Students lead the charge
Today’s teens have a power never seen before in the gun debate.
The survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have helped drive the gun control debate in ways other groups haven’t been able to.
They sparked marches, protests and school walkouts around the country. President Trump ordered a Justice Department crackdown on bump stocks and proposed tougher background checks on gun buyers. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos bucked the party line and called for congressional hearings.
How did that happen? What’s been so different from all the other mass shootings over the years?
Experts on social movements said the Parkland students have a variety of factors working for them.
Geography played an important role. The Las Vegas shooter killed the most victims in the history of U.S. mass shootings (57), but the families of the victims and the survivors of the shooting were scattered throughout the continent. In Parkland, the students were all from the same community.
Technology also was key. The Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999, happened when students didn’t have social media apps on their phones. That informational vacuum made it difficult for Americans to truly grasp what had happened. The Parkland shooting happened in real time. One student posted a video from the floor of his classroom, allowing Americans into that room to hear the gunshots and cries of the terrified students.
The age of the students was another important factor. The 6- and 7-year-old survivors of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting were too young to go before cameras and plead their case.
The Parkland kids, who are in their late teens, were able to respond immediately after evacuating the building. They went before the TV cameras in South Florida to vent, cry and show the world exactly what they were feeling.
Marshall Ganz, a senior lecturer of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, said the Parkland students connect with Americans in ways that politicians and advocacy groups cannot.
“Human beings communicate through stories,” said Ganz, who spent three decades being part of the civil rights and farmworker movements. “It’s how parents teach children, it’s how societies teach their moral content. These kids are articulate as hell. Their capacity to tell their story is amazing.”
Rory McVeigh, director of the Center for the Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame, said the Parkland students benefit from a national environment ripe for activism. They also have the spirit of youth. The Parkland students see something different, a sentiment on display when they deliver a speech or confront legislators in person. McVeigh said that’s why this movement has a real chance to endure.
“That’s one of the beautiful things about being 18 years old,” he said. “You may still have this sense that you can make the world a better place.”