` While the NRA’S backlash is menacing in its resistant ‘guns don’t kill people’ tirade, the tide may actually turn against them this time...

WELL, where to start?

Broward County, Coral Springs, Florida.

Three weeks after enrolling my kindergartner into an elementary school there in November 2014, Sandy Hook happened.

The next day a police car was parked at the entrances to all the Broward County schools my kids attended and remained there every day after that, to this day.

Parents grieved, paranoia set in. School drop offs were gut wrenching. Every school was in lock down in the Land of the Free.

A gun control conversation spiked in the news for a while. The baby faces of the victims were unbearable to see, and the government gave shallow, grave offerings of thoughts and prayers puppeteered by the gilded grip of the NRA (National Rifle Association) and its supporters.

The unbreakable vow of the Second Amendment was wheeled out yet again like a geriatric celebrity whose time in the limelight has long passed, but whose mere existence rallies solidarity for that golden era when a nation was born and the amendment was penned, in 1791 – except that back then it referred to weapons of the day which took five minutes to load one shot.

Yet that amendment is a linchpin in the USA because it is a right and that makes it a civil liberty. Taking away a civil liberty in America is not immoral.

Yes, 227 years of doing something one way makes that thing a tradition, then a habit, then a status quo, a cultural collective nuance, a hive consciousness, then inseparable from identity and very difficult to challenge without attracting severe reprimand; then that idea dissolved into the essence of who you are and what it means to be you, in your culture.

And then someone exploits it for money.

So, what is it with kids these days?

They’re demonstrating more leadership. They intend the Florida school shooting to be the last school shooting in America. They’re in shock, they’re angry but they’re putting the status quo to absolute shame.

They can’t be bought by special interest groups if it means they’re expected to stand by and watch their best friends be murdered by multiple gunshot wounds inflicted in seconds.

They’re not buying into the corruption and lies and the status quo, because the keepers of those keys are corrupted failures at doing their job and the kids of today won’t be bluffed anymore.

Governments globally deceive youth by promising all sorts of hopes like reducing climate change emissions on one hand while selling land for coal mining on the other, or promising to make schools safer by introducing more guns.

What the kids of today are, is not stupid.

They can’t be bluffed.

You cannot tell a child today that it’s a terrible thing your classmates were murdered but that’s just the way it is and expect them to allow themselves to submit to that idea, to be groomed into apathy, or to be coached to parrot lame excuses which are a veneer to protect the real beneficiaries, the NRA.

Especially when they’re washing their friend’s blood off their clothes, or going to their funerals.

On March 24, it is likely America will experience a rite of passage that’s being likened to the civil rights movement.

It will be an attempt to break from the past, and while the NRA’S backlash is menacing in its resistant ‘guns don’t kill people’ tirade, the tide may actually turn against them this time.

The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas have endured the ultimate fear of being hunted down, they faced the prospect of being murdered; they ran for their lives.

They hid from the bullets, but how inspiring to see they will not hide from the hard choices they demand their country to make.

The March for Our Lives movement mission statement sums it up best.

“The March for Our Lives is what no ‘leader’ has been able to do. Not one more. We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school. We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives.

“In the tragic wake of the 17 lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now.

“School safety is not a political issue. There cannot be two sides to doing everything in our power to ensure the lives and futures of children who are at risk of dying when they should be learning, playing, and growing.

“The mission and focus of March For Our Lives is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues. No special interest group, no political agenda is more critical than timely passage of legislation to effectively address the gun violence issues that are rampant in our country.

“Every kid in this country now goes to school wondering if this day might be their last. We live in fear. It doesn’t have to be this way. Change is coming. And it starts now, inspired by and led by the kids who are our hope for the future. Their young voices will be heard. Stand with us on March 24. Refuse to allow one more needless death.”

What’s with kids these days? They get it. ■