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Richard Castaldo -- who was shot 8 times in the 1999 Columbine massacre -- is finally optimistic about serious gun control in America ... because he believes in the new generation.

We got Richard at the March for Our Lives rally in L.A. Saturday, and he tells us he's more hopeful than ever before about reform. He says not a whole lot's changed with gun laws in the past 19 years, but he gives credit to the young students pushing hard for it ... and he's certain it's coming soon.

So why so hopeful now? Richard tells us the kids these days don't take bulls**t for an answer ... even more than people his age. He says there's still a lot to be done, but he knows the students won't stop fighting ... and he's not going to either.

Castaldo was the second victim to be hit by bullets at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and was left paralyzed.

Parkland students led the rally at March for Our Lives, but countless celebrities showed up in full force on both coasts to voice their support of the mission to end gun violence.

We got stars like Amy Schumer, Charlie Puth, Kendall Jenner, Kaia Gerber, Yara Shahidi, Jason Sudeikis, Olivia Wilde, Questlove and many more in downtown L.A. Saturday. Amy gave us a short and sweet message after finishing her speech at the event ... and Charlie's was on his t-shirt.

Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg and George Clooney snapped a pic with the Parkland students and other speakers at the event in D.C. As we reported ... Clooney and Scooter Braun were secretly major forces behind the MFOL campaign.

Speaking of D.C., celebs joined the roughly 800,000 or more people who packed the park and streets there ... and we spotted Chelsea Handler, Jennifer Hudson, Cher, Miley Cyrus, Andra Day and politician Gabby Giffords -- who survived a mass shooting in January 2011.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West also made the trip there with their daughter North, along with performers like Common, Vic Mensa and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Hundreds of thousands of kids and adults swarmed Washington D.C., demanding gun control in the wake of the Parkland massacre ... and Emma Gonzalez just closed it off by standing silent on stage for 6 minutes and 20 seconds -- the time it took the Florida shooter to kill 17 people at her school.

Parkland, FL students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are leading the charge at the March for Our Lives rally, and they're being joined by an estimated half-a-mil others in D.C. as well as millions more in rallies across the country ... sending a message to ban assault rifles along with other sensible gun control measures.

Event organizers got a permit for 500,000 people for the D.C. rally, but the crowd size was reportedly closer to a whopping 800,000.

Some big musical acts -- including Miley Cyrus, Common, Demi Lovato, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson -- will perform at the D.C. rally, but only students will deliver messages. We're told all of the students have some connection to gun violence.

The high schoolers will also perform their original song "Shine," written in the wake of the Parkland tragedy.

Paul McCartney showed up this morning to the march in N.Y.C. wearing an anti-gun t-shirt not far from where John Lennon was shot in 1980.

In L.A. ... celebs like Amy Schumer, Olivia Wilde, Charlie Puth and Connie Britton will join in the downtown protest. All in all, there are 833 marches planned worldwide Saturday ... from the U.S. to the UK, from India to Japan.

You won't catch Tomi Lahren bashing the March for Our Lives rally ... far from it, actually.

We got the FOX News contributor at LAX and asked her if she was hitting up Saturday's rally in D.C. ... organized by the Parkland, FL students advocating for gun control following Nikolas Cruz's brutal massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

It's a hard pass for Tomi because she says these kinds of rallies have instead turned into anti-Trump tirades. But check it out ... she's actually all for the students exercising their First Amendment right.

Troy Aikman says he's all for his buddy Peyton Manning hoppin' into the FOX Sports broadcast booth ... and he's got a couple damn good reasons.

1 -- Broadcasting ... "It's a good life," Aikman says ... "It's afforded me all kinds of time with my family."

2 -- If Peyton joins the network and signs a deal worth $10 mil a year -- like has been reported -- that could mean a raise for the 3x Super Bowl champ.

So, when we saw Troy out in an L.A. rainstorm (weird, right?) ... we asked him about rumors of Peyton potentially joining FOX Sports as a broadcaster for Thursday Night Football.

"I think it'd be awesome. Peyton's a good friend."

About all those millions ... Aikman's all for Manning signing a fat deal.

"That means I'm worth a little more 'cause I'm doing more games than he is."

(FOX is broadcasting 11 TNF games ... while Troy calls a game every week of the season -- plus playoffs.)

Video of a self-driving Uber hitting and killing a pedestrian was released this week -- and the footage is shocking.

Arizona authorities released dash cam video of the accident Wednesday night, which shows the moment a self-driving Uber SUV slams into a woman crossing the street with her bike -- with a would-be driver clearly distracted at the wheel.

The "driver" was Rafaela Vasquez, and you can see she's got her head down from the interior angle as the car eventually strikes the victim ... 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg. The exterior shot does not show the moment of impact.

Austin bomber Mark Conditt recorded a 25-minute video on his phone confessing to the crimes before he was killed by his own explosive device ... according to cops.

Austin PD Chief Brian Manley says they've recovered a recording from Conditt that he would classify as a confession. On the video, Manley says the suspected bomber describes the 6 bombs in very specific detail.

The recording is described as an "outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life," but Manley says it doesn't mention anything about terrorism or anything about hate.

We broke the story ... Conditt had made hateful comments about homosexuality on several blogs in the past, and also railed on abortion.

Police say Conditt is responsible for the string of bombings that left 2 dead.

WWE Superstar Mark Henry was personal friends with the 17-year-old boy senselessly murdered by an exploding package bomb last week in Austin.

TMZ Sports talked to '18 WWE Hall of Fame inductee -- who lives in Austin -- about the package bombings that terrorized the city ... injuring innocent people, and ending 2 lives.

Henry revealed he personally knew Draylen Mason -- an accomplished bass guitarist -- who was killed on March 12 when a package exploded in the kitchen of his home.

Draylen's mom was injured in the explosion ... but is expected to survive.

"It was just tragic to lose a kid like that, so young, and so full of life," Henry says ... "He was talented. Talented bassist. He traveled, and competed. It's just a hard loss."

The violent jackass behind the deadly Austin package bombings is picking on the wrong city, and the wrong citizens ... according to Dan Rather, who has a home there.

The veteran newsman is a born and bred Texan, so when we got him Tuesday in NYC ... he had some tough talk for whoever's responsible for the tragic bombings. The most recent one went off early Tuesday morning at a FedEx near San Antonio, but the package was bound for Austin.

Rather says the Texas capital is overflowing with smart, young people who don't have patience for prejudice. Cops think the suspect might be targeting black citizens -- but Rather says the bomber's made a serious miscalculation.

The girls are back in town -- at least Miranda Hobbes is ... 'cause she's running for Governor of New York.

"Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon -- who starred on the hit HBO series for six seasons -- announced her candidacy Monday for NY Gov with a tribute video to her home state.

She captioned the clip ... "I love New York, and today I'm announcing my candidacy for governor. Join us" with a link to her campaign homepage where she's accepting donations.

In her promotional vid, she touts wanting to offer better opportunities to NY children, and calls out unequal wealth distribution throughout the state. She also says "our leaders are letting us down."

Here's a feel-good story for the day -- French Montana's humanitarian efforts in Uganda have culminated with the opening of a hospital that's equipped to take care of 300,000 people.

We broke the story ... the "Unforgettable" rapper became hip-hop's first Global Citizen Ambassador for his work in Uganda, after he witnessed the country's healthcare hardships while he was there shooting the music video.

French's donation to help provide much-needed resources for pregnant women snowballed when The Weeknd and Diddy matched it, and because of their charity ... the Ugandan community now has a new hospital to do just that.

Anderson Cooper has officially split from his longtime boyfriend, Benjamin Maisani.

Cooper released a statement Thursday confirming that he and Maisani, a night club mogul, had "separated as boyfriends some time ago." He added, "We remain the best of friends, and will continue to share much of our lives together."

The two were spotted together earlier this week leaving the home they still share in Manhattan, so it seems they're still on good terms. They were together for nine years.

Rumors the two had broken up began to surface after several photos of Cooper with Dallas doctor Victor Lopez made their way onto social media over the past few months.

Cooper has not confirmed or denied if he and Lopez are dating, but all signs seemingly point to yes.

The woman who was brutalized by baseball player Danry Vasquez says she regrets not pressing charges against him ... and prays that he's a changed man for the sake of his new wife.

Fabiana Perez spoke with Univision and confirms the two did not break up until months after the 2016 attack. Vasquez got engaged to a new woman in Nov. 2017 and they're now married.

Perez says the two had been together for 6 years and were engaged at the time of the incident.

As we previously reported, Perez was not cooperative with prosecutors and lobbied the district attorney to let Vasquez slide.

Now, Perez says she regrets her actions ... and had this message about Vasquez:

"May God forgive him. He knows what he did. He wronged me, and at the time I forgave him, but if I had the knowledge I have now, I would have made a different decision."

As for people who criticized her for staying with Vasquez after the attack, Perez had this to say:

"It’s true what they say: you need to walk a mile in someone’s shoes to know how you’d feel in their situation. People don’t know the stuff that I lived, people don’t know the fear that I suffered."

Tomi Lahren's probably better off reading from a teleprompter, because she now says the social media post about kicking her dog was a joke that just fell on deaf ears.

We got Tomi at LAX Wednesday and asked her point-blank ... did she actually kick her dog, Kota, 5 times because she was making too much noise during Tomi's appearance on "FOX & Friends"? Remember, it was Tomi's own video of herself berating her dog for loudly chewing a bone that got her in trouble, anyway.

Tomi denied abusing Kota, and said anyone with some logic would know she was joking.

She claims people are overreacting -- to HER SAYING she kicked her dog -- and did her best to prove she's a loving pet owner. Tomi tried to chalk this all up to a slow news day, but truth is the timing of her "joke" sucked.

3/12/18 -- It is now confirmed that all 5 passengers in the chopper have died. The only survivor is the pilot.

6:09 PM PT -- At least 2 people are reported dead and 3 are in critical condition out of five that were recovered from the crash, according to officials.

A helicopter reportedly full of passengers crashed in New York City's East River Sunday ... but it appears no one was injured for now.

The chopper is being described by multiple reports as a "tour helicopter" and there's said to be an unknown number of passengers aboard. Authorities are currently responding.

The moment of impact was captured on video and posted to social, as was the aftermath. The helicopter is said to have flipped upside and was submerged in the water. The FAA called it a Eurocopter AS350.

While some people say there was more than one person aboard, other witnesses say only one individual was inside and was able to escape unscathed. The man, who was reportedly rescued, was seen being escorted to an ambulance after being pulled out of the water.

There are reportedly no reports of injuries at this time, according to authorities.

Teri Hatcher's setting the record straight -- she's NOT broke or homeless, and she says anyone claiming that just isn't doing their homework.

Teri joined Sam Rubin on the "KTLA 5 Morning News" all the way from London to address a cover story recently published in Star Magazine ... claiming Teri's desperate, broke, homeless and living out of her van.

The "Desperate Housewives" star says that could NOT be further from the truth. Teri calls the story absurd and says the pictures the magazine published were actually just her filming her YouTube series, "Van Therapy" ... in which she drives around in her Bay Window Volkswagen Bus.