Teachers and pupils stopped lessons for 17 minutes during the ENOUGH National School Walkout, beginning at 10am EDT time (2pm GMT time) to commemorate the 17 students and staff killed at Marjory Stonemason Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14.
At Parkland, students were applauded by family and supporters as they walked out onto their school football field and hugged one another.
The walkouts are part of a student-led protest movement against gun violence and were co-ordinated by the Women’s March protests.
They took place the day after Florida prosecutors said they planned to seek the death penalty for Nikolas Cruz.
The former Parkland pupil has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in last month’s attack.
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Florida lawmakers passed a gun control bill last week to raise the minimum age of buying a gun from 18 to 21 after pressure was applied by students.
But a call for the ban of semiautomatic rifles – used in the Parkland attack – was rejected.
David Hogg, a Stoneman Douglas student, said in an interview: “If our elected officials don’t take responsibility for their inaction on both sides of the aisle, then we are going to kick them out of office.
How many pupils took part?
Around 2,800 schools and groups participated in the walkouts, with many backed by their school districts.
More than 40 of US colleges and universities, including Yale, Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have said their admissions offices would not penalize any applicants who may be disciplined for protesting.
At Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School in New York City, crowds of students poured into the streets of Manhattan, many dressed in orange, the colour of the gun-control movement.
However, some pupils were warned they faced suspension or other punishment for taking part, according to some reports.
At Columbine High School, where a school massacre in 1999 left 13 dead, students released balloons one at a time in remembrance of the 17 victims of the recent shooting.
Hundreds of students descended upon Capitol Hill chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, the NRA has got to go!” in reference to the gun-rights organisation, the National Rifle Association.
One pupil speaking out in front of the US Capitol said: “Their right to own an assault rifle does not outweigh our right to live. The adults have failed us. This is in our hands now, and if any elected official gets in our way, we will vote them out.”