Snapchat played a key visual role in the national student walkouts over gun violence - take a look

Screenshot

• Students organized a national walkout on Wednesday in response to the mass shooting last week at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
• Snapchat played a major role in tracking the event as it happened.
• Students posted snaps of the walkouts - and Snapchat's Snap Map was a useful visual tool, showing action at over 100 high schools.

On Wednesday morning, students across the US left their classrooms to take to the streets and demand stricter gun-control laws.

For those of us hoping to understand the extent of the participation, there was no better visual aid than the one provided by Snapchat's Snap Map.

The walkouts were initially organized by South Florida students in response to a mass shooting that took place last week at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a 19-year-old opened fire with an assault rifle, killing 3 adults and 14 teenagers, and hospitalizing 14 others.

It was one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. This time, the students who witnessed it are both old enough to be vocal about what they see as a lack of legislation around guns, and young enough to be active on the platforms that give them that opportunity. The idea to walk the streets with classmates spread to high schools nationwide, as evidenced by local news coverage and social media updates, including the ones on Snapchat.

Snapchat's popular Snap Map feature lets users find events and friends on a map, and then tap on an area to see what's going on there. It has a heatmap to show you you where the most action is happening - and on this particular morning, the action was surrounding what looked like 100 high schools. 

Snaps disappear every 24 hours, but here are a few screenshots captured by the online audience:

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