One of the students who survived the attack at a Florida high school last month where 17 students and staff were killed mocked teens who disagree with the premise of the March for Our Lives protest taking place on Saturday in Washington, DC to demand more restrictive gun laws.
A host of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition asked Cameron Kasky, 17, about young people who disagree with him about guns.
“I’ve read some really interesting op-eds by students about your age who say, you know, ‘I’m growing up in rural America. Guns are part of my family’s culture. I like target shooting. I don’t think guns are a bad thing,’” Noel King noted.
“What do you say to a 17-year-old who fundamentally disagrees with you about some of this stuff?” King asked.
“Well, I say we’re marching to protect you from other people like you who have guns,” Kasky said. “And I say that target shooting, while it is a sport, we’ve become the targets.”
“We’re the targets now,” Kasky said. “We are running away from people like you.”
The interview gave Kasky the opportunity to assert that the march, which is expected to draw as many as 500,000 to the nation’s capital and hundreds of other cities around the country and even some abroad, was still controlled by the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
But when asked about the protest’s left-wing supporters, Kasky admitted that adults helped pull off the D.C. event, which requires a federal permit, massive logistical support, and lots of money, including millions in insurance costs.
King: You are working with progressive groups, though – right? – like Indivisible, which is a movement to resist the Trump agenda. You have dipped a toe into politics here.
Kasky then said race is an issue in school shootings.
Kasky: You know, our story was told because we are an affluent white community. And we have to shine the spotlight that was given on us on everybody in the world who has to deal with this on a daily basis. So people like Indivisible, who represent students who are in lower-income communities and don’t get to speak out the way we do because people don’t listen, we have to connect with these students.
“So the leadership of this movement still is teenagers?” King asked.
“Yes,” Kasky claimed. “And while we have people who help us, while we have people who can help us book hotels and get city permits, those aren’t the people controlling our message. Those aren’t the people writing our words. The only reason this has worked and the only reason this will continue to work is because we don’t let ourselves get bastardized by others.”
In fact, a wide coalition of left-wing groups have been involved in organizing, promoting, and funding the march, including the anti-gun group Giffords, Move On, and Women’s March LA.
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