ENOUGH! TEENS SAY NO TO GUNS
As yet another school buries its dead after a fatal shooting, America’s youth are taking a stand against the mighty gun lobby
MASS shootings are nothing new in the USA. They make headlines, devastated loved ones are pictured weeping at funerals and politicians pledge to hold the affected and the grieving in their “thoughts and prayers”.
Then everything goes back to normal – until the next time it happens. Because no matter how horrifying each mass shooting is, nothing really changes when it comes to gun control in America.
But this time something rather extraordinary has happened. And it’s being driven by a groundswell of kids from the so-called “mass-shooting generation”.
A rapidly growing movement under the hashtag #NeverAgain is being spearheaded by young people directly affected by the recent slaughter of 14 students and three teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
As the USA grappled to come to terms with the tragedy, kids united to protest against what they view as the government’s inaction to protect students and teachers. Rallies were rapidly organised where kids carried signs emblazoned with slogans such as “Stop protecting guns, start protecting kids!”, “It could’ve been us” and “Be the adults, do something!” while others delivered impassioned messages over loudspeakers.
“Some of us can’t vote yet,” said Amy Campbell-Oates (16), who organised a protest at nearby South Broward High School. “But we want to get to the people who can.”
#NeverAgain was started on Facebook by Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) student Cameron Kasky (17) and a few friends, and it rapidly gained traction.
“People say it’s too early to talk about [the shooting],” Cameron said. “If you ask me, it’s way too late.”
HARROWING cellphone footage of the day murder and mayhem came to MSD did the rounds on the internet. Youngsters are pictured cowering under desks against a background of bone-chilling screams and pops of gunfire from a semiautomatic rifle.
David Hogg (17) interviewed and recorded his classmates throughout the attack “because I didn’t know if I was going to survive”, he says.
“But I knew if those videos survived they’d echo on and tell the story. And that story would be one that would change things, I hoped. And that would be my legacy.”
American schoolkids are trained to know what to do in the event of a school shooting: when teachers yell, “Code red!” you run to the nearest, safest place – under your desk, in a cupboard, wherever.
“This is life for the children of the mass-shooting generation,” The New York Times says. “They were born into a world reshaped by the 1999 attack at Columbine High School and grew up practising active-shooter drills.
“With friends they wondered darkly whether it might happen at their own school and who might do it.”
At MSD those questions have now been answered. The shooter was Nikolas Cruz (19), a former student described by those at school who knew him as mentally unstable and disturbed.
And the day he came for them was
Valentine’s Day, a date forever ruined for the students of the school.
Yet a growing band of teen activists is rising from the horror. As The New York Times puts it, “They want action. These are their murdered friends, their bloodstained schools, their upended lives.”
One of the faces of the campaign is Emma González (18), who before 14 February was “like any other high school senior – hanging out with friends, visiting college campuses and counting down the days to graduation”, as US People magazine put it.
She was there when Cruz started spraying gunfire at any moving target he could find and attracted national attention when her antigun speech at a rally after the shooting went viral.
“They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars – we call BS,” she said.
“They say no laws could have been able to prevent the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred – we call BS. That kids don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re too young to understand how the government works – we call BS.”
A day earlier Emma and her classmates appeared on CNN in a heated debate with Florida senator Marco Rubio and Dana Loesch, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association (NRA).
“Dana Loesch, I want you to know we’ll support your two children in a way you won’t,” Emma said to the well-groomed woman on stage with her at a meeting organised by the news network.
Loesch responded by saying she didn’t believe “this insane monster should ever have been able to obtain a firearm. Ever.”
And yet the fact remains it’s easy for anyone in America over the age of 18 – or 21 in some states – to buy a gun at a shop.
Only convicted criminals, those with mental illnesses and non-US citizens aren’t allowed to own a firearm – yet the checks and balances, as Cruz has shown, leave a lot to be desired.
IN THE fraught days after the tragedy President Donald Trump invited parents and students to the White House for a “listening session”. He was pictured holding a key card containing phrases such as “I hear you” – which the media took as a sign to prompt him to be compassionate.
One father, Andrew Pollack, lost his 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, in the shooting and travelled to the White House to face Trump – of whom he was an avid supporter before the attack.
“I’m here because my daughter has no voice,” he said. “She was murdered last week. Shot nine times on the third floor.
“We as a country failed our children. I can’t get on a plane with a bottle of water but we leave some animal to walk into a school and shoot our children. It’s just not right.”
Teenager Samuel Zief, whose best friend was shot and killed by Cruz, fought back tears as he addressed Trump.
“I turned 18 and woke to the news my best friend was gone. I don’t understand why I could still go into a store and buy a weapon of war.”
Yet with Trump at the helm in the USA it seems unlikely laws will change much. Instead of announcing an investigation into legislation, as so many have called for, his response was to call for arming teachers so they’d be prepared when a shooter came to school.
He declared gun-free schools a magnet for mass shooters and proposed bonuses for teachers willing to carry concealed weapons. He wasn’t saying every teacher should carry a gun. “Only those with military or special training – around 20%.”
Teacher bodies have condemned the proposal as madness. “Anyone who wants guns in schools has no understanding of what goes on inside them – or worse, doesn’t care,” the American Federation of Teachers said.
“Arming teachers is insane,” Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal said. “It’s a sure path to reckless and panicky shooting.”
As the adults continue to talk, the #NeverAgain kids are forging ahead with their crusade and are planning a countrywide march for 24 March.
“Never again should a child be afraid to go to school,” said Sarah Chadwick, another MSD student.
“Never again should students have to protest for their lives. Never again should an innocent life be taken while trying to gain an education.”