Politicians care about votes, not protests

Arizona students with the March for Our Lives movement see through the scam of Gov. Doug Ducey’s socalled “gun violence prevention” proposal for schools.

They called it, succinctly and correctly, “51 pages of utter BS.”

In the wake of the national movement for commonsense firearms regulation, Ducey offered up an appeasement program for the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby.

His proposal calls for more police officers in schools, the development of restraining orders meant to keep dangerous or unstable individuals from getting guns, more school counselors and a school-safety tip hotline.

It’s not nothing.

It’s next to nothing, which isn’t nearly good enough.

It does not, for example, close the gun-show loophole, which allows anyone to purchase a weapon from anyone else with no background check.

(Restraining orders are useless unless you close it.)

It does not restrict the sale of assault weapons or extended magazines.

In other words, it doesn’t do ... much.

So, to remind the politicians of their inaction, students with the March for Our Lives movement have announced they plan to stage “die-ins” at several buildings at the Arizona Capitol today.

Protesting is something that students can do.

Through the actions of their #RedForEd teachers and the March for Our Lives movement, the student activists have witnessed how it is possible for large numbers of citizens to take their case directly to their elected officials. And be ignored.

One of the student organizers, Jordan Harb, 17, told The Arizona Republic, “We will be laying down to symbolize the fact that we are literally dying. People are dying. Thirty-five people are dying every day in this country because politicians, like those here in Arizona, are not taking action.” Exactly.

Even after the massive demonstrations that took place following the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in February that killed 17, not much has happened.

This is something I hope these students remember over the next couple of years, when more and more of them become legal adults and can exercise their rights as citizens on Election Day.

The message the students want to get across with their “die-in” protest is that too many of their friends and fellow citizens are being lost to gun violence.

The message politicians send in return to these ardent young people is: We don’t care.

The young people can change that