Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg says he will not return to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School until more gun control is passed.
Hogg made the comments Sunday during a gun control rally held at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey.
The New York Daily News reports that Hogg said, “I’m not going back to school on Wednesday until one bill is passed.” He did not specify which law he wants most, only that he is not going back until at least one law garners the support of lawmakers.
He said, “Literally any legislation at this point would be a success. Considering the fact that so few legislators in Florida met with us and they want the people to forget, that’s disgusting. The fact that they want people to forget about this and elect them again as the child murderers they are, that’s unacceptable and we’re not going to let that happen.”
To date, state-level gun control proposals include “tougher background checks,” a bump stock ban, a waiting period for long gun purchases, raising minimum age for rifle purchases to 21-years old, and gun confiscation orders similar to California’s Gun Violence Restraining Orders. All of these gun controls were proposed last week by Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and not a single one of them would have prevented the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Proposed gun controls at the federal level include proposals similar to Gov. Scott’s, plus an “assault weapons” ban and “universal background checks.” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) is a leading voice for these gun controls, even though neither one would have prevented the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. (The “assault weapons” ban would not have prevented the shooting because such a ban, if fashioned like the 1994-2004 ban, does not actually ban certain guns. Rather, it bans cosmetic features. And universal background checks would be impotent because the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, passed a background check for the rifle he used on February 14.)
The one change that could make an immediate difference in school safety would be to arm teachers as Utah did over 15 years ago, and as is currently being done in school districts in Colorado, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and other states. But David Hogg, Gov. Scott, and Rep. Deutch all oppose arming teachers for school safety.
Gov. Scott said we should rely on law enforcement, Deutch said talk of arming teachers is a “distraction,” and Hogg said money that would be used to arm teachers should instead be put into S.T.E.M. studies so teachers “can do more cool stuff and we’ll be able to create jobs in renewable, clean and independent American energy like wind and solar.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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