Pupils’ action gains strength in gun control issue

TALLAHASSEE: In the week since 17 of David Hogg’s classmates and teachers were gunned down in Florida, he and his fellow high school pupils have launched a movement that reshaped the gun control debate almost overnight and may influence the US mid-term elections.

Staring boldly into TV cameras, Hogg and other students who survived the February 14 Parkland school massacre, have demanded lawmakers restrict gun sales and are targeting politicians funded by the pro-gun National Rifle Association (NRA) lobby.

They have taken to social media to urge peers to hold a National School Walkout on March 14 and converge on Washington 10 days later for the “March For Our Lives”.

Plunging into a debate that has long polarised the US between those defending gun ownership as a constitutional right and those demanding measures to stop mass shootings, the students are now focusing on the November elections.

“We get out there and make sure everybody knows how much money their politician took from the NRA,” Hogg said.

The students seem to have made more progress in a few days than years of anti-gun advocacy that has stumbled on opposition from congressional Republicans who fiercely defend their constitutional rights to own guns.

The students’ movement is forcing donors to cut funding to the NRA and pressuring lawmakers to stop taking money from the politically influential gun rights group.

The teenage activists are collecting millions of dollars from celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney and enjoy probono advertising from people in Hollywood and groups, including the Women’s March.

What may be different about the Parkland students’ campaign is their almost instantaneous mobilisation and the power of social media, where their passionate speeches have gone viral, experts said.

“It’s this perfect storm of young people whose authority to speak cannot be denied because their friends were just murdered, have control of social media, the ability to speak to mass media, have celebrity support and organisational infrastructure,” said Sasha Costanza-Chock, an associate professor of civic media at MIT.

Democrats have rushed to support the teenagers, hoping the movement can help them in the mid-term elections.

“It very well may be that the solution to gun violence in this country is a generational solution instead of a partisan one. This might be the generation that finally breaks through on this issue,” said Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau.

Republicans, however, warned that it was unclear whether the students would gain momentum beyond Florida. “I would be cautious to recognise any national trend based on one week in which passions have been high,” said Republican strategist Rory Cooper.

The NRA did not respond to a request for comment.

Showing their support for the students, dozens of US colleges and universities – including at least three Ivy League schools – have said their application processes will not consider disciplinary action taken against high schoolers who protest last week’s killings in Florida.

Hogg also took to Twitter at the weekend to urge students on holiday to boycott Florida during their school breaks.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s government is seeking the extradition of a Brazilian man it said was arrested by US authorities at his Miami home on Saturday, allegedly for shipping automatic weapons to the South American country.

The arrest of Frederik Barbieri, comes one week after Brazil resorted to the military to try to control violence and crime in Rio de Janeiro, where heavily-armed drug gangs control the city’s slums.

The US is the largest source of guns entering Brazil, according to a Brazilian police report seen by Reuters last month. – Reuters