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Parkland students meet Pulse survivors

Parkland students meet Pulse survivors
Parkland students meet Pulse survivors
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ORLANDO, FL (WKMG/CNN) – Students who survived the Parkland school massacre shared their grief and anger with the survivors of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting Wednesday.

Parents and students from Parkland stepped off a bus and right into the arms of Pulse shooting survivors.

"We are here to open our arms and welcome them with some love," said one Pulse survivor who met the travelers.

Forty-nine people were killed at the Pulse nightclub in June 2016. Police shot and killed shooter Omar Mateen while trying to free hostages.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer also greeted the Parkland visitors Wednesday.

"We share their grief and their concern,” Dyer said. “Two years ago, the entire world reached out to us here in Orlando with thoughts and prayers. We want to pay that back as much as we can."

The group, wearing shirts that said “kids first, politics second,” made a stop in Orlando on their way back from Tallahassee, where they spent the last week lobbying for tougher gun laws.

"I'm not going to stop pushing," said Annabell Claprood, a Stoneman Douglas sophomore.

Claprood said she wouldn’t be stopping off in Orlando if something had been done after the Pulse shooting.

"I think we can now be there for each other in a sense," Claprood said.

The survivors stood together as they read the names of the 49 people who lost their lives at Pulse and the 17 who lost their lives at Stoneman Douglas.

Grace Solomon, a Parkland city commissioner, said she hopes there’s never again a list like the one the survivors read.

"I hope and pray that we never have to stand anywhere and read the names of additional victims that are taken by gun violence," Solomon said.

Copyright 2018 WKMG via CNN. All rights reserved.