USA TODAY International Edition
Some teens still cherish their guns
Polls show mixed views among high schoolers
They’re young, fierce and — at least for the moment — the most prominent voices in America’s debate over guns.
But not all members of “Generation Columbine” cling to the rhetoric making household names out of some of their peers, those students calling for tighter gun control after the deadly Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Many American high schoolers do not blame school shootings on guns and don’t argue the answer is tighter restrictions on firearms. It’s a view at odds with many of their classmates, yet born from the same safety concerns.
“There’s many things that go into a solution for this, and it’s not guns,” said Melanie Clark, an 18-year-old high school senior from Tallahassee. “We’re definitely in the minority for believing that it’s not guns.”
As gun-control advocates their age gain popularity and others cast their generation as anti-firearm, pro-gun students feel at times overlooked. But polling suggests young people aren’t overwhelmingly for gun control.
A USA TODAY/Ipsos poll taken after the Parkland shooting found less than half of students 13 to 17 think tightening gun laws and background checks would prevent mass shootings. The Pew Research Center, in an April 2017 poll, found 39% of people 18-29 said protecting gun rights is of chief importance, versus 58% who favor gun control.
Pro-gun high school students told USA TODAY the school shooting problem is complex, but they maintain guns aren’t the problem. They say more can be done on school security, mental health and background checks. Some argue that those calling for gun control are uninformed about and unfamiliar with firearms.
Marjory Stoneman junior Kyle Kashuv, a firm Second Amendment supporter, opposes banning assault weapons. School shootings, he said, are driven by “faulty communication and reporting of prior convictions,” along with mental health issues.
School administrators, mental health counselors and others received numerous warnings of the mental state and violent tendencies of gunman Nikolas Cruz in the months leading up to the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas, where 17 people were killed.
Similar to his classmates, Kashuv has been given airtime on national media to express his alternative take. He met with President Trump, Vice President Pence and members of Congress in the wake of the shooting. He also voices support for two congressional measures that, among other intentions, provide grants for improved school safety training and improve how government agencies update records for gun background checks.
“Many, many dislike me, however I don’t pay attention to criticism,” Kashuv said in an email. “Parkland will be remembered as the beginning of the end of shootings.”
Among the defining moments for the Parkland students was one week after the shooting, when hundreds of high schoolers marched on Florida’s Capitol in Tallahassee to call on lawmakers to pass gun legislation. Clark and her boyfriend, Hunter Ventry, 17, also were there, holding a two-person counterprotest on the Capitol lawn. Their sign read, “Gun control. Because criminals follow laws, right?”
“The whole situation is horrible, and I think that something should be done,” Ventry said, “but I don’t think that what the majority is saying is what needs to be done. I think there are other actions that need to be taken before anything happens with guns.”
The defense of the Second Amendment comes not without fear of another school shooting. In Pennsylvania, 15year-old sophomore Kaitlyn Helms said the Parkland shooting “definitely” affected her and her classmates. She referred to an “unspoken fear” among students, especially after someone made recent threats to her school.
“There’s no real way to avoid having a school shooting,” Helms said. “People are going to find some type of way to do what they want, whether it’s with guns or without them.”
Helms, who participates in theater and is on her school’s track and field team, lists the AR-15, the gun used in the Parkland shooting, among her favorites.
“It’s not the gun’s fault,” she said. “The gun’s not going to go off without someone’s finger on the trigger.”
Many of the students who spoke with USA TODAY oppose banning the AR-15, and most said teachers should be able to be armed if they choose, as long as they pass a background check.
“I’m not a huge fan of arming teachers,” said Tallahassee senior Justin Johnson, 18. But “if teachers want to be armed, I think they should have the right to be armed.”
Meredith Gibson, 14, an eighth-grader from Iowa, said schools would be safer with armed teachers. Helms argued that an armed teacher could step in before law enforcement arrives.
Their arguments can sometimes mimic the talking points of older generations: “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people,” Helms said. But some progun students take a sympathetic view of their classmates calling for gun control.
“While I do not necessarily agree with them, I do hear what they’re saying, and I think that’s just so amazing to see,” Helms said. When asked why he didn’t counterprotest the rally at the Florida Capitol, Johnson said, “The rally was for people who suffered. I’m passionate about the subject, but I don’t want to hurt anybody because they’re going through a lot.”
Kashuv said the debate over guns has brought him closer to at least one of his classmates, Cameron Kasky, a leader of the #NeverAgain movement.
“Despite our political differences, @cameron_kasky and I have become friends from our discourse, not enemies like one may have thought,” he tweeted.
“We’re definitely in the minority for believing that it’s not guns.” Melanie Clark An 18-year-old high school senior from Tallahassee