Kasky to be State of the Union guest

Cameron Kasky, a student cofounder of the March for Our Lives movement after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, will be at the U.S. House chamber in the Capitol for President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

He’s the guest of U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.

Swalwell said in a statement Friday that he’d grown frustrated by the refusal of Republicans, who controlled Congress from 2011 until this year, to advance legislation dealing with gun violence.

“But the clear, loud, unwavering voices of the Parkland generation have inspired me to renew our efforts,” he said.

Kasky captured national attention after the Feb. 14 massacre at his school in Parkland when he challenged U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., during a CNN town hall for accepting campaign money from the National Rifle Association.

Now 18, Kasky co-founded the student-led Gun Violence Preven-

tion advocacy group Never Again MSD, and helped organize the March for Our Lives student protests in March 2018.

Kasky, in a written statement, said he was “very excited” to attend the speech. He said he hoped it would lead to “meaningful discussions about how we can take action to tackle gun violence for the horrific epidemic it is.”

Swalwell said that “in the face of unimaginable tragedy, Cameron Kasky has shown remarkable strength. He stands at the forefront of the fight for action to address gun violence, bringing thousands of his peers together to demand we finally do something.”

Swalwell doesn’t have a high national profile, but he’s contemplating a presidential candidacy.