By Dave Paone
Campus News
“The fact that a couple of people are made sick by lettuce we pull all romaine lettuce off the shelves, but 40,000 Americans are killed annually by guns and we can’t fund research into it? It’s kind of ridiculous. We’re going to change that.”
This is the plan as spoken by 18 year-old David Hogg, a 2018 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where he was part of the largest mass school shooting in American history this past February.
Hogg, a co-founder of the activist group, Never Again MSD, gave two, back-to-back lectures at Nassau Community College in November.
As the sole speaker at both, he didn’t go into a lot of detail about the actual shooting, but instead laid out the group’s plan for “common sense gun laws and common sense policies to end gun violence in America.”
While supporters of the Second Amendment (which gives all Americans the right to keep and bear arms, as part of the Bill of Rights) may argue this action is unconstitutional (and therefore illegal), Hogg says they’re not looking to take away all guns from everyone.
Instead, they’re looking to have universal background checks for gun buyers, federal gun laws that don’t make buying in some states easier than others and funding federal research into gun safety.
They are, however, looking to disarm domestic abusers, because he claims often a common trait among mass shooters is a history of domestic violence.
Hogg supports Extreme Risk Protection Orders (or Red Flag Laws) that disarm those who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.
But the laws also provide that the accused will have an opportunity to defend themselves in court via due process.
According to Hogg, a newly-passed Red Flag Law disarmed over 500 people in Florida and prevented a possible mass shooting at the University of Central Florida this year.
His group claims victory by stating it’s had over 60 bills passed in 25 states since its inception.
Hogg echoed the pro-regulation sentiment that “thoughts and prayers,” a term bantered about immediately after each mass shooting, aren’t going to fix anything; only decisive, federal laws will.
Hogg used the word “conversation” several times, in that lawmakers from both parties need to be in conversation with the people they represent on both sides of the issue.
Hogg told how he found himself having a conversation with some of his opponents in a very odd situation.
Earlier this year, Never Again MSD, which was founded by a group of 25 students from his high school just days after the shooting, embarked on a 31-state-in-63-days tour by bus.
In one city, several counter-demonstrators showed up at the location, armed with loaded AR-15s, shotguns, Glocks and other handguns, shouting the names of members of Never Again MSD. (Hogg feels what he calls NRA “propaganda” against his group leads to this sort of confrontation.)
“I did what any sane person would do: I went and spoke to these people.” He assured them he isn’t looking to take away their guns.
He said by the time their conversation was finished, his opponents were crying and hugging him. Hogg says this resolution is a result of education.
Much of the lectures, which were billed as Putting the USA Above the NRA, were directed to people in Hogg’s own age group, often using the word “change.”
He said, “Stop waiting for someone else to come along and change the world for you and be that person,” somewhat borrowing Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Hogg also spoke about a “youth voting block.” He cited he believes the recent midterm elections had the largest turnout of young voters in 94 years and wants even more young people to vote in the presidential election of 2020.
A combined audience of about 500 people attended the lectures in NCC’s multi-purpose room. Each ran for just under an hour, including questions and answers.
In a few instances, those asking questions were somewhat confrontational, and in two cases the audience jeered at the students at the microphone. Four times Hogg said, “This is not a productive conversation,” (twice to the same person) and moved on to the next question.
While most in attendance were students and faculty, a small delegation from the activist group, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, attended the first lecture in a show of support.
Tracy Bacher, the local lead of the Nassau County Group, explained to Campus News that gun regulation is not solely a liberal agenda, which Hogg had stated as well. In the recent midterm elections, they actually endorsed Republican Representative Peter King, who’s “as Republican as Republican can be,” because he received a grade of D from the NRA. (Additionally, King received an F from Gun Owners of America.)
King is the lead Republican on the Public Safety and Second Amendment Protection Act (known as the Thompson-King Bill) which is all about background checks. The bill currently has 208 cosponsors. Bacher has high hopes it’ll pass.
On St. Valentine’s Day, 17 people at Hogg’s high school were killed by a lone, teen gunman with a high-powered, military assault rifle. While 17 year-old Hogg was not wounded, he was in class at the time and heard the gunfire. His sister, also a student, lost four friends.
Hogg is currently taking a gap year before possibly attending college next year. He’s applied to colleges already and plans to be either a political science or public health major.
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