TALLAHASSEE — The morning began with optimism. It did not last long.

On Wednesday, students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland awoke to an overcast sky. They had slept on green cots in the Tallahassee civic center, and it had been a long, cold night. Some agreed that their blankets had smelled strangely like bacon. Many had been up past 3 a.m., researching lawmakers and editing speeches. They had runny eggs, home fries — and bacon — for breakfast.

Then, a week after a shooting rampage killed 17 at their high school, the students headed for the capitol, marching together up a hill, past a statue of leaping dolphins. They had come to urge lawmakers to impose new restrictions on guns, including a ban on the sale of military-style firearms like the AR-15 used in the rampage at their school. A former student, Nikolas Cruz, has been charged in the slayings.

As the students walked to the capitol, Rosio Briones, 17, was quiet. “I don’t know how to put my thoughts into words,” she said. “This still feels so surreal to me.”

But another student, Olivia Feller, 16, stood with Anthony Lopez, 16, and ran through a list of state legislators: who supported what, who they might be able to sway. “We are ready,” she said. “Sleep deprived but ready.”