About 100 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students arrived at a Tallahassee high school to extended applause late Tuesday after a 400-mile (640-kilometer) trip on three buses. They told the 500 students and parents waiting for them that they are fighting to protect all students, AP reported.

“We’re what’s making the change. We’re going to talk to these politicians tomorrow. We’re going to talk to them the day after that. We’re going to keep talking, we’re going to keep pushing until something is done because people are dying and this can’t happen anymore,” said Alfonso Calderon, a 16-year-old junior. “You guys are what we’re trying to protect.”

Despite their enthusiasm and determination, the students and their supporters aren’t likely to get what they really want: a ban on AR-15s and similar semi-automatic rifles. Republican lawmakers are talking more seriously about some restrictions, but not a total ban.

Instead, they’re discussing treating assault-style rifles like the one suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz is accused of using in the Valentine’s Day attack more like handguns than long guns. That could mean raising the minimum age to purchase the weapon to 21, creating a waiting period and making it more difficult for people who exhibit signs of mental illness from buying the weapon even without a diagnosis.

Democrats attempted to get a bill to ban assault rifles and large-capacity magazines heard on the House floor on Tuesday. Republicans, who dominate the chamber, easily shot it down. Students who were at the Capitol ahead of their classmates who arrived late Tuesday found Republicans steered the conversation away from gun restrictions.

Rachel Catania, 15, a sophomore at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland said she got a lot of non-answers from the politicians she spoke with Tuesday.

“I know it’s going to be hard, but I know we can do it,” she said. “We’re not going to be the school that got shot, we’re going to be the school that got shot and made something happen. A change is going to happen.”

The students on the seven-hour bus ride checked their phones, watching videos and reading comments on social media about the shooting, some of which accused them of being liberal pawns.

As the grieving Florida students demanded action on guns, President Donald Trump on Tuesday directed the Justice Department to move to ban devices like the rapid-fire bump stocks used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre. It was a small sign of movement on the gun violence issue that has long tied Washington in knots.

“We must do more to protect our children,” said Trump, a strong and vocal supporter of gun rights. He added that his administration was working hard to respond to the Florida rampage.

The students planned to hold a rally Wednesday to put more pressure on the Legislature.

“I really think they are going to hear us out,” said Chris Grady, a high school senior aboard the bus.

The Feb. 14 attack initially appeared to overcome the resistance of some in the state’s political leadership, which has rebuffed gun restrictions since Republicans took control of both the governor’s office and the Legislature in 1999. However, many members of the party still have strong resistance to any gun-control measures.

The Parkland students also plan to meet Wednesday with top legislative leaders, including House Speaker Richard Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron.

Florida has a reputation for expanding gun rights. Negron sponsored a 2011 bill that Republican Gov. Rick Scott signed into law that banned cities and counties from regulating gun and ammunition sales.

Scott organized three committees to look at school safety, mental health and gun safety issues that met Tuesday and vowed to make changes to better protect students. While Scott told reporters several times that “everything is on the table,” he did not answer whether his proposal would include any bans on any type of weapons.

Instead, Scott said he is interested in making it harder for people who are temporarily committed to obtain a gun. He also pledged to increase spending on school safety programs and on mental health treatment.

Authorities said Cruz, 19, had a string of run-ins with school authorities that ended with his expulsion. Police were repeatedly called to his house throughout his childhood. His lawyers said there were many warning signs that he was mentally unstable and potentially violent. Yet he legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle.

Stoneman Douglas senior Diego Pfeiffer was realistic about what change would happen before the Legislature goes home March 9, but said anything is a good first step.

“The best case scenario is we move a step forward and that’s all we’re asking here. We’re asking to help save student lives,” he said. “Whether it’s funding or mental health or gun safety or any of that sort of stuff – I am pro any of that.”

But he also said if change doesn’t come in the Legislature, he noted he’s now 18 and he has the power of his vote.

“You’re our senators and you’re our representatives for now. If you don’t help us make a change soon, you will be left in the dust,” he said. “I’m happily going to vote for anybody who’s going to be on our side, the side of children’s lives. How can you say no to that?”

Organizers behind the Women’s March, an anti-Trump and female empowerment protest, called for a 17-minute, nationwide walkout by teachers and students on March 14. The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organization for public schools, announced a day of walkouts, sit-ins and other events on school campuses on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 12 students and one teacher dead, AP reported.

Plans for the protests circulated widely on social media on Saturday, as students, parents, teachers and neighbors gathered to express their grief over the fatal shooting of 14 students and three staff members at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Hundreds showed up at rallies in Fort Lauderdale and in St. Petersburg to demand action on gun-control legislation.

The rallies were held as new details emerged about the suspect, Nikolas Cruz. Authorities say Cruz, 19, was a former student at Stoneman Douglas who had been expelled, had mental health issues and had been reported to law enforcement before he used a legally purchased semiautomatic rifle to take the lives of 17 people on Wednesday.

The FBI said a person close to Cruz called the FBI’s tip line and provided information about Cruz’s weapons and his erratic behavior. The caller was concerned Cruz could attack a school. The agency acknowledged the tip should have been shared with the FBI’s Miami office and investigated, but it was not.

“Major hurricane force winds” were expected over the Florida Keys at daybreak Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm is expected to cause life threatening storm surges of up to 15 feet along parts of southwestern Florida and storm surges on other parts of the coast, forecasters warned.

More than 201,000 customers were without power in Southern Florida late Saturday, Florida Power & Light said on its website.

Earlier Saturday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott warned, “If you have been ordered to evacuate, you need to leave now. This is your last chance to make a good decision.” Scott called Irma a “catastrophic and life threatening” storm, NBC news reported.

Nearly 6.3 million people were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm. Not everyone heeded the calls.

Brian Cone, a boat captain in Tavernier in the Florida Keys, said he is staying at home, which he said is built of cement and which he compared to “a bunker.”

“Truthfully, the whole state of Florida is in trouble. I mean, there’s really nowhere safe,” Cone told MSNBC in a phone interview. He said he and his neighbors have generators, batteries, food and water and other supplies.

“We feel it was more dangerous to travel all over the state, run out of fuel possibly … We’re gonna ride it out,” Cone said.

The National Hurricane Center said at 8 p.m. that “heavy squalls with embedded tornadoes” were sweeping across Southern Florida. A tornado touched down near Fort Lauderdale Saturday evening, the National Weather Service said. The fire department said there was no damage or injuries.

Key West Police Chief Donald Lee told MSNBC by phone Saturday that those who stayed in defiance of evacuation orders do so at their own risk. He said the area had already seen tornado warnings, downed trees and flooding by Saturday evening, and the storm could be devastating.

“They’re putting their lives in danger,” Lee said.

In Miami-Dade County in the southeastern part of the state, police encouraged residents to stay indoors as the storm was hitting early Sunday.

“There’s a lot of trees that are being knocked over, we have live wires — it’s extremely volatile out there,” Miami-Dade Police Department Major Hector Llevat said. “Right now, we’re just urging everybody to stay indoors, to seek shelter.”

Scott cautioned that the storm will cause “life-threatening” surges as high as 15 feet in southwest Florida. “This will cover your house,” Scott said, adding, “You will not survive all this storm surge.”

The hurricane center warned of a storm surge of up to 10 to 15 feet between Cape Sable and Captiva if they peak at high tide, and storm surge of up to 5 to 10 feet in the Keys. Tampa Bay could see surges of up to 5 to 8 feet.

Florida Power & Light warned Friday it was expecting “unprecedented” power outages that could affect about 9 million people.

Many of Florida’s communities had become ghost towns by Saturday. In Plantation, just inland from Fort Lauderdale, the once busy streets had gone quiet, and the only sounds were the quickening winds pulling at the trees and the occasional car passing by.

Juan Carlos Lorca, 42, who has lived in Florida for 25 years, took a stroll ahead of the hurricane to get some fresh air earlier Saturday. Lorca, a construction worker, said he was quick to prepare for the storm when he first heard about it: boarding up his windows, picking up cash from the bank, and buying water, gas, ice, food and — most importantly — wine and beer.

“I should not be here,” he said. “But I wanted to get some fresh air. By 2 p.m., everyone should be back in their home.”

“What I see on the news,” he added, “that is very wrong if people are still on the beach.”

Nevertheless, despite the governor’s warnings and the increasingly dangerous circumstances, people still gathered on beaches to take photos earlier Saturday.

While some remained home, many attempted to seek refuge at shelters, but were having a tough time getting in. Thousands in Lee County on Florida’s west coast, waited in lines that snaked down the block for up to five hours, as officials attempted to check in residents. Many decided to evacuate or head for the shelters once Irma shifted to the west.

Hurricane Irma has already claimed at least 23 lives after smashing through a string of Caribbean islands this week, including Barbuda, St. Martin, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where 1 million people were left without electricity.

Nicole Reid and her boyfriend were riding out the hurricane in a house in Miami Saturday night. She said that other people in coastal areas were under mandatory evacuation orders and gas was hard to come by.

“It kind of made sense to stay put, stay secure, stay safe and let the people that really needed to get out, get out,” she said in an interview with MSNBC. If things get bad, they plan to go to other taller concrete buildings in the area.

Scott said Florida has been “aggressive” in its preparation for Irma, adding that there were more than 385 shelters open across the path of the storm. More than 70,000 Floridians have taken shelter already, he said, adding that “there is still room for more.”

Scott said Florida has a shortage of nurses to deal with the hurricane’s aftermath and urged volunteers to come forward. He asked for about 1,000 to help at various shelters. In Collier County, which includes part of the Everglades, more than 11,800 people were housed in 30 shelters. Nurses were flown in overnight from Texas to help.

On Friday, Irma, which had been a Category 5, slammed into Cuba’s northern coast. The Cuban Civil Defense had evacuated about 1 million people and there were widespread reports of home and infrastructure damage and loss.

Scott warned this week that Irma is on track to be “bigger, faster and stronger” than Hurricane Andrew, the devastating Category 5 storm that caused major damage in the state a quarter-century ago.

Meanwhile, north of Florida, states were also preparing for Irma’s arrival. In Georgia, 540,000 residents were told to leave the coast, while in South Carolina, nearly 45,000 people were ordered to evacuate.