In Littleton, Colo., a private school assembly, a public service and a candlelight vigil will be held today in memory of the students who died at Columbine High School exactly one year ago.

In the year since the shooting--in which two Columbine students killed 13 of their classmates before taking their own lives--three Harvard students have started organizations designed to change gun control laws and reduce violence in schools.

Colorado resident Michael T. Wahl '03, for example, says he will never forget turning on the television to "horrific" images of SWAT teams and a student trying to crawl out of a second-story window.

"Nobody knew the facts for a while," Wahl says. "We didn't know how many shooters there were, and I knew a couple of people who went [to Columbine]."

For Wahl, feelings of horror and uncertainty served to inspire an increased awareness about the debate over gun control legislation.

After reading statistics from several studies on violence in schools, Wahl founded Youth at Harvard Against Handgun Violence (YHAHV), an organization that focuses on the political aspects of gun control.

He cites a 1996 Center for Disease Control and Prevention report, which says 50 people die violently each year in American schools, and a Department of Education report, which says over 6,000 students were expelled in 1996-97 for bringing guns to public schools, as two of the most influential papers he read.

"When I arrived at Harvard in September, I expected to find some kind of violence prevention group on campus," Wahl says.