NEWARK, N.J. -- Two teenagers have watched their Newark high school classmates grow frustrated with the deaths of their peers.

About 18 teenagers have been killed in Newark, in the past year and half.

Now, Marques-Aquil Lewis and Sharita Williams use their anger in a productive way, by taking to the streets in march that will be held today in downtown Newark to protest gun violence.

As reported in the Star-Ledger, they expect hundreds of school kids, along with other community activists to join in.

The goal, basically, is to snap people out of the attitude that gun violence is a problem that will not go away.  Although there are activists and social workers and law enforcement authorities already involved in similar-minded programs, local youths really haven't been involved.

Lewis and Williams want Saturday's march to be the start of a long-term uprising by the city's young people against gun violence. They say -- correctly, according to experts -- that kids bear the heaviest burden from violent crime, whether it be as victims, witnesses or simply watching friends die.

So they reckon that students, more than anyone, deserve to scream a little.

The march began 11 a.m. with students and activists gathering in Military Park.