'Too many children are being hurt': former VP Joe Biden surprises Delaware March for Our Lives rally

Maddy Lauria | USA TODAY NETWORK

Show Caption Hide Caption Joe Biden encourages students not to stop their fight against guns Joe Biden encourages students not to stop their fight against guns during the March for Our Lives protest in Wilmington.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Former Vice President Joe Biden said he skipped the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., to share his thoughts in his home state of Delaware.

"Folks, too many people are dying," Biden said Saturday in Wilmington at a local rally. "Too many children are being hurt.

In a city where more kids are shot than anywhere else in the nation, people of all generations gathered to say they have had enough.

You're forcing people to look squarely in the eye what they don't want to face," he said. Biden's sentiments underscored the action of today's rallies across the USA.

Police cars blocked off the streets here on Saturday morning as hundreds joined the local March for Our Lives protest, shouting “Balance, not bullets!” and “No more silence! End gun violence!”

Melinda Penn, who joined families and students for the event, said she and her husband, Bob, were on the University of Texas at Austin campus in 1966 when former Marine Charles Whitman climbed the tower and opened fire.

“It was so horrible,” Penn said. “We had never heard of such a thing happening. It’s horrible that we’re here 50 years later — 50 years is too long for this to be going on.”

The Penns along with about 400 others marched from Howard High School of Technology to Rodney Square, rallying for school safety and stricter gun laws.

“I wish with all my heart I didn’t have to be here today,” said Dickinson High School senior Sofia Rose. “We will not allow this problem to go unaddressed any longer. Congress’s inaction is no longer acceptable. I’m too angry for that.”

After her speech, which criticized the easy access to high-powered firearms, arming teachers and adults’ dismissal of student protesters because of their age, Rose applauded local efforts to introduce local gun laws in Delaware.

“Our representatives are doing an amazing job,” she said, citing a recently introduced assault weapons ban and the Beau Biden Gun Violence Protection Act. “I wouldn’t say I’m happy, because the tragedy that encouraged this movement is so horrible, but I am so proud to be here.”

About 100 miles away, another group of Delaware students joined more than 500,000 teens and adults in Washington, D.C., for the student-led gun control rally created and organized by survivors of the Feb. 14 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.

Local sister marches protesting gun violence and speaking up for school safety also were held in Rehoboth Beach, Lewes and Bethany Beach.

“It bothers me and it scares me,” said 12-year-old Rosalie Geist.

Speaking up for that new generation is what Howard High senior Kayla Davis took to the stage on Saturday. For her, she said, the movement is about focusing on who is causing the violence.

“We need to grab the younger generation’s attention and engage them,” she said. “They’re the future.”