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Utahns can hear from Parkland high school shooting survivors this weekend

In this Tuesday, April 3, 2018 photo, David Hogg, a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, answers questions after a congressional town hall on gun violence in Coral Springs, Fla.. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students are visiting New Jersey, Colorado, Los Angeles and Raleigh-Durham in their upcoming travel schedule at a dizzying pace. This is their new life, traveling the country advocating for gun control while trying to keep up with their studies.(John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

  | July 10, 2018, 9:23 p.m.

They survived the mass shooting that reignited the national outcry for gun restrictions, and now they’re coming to Utah.

Some of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who survived the shooting that left 17 people dead in February are on a nationwide tour that makes its way to South Jordan on Saturday.

David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky, Jaclyn Corin and others will host a town hall put on by March for Our Lives SLC, the state’s chapter of what has become a national movement focused on guns and protecting students.

“This event is supposed to be a dialogue,” said Elizabeth Love, an executive organizer with the group.

March for Our Lives advocates for a range of policies to combat gun violence, including background checks on all gun purchases, increased funding for violence research and limiting the number of rounds gun magazines can carry at a time.

Members of the panel will answer written questions from the audience.

The group had planned a rally and town hall but later changed the time and venue, saying they couldn’t make it from events in Colorado to Taylorsville in time.

The event is now planned for 6:00 p.m. at the Megaplex Theatres in South Jordan. It is free and open to the public.

The Utah Gun Exchange is urging its members to attend the event to counter the call for gun restrictions.

“It’s important that we have conversations across the aisle,” said Ermiya Fanaeian, with March for Our Lives SLC.

Utah high school students had tried to hold a town hall with members of the state’s congressional delegation earlier this year. When that didn’t happen, they held one anyway with cardboard cutouts of Utah’s senators and members of Congress.