On Saturday morning, more than 500,000 people are expected to gather in D.C. for the March for Our Lives, with even more attending satellite marches across the country. It's the second nation-wide protest led by the student survivors of February's school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and since that attack they've only grown bolder and gained momentum.

Students have held their own against both Marco Rubio and representatives of the NRA. They've managed to make associating with the NRA even more toxic, forcing companies to break ties with the organization in a boycott that even this week has spread to Wall Street. And the march organizers also appeared this week on the cover of Time, which doubles as a burn to Donald Trump, who considers that the highest barometer for success and prestige.

There are other, weirder signs that the Parkland students are having a bigger impact in the fight for gun control than any movement in recent memory. On Friday, Taylor Swift announced via Instagram that she donated to the march, saying she was "so moved by the Parkland High School students, faculty, by all families and friends of victims who have spoken out, trying to prevent this from happening again." This is a big surprise because Swift is notoriously, infuriatingly apolitical, often appearing to be more concerned with alienating neo-Nazi fans than disavowing them.

Meanwhile, some Parkland students and their families arrived in D.C. with help from the New England Patriots. Team owner Robert Kraft has a reputation for being close to Donald Trump, but loaned the students the Patriots' official team jet after Gabrielle Giffords, the former Arizona representative who survived a mass shooting herself, and her husband reached out to him.

The NRA is struggling to control the conversation. The organization's daily spending on online ads more than quadrupled after the Parkland shooting, rising to an average of more than $47,000 per day. Hosts on the NRA's manic video channel, NRATV, are trying a variety of tactics to undermine the Parkland students, from clutching their pearls over cursing to wishing the shooting had never happened because then "no one would know your names."

Even the Trump administration is scrambling to find something that doesn't make them look inept or bought off or both, which is why the Justice Department is finally taking action to ban bump stocks. They don't deserve a lot of credit for this move: it's happening a full seven months after a gunman in Las Vegas used them to shoot more than 500 people and looks like a calculated token gesture designed to minimally offend the NRA.

But the fact that a Republican administration was pushed to do anything on gun control is indicative of monumental progress. The Parkland students made it too politically dangerous for Trump to appear to do nothing, and that's ultimately one of the biggest lessons here. As they showed with Marco Rubio, it's impossible to shame or embarrass these politicians; money and cowardice have made them immune. But they can make it too costly, and too painful, for them to keep doing nothing.