls for gun control if Australia weakened its laws.

John Barnitt survived the Parkland shooting and co-founded March For Our Lives. ( ABC News: Emily Olson )

"That helps us because the biggest argument we always get from folks is 'Well, look at Australia,'" the NRA lobbyist said. "They are continually attacking us; it's never-ending."

The Parkland survivors say allowing the NRA a foothold in Canberra would be a mistake.

"The NRA is filled with dirty money, and we need to take money out of politics. Politicians … need to represent their constituents and, when money gets involved, their message is faded and skewed," said John Barnitt, who is in his last year at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

When asked what his message for One Nation would be, Mr Barnitt offered a cheeky laugh — a reminder that the well-spoken advocate is only 17.

"Once money gets involved, everything goes to shit."

Religious symbols with words like "teacher," "friend" and "mom" are meant to remind the viewer that anyone could fall victim to gun violence. ( ABC News: Emily Olson )

Another MSD graduate, Brendan Duff, warns it's best to avoid the NRA altogether.

"It's a real dirty game, and we would advise staying away as much as possible," he said.

"The NRA works to intimidate and scare politicians. So just keep in mind that it's like a pseudo power. They have a lot of money that they like to funnel into campaigns."

According to an analysis done in 2016 by CNN including data from the US Federal Election Commission and the Centre for Responsive Politics, which bills itself as a non-partisan research body, hundreds of members of Congress had accepted financial support from the NRA.

A separate analysis from Vox showed that in the two decades to 2017, the lobby group had spent more than $US140 million on election-related advertising.

As the students spoke outside, a congressional hearing on 'red flag laws,' which would allow authorities to confiscate guns from individuals experiencing mental health crises, was underway inside the Capitol.

Brendan Duff, whose brother survived the Parkland shooting, has warned Australians to avoid political entanglement with the NRA. ( ABC News: Emily Olson )

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said, "unlike the United States, other countries did not miss the opportunity to do something".

"In Australia in 1996, 35 people were killed when a gunman opened fire with two semi-automatic assault rifles," Senator Feinstein said.

"Shortly thereafter, Australia banned all assault rifles and put in place a licensing system."

A protester who interrupted the hearing yelled at the US politicians to "follow the leadership of [New Zealand's] Prime Minister [Jacinda] Ardern. Do something! People are dying! You're killing them!"

Two students have died by suicide in the last month

Sydney Aiello lost 17 of her classmates in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting. She took her own life this month. ( Supplied: GoFundMe )

Parkland's community has been wracked by additional tragedy this month as two who survived the massacre took their own lives.

John Barnitt said the immediate aftermath of the tragedy is in some ways the easiest time.

"Resources come flooding in. In Parkland, we had service dogs, we had the Red Cross, we had counsellors that were willing to talk to us. But that was for the first month and a half."

As the reality of losses kicks in, the media's attention has moved on.

"The resources slowly started to trickle away, but the memory and the lived experience and the trauma students went through — that's always going to be with them. I know I'm going to live with these memories for the rest of my life," Mr Barnitt said

A Parkland survivor speaks in Washington DC as students try to keep pressure on US politicians to enact gun controls. ( ABC News: Emily Olson )

There's no clear link between mass shootings and subsequent suicides, but it's not uncommon.

An estimated 28 per cent of mass shooting witnesses develop post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the National Centre for PTSD.

In the months following the 1999 Columbine shooting, two people with close connections to victims took their own lives. Also this month, a father of one of the children murdered in the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school attack was found dead in an apparent suicide.

There was one glimmer of progress for the students with a national ban on bump stocks finally kicking in. The ban was prompted by the 2017 Las Vegas massacre in which a man killed 58 people using semi-automatic weapons fitted with bump stock converters to mimic fully automatic machine guns.

It took 18 months for the law to actually change.