DENVER – Saturday was a day for Democrats across Colorado, as the next generation marched on gun violence across the state and across the country.

Before the marches even started in Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo and other parks and streets, Sen. Mike Merrifield of Colorado Springs said young activists were winning the debate on guns in America at the moment.

A few days earlier Merrifield’s ban on bump stocks – a dozen of the devices helped Las Vegas mass shooter Stephen Paddock spray high-velocity bullets on a country music crowd in October – had been killed by the same Republican-led Senate committee that passed a bill to do away with the state’s 15-round limit on ammunition magazines.

On Friday, President Donald Trump said he supports banning the devices.

House Speaker Crisanta Duran of Denver was one of the top Colorado politicians at the march in the Capitol city’s Civic Center Park. She was acknowledged from the stage, along with Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood; Rep. Wilma Webb and her husband, former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb; Sen. Andy Kerr; and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver. DeGette wore a pin that said “F,” her lifetime grade from the National Rifle Association.

Current Mayor Michael Hancock was applauded on stage for Denver’s ban on bump stocks.

“Today, Denver’s youth stand in solidarity with their peers across the country, sending a clear message to Washington, D.C. – enough is enough,” Hancock said in a statement Saturday evening. “These brave students, our future leaders, are fighting for their right to learn and grow in a safe environment free from harm. Too many lives have been lost to senseless gun violence, and I want to send a clear message to our students on behalf of a proud city: We march side-by-side with you today and in the future for common sense gun reform.”

Duran told Colorado Politics as the event was unwinding that afternoon that the politicians didn’t speak on stage for a reason. “This was about the young people and the survivors,” she said.

She was inspired by them.

“I think it’s incredibly important to have kids stepping up to send a powerful message to the people of Colorado and people across our country that we must do more to make sure that mass shootings don’t happen and break up our community,” she said outside the Capitol. “It’s been awful to see the mass shootings that have continued to persist since Columbine.”

The trappings of politics were everywhere Saturday. The chant “vote them out” became “vote him out” when Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner was mentioned from the stage. At a rally in Pueblo on Saturday, attendees chanted, “Hey, hey, ho, ho. Cory Gardner’s got to go,” as someone lifted a cardboard cutout of Gardner holding a faux check from the NRA. Gardner is a well-known recipient of NRA political spending.

The liberals are aiming to unseat Gardner in 2020. He took it from a Democrat, Mark Udall, in 2014.

MoveOn.org Civic Action put up billboards to try to take down the Republican from Yuma and Rep. Mike Coffman of Aurora as NRA-backed candidates. See a preview by clicking here.

The billboards ask, “How Many Dead Kids Until You Say No to the NRA?”

“Enough is enough. Sen. Gardner and Rep. Coffman need to protect our kids – not the NRA – both at school and in our neighborhoods from gun violence,” Michael Crawford, the campaign director at MoveOn.org, said in a statement. “They must cease worrying about how supporting sensible reforms to stop gun violence will affect their campaign donations from the NRA. It is unacceptable that while mass tragedies continue to occur Republicans in Congress refuse to take meaningful action.

“We support the young people who are marching for their lives this weekend, and stand with them in demanding sensible gun violence reforms.”

Gardner’s office said he had no desire to respond. Coffman’s re-election campaign did.

“Mike is open to new ideas and solutions, but doesn’t believe a battery of new gun laws from Washington, D.C., is going to stop monsters from behaving like monsters,” said his campaign manager, Tyler Sandberg. “Jason Crow’s position is fraught with hypocrisy. While he rails against the NRA as a political candidate, as a big shot lawyer at a premier lobbying firm he is more than glad to profit from the very gun manufacturers he rails against as a candidate. If Crow wants to cut and paste his gun control position from Nancy Pelosi’s playbook, we’re happy to have that debate.”

Crow, one of Coffman’s toughest Democratic challengers, has made an issue of Coffman’s NRA support. Coffman has received $33,700 from the gun group over the past four elections. (Gardner has received more than $3.8 million from the NRA, the fifth-most in the Senate, according to the New York Times.)

“This is another perfect example of Mike Coffman and his failed leadership,” Crow said the week after the shooting in Parkland, Fla., as he released a campaign video denigrating Coffman. “The tens and thousands of dollars that he has taken from the gun lobby. All he does is tweet about his thoughts and prayers, and he does nothing because of the money that he takes and the people that he’s loyal to.”

The peace rally’s politics were never more than a speaker away.

“Are y’all ready to go,” teen political activist Tay Anderson said to rile up the crowd. “Are y’all ready to fight? And in November are you ready to win?”

The crowd roared like rock stars were taking the stage.

Anderson is the president of Never Again Colorado, a board of young people from every Colorado congressional district. Last year he ran and lost a race for Denver school board.

“Who would have thought that one month ago one Facebook event would take over almost all of downtown Denver?” he said.