FLORIDA SHOOTING SURVIVORS FORM A NEW BREED OF ACTIVISTS
▶ David Hogg, 17, says it would be a mistake to write off the new push for gun control
Last week, David Hogg huddled with his classmates as a gunman brought terror to his high school. By the time it was all over, 17 people lay dead or dying.
This week David, 17, is doing the rounds of television studios as one of a new breed of activists demanding tougher gun control and speaking out against the power of the National Rifle Association.
“We are not going to let anyone stop us and nothing can because we are still living,” he told The National shortly after taking a phone call from the White House.
It did not take long for survivors of Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in American history, to channel their grief and anger into action.
Immediately afterwards they spoke at vigils about the need for gun control and a #neveragain hashtag took off on Twitter.
Last night they were due to rally in the Florida state capital Tallahassee, where a day earlier state politicians quashed a bill to ban assault rifles, and a march is planned in Washington DC next month as their campaign draws support.
David said he understood that earlier massacres had generated public outrage but produced little or no reform.
But he said it would be a mistake to write off the new push as the misguided effort of idealistic teenagers.
“We’re realistic teenagers who realise the only way to save as many children’s lives as possible at this point is to compromise,” he said by phone from Los Angeles.
Rather than demanding bans or confiscations, David wants universal background checks, better mental health care and an increase in the minimum age of gun ownership to 21 from 18.
“I fully support people’s right to have a gun. I do. I just don’t want crazy people owning guns,” David said.
Analysts say the youths face an uphill struggle against entrenched gun interests but suggest that their campaign could make a unique impact.
They are social media natives, skilled in getting their message out, and are from the first generation born since the 1999 Columbine high school massacre, where 12 students and a teacher were killed.
Rather than seeing such shootings as an aberration, they have grown up with the threat as an ever-present fear. Active shooter drills are part of their schooling.
A pupil journalist, David pulled out his mobile phone to record what was happening.
Now he says he is ready to work with Donald Trump if needed to make America safer.
“How can you be partisan?” David asked.
“We have to realise we both want the same thing: the saving of our future.”
That means backing Republicans who want more done on mental health and Democrats when they pursue tougher background checks.
“What is required is a political appetite to address the issue, a massive buy-back scheme, a counter-balance to NRA lobbying and federal funding for research into reducing gun harm,” said Iain Overton, director of Action on Armed Violence and the author of Gun Baby Gun.
“It’s hard to see any of these emerging under the current president.”
Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst in Washington, said the students were articulate, compelling and are clever in sticking to a bipartisan approach.
“What I do think we are seeing is a generational change that can work its way through society and into government,” Mr Rothenberg said.
“So I don’t want to discount what is happening.
“But in the shorter term I don’t expect a fundamental realignment over guns.”
I fully support people’s right to have a gun. I do. I just don’t want crazy people owning guns