Parkland students push for town halls

Now that last weekend’s national March for Our Lives rally has entered the history books, the student activists of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School aim to keep the momentum going with Town Hall for Our Lives.

Advocating tougher gun laws and safer schools, Parkland student David Hogg and others in the studentled #NeverAgain movement are calling on Twitter supporters to organize town-hall meetings during the current congressional recess, which ends April 9.

Allies of #NeverAgain should use that downtime to invite elected representatives to town hall meetings on April 7, Hogg tweeted on Sunday.

The idea is to meet with lawmakers directly and push for gun reforms ahead of the midterm elections in November, Hogg tweeted. He did not mince words. “Call your rep today to organize it and if they refuse to show up, just invite their opponent,” wrote Hogg, a key member of #NeverAgain.

The tweet reinforces Hogg’s speech during March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., when he pushed for allies to register to vote and cast ballots this November. “We are going to make this the voting issue,” Hogg says. “We are going to take this to every election, to every state, in every city. We are going to make sure the best people get in our elections to run, not as politicians, but as Americans. Because this, this is not cutting it.”

Hogg’s grassroots effort is working with the Town Hall Project, founded in 2017 by former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer Jimmy Dahman, which empowers Americans to host face-toface conversations with lawmakers during congressional recesses.

To organize a town hall, Hogg tweeted, go to TownHallProject.com and click “Organize a Town Hall for Our Lives.” The website also features a map of the United States where upcoming town halls are being held.

On Twitter, Stoneman Douglas alum and #NeverAgain movement member Matt Deitsch took Hogg’s call to action a step further, suggesting that supporters “Go down to your congressman / mayors / Senators office” and “record yourselves inviting them to the town hall on your smartphones,” Deitsch wrote.