The Valentine’s Day school shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Florida was not the biggest, and it may not be the last. But it will be the best known, marked in US gun violence history as the day the children stood up to their government and the NRA.
Until now, the victims of the school shootings have been only that—victims. All we’ve known about them is the images we’ve seen, their terrified flight from danger, their weeping faces, their bowed heads in the candlelight at the endless memorial services. But seldom their voices. After all, they were young, they needed to be sheltered from the press, and anyway, they had adults who spoke for them, their parents, their teachers, their sheriffs, their politicians.
The survivors have their say
Nobody knew how they felt when they were hiding from the shooters who were hunting them down, the trapped feelings, the helplessness. No one knew the measure of their anger and their fear.
Now we have heard their voices. Here’s what Jaclyn Corin, a survivor of the shooting, told NBC:
“We are the ones that looked into Nikolas Cruz’s eyes. We took 17 bullets to the heart. We are the only ones who can speak up. We have to be the adults in this situation because clearly people have failed us in the government, and we must make the change now because we’re the only ones who are going to.”
And this, from Lane Murdock, a survivor of the Columbine, Colorado shooting 19 years ago:
“Gun violence surrounds us. I remember my first lockdown drill as a normal thing. I saw how Newton affected so many around me, and it hurt. It hurts that a shooter can go into a school and kill little kids, and adults just let it fade into the background like white noise.”
Several days have passed since the massacre. Since then, the survivors, so touchingly young, have spoken, in remarkably assured voices—to reporters, to public audiences, to politicians when they could find them. Their messages have been emotional, strident, consistent and clear: Get rid of the guns.
How skeptics dismiss them
Does anyone listen? Surprisingly they do. Do people respect them? Well, not entirely. Michelle Malkin, in her Feb. 21 article for the Creator’s Syndicate, Do Not Let the Children Lead, cynically wrote in a column that went around the world:
“Many may be exceptionally smart, passionate and articulate beyond their years, but they do not possess any semblance of wisdom because they have not lived those years. Their knowledge of history, law and public policy is severely limited (Common Core certainly hasn’t helped). And their moral agency and cognitive abilities are far from fully developed. Most are in no position to change the world when they can’t even remember to change their own bedsheets.”
It’s not surprising that the people they target will ridicule them and discredit them—they’ll say they are naive, and are being exploited. They’ll try to distract them and buy them off with half measures like addressing mental health, and tightening age restrictions.
This generation is different
But these students are sure of their message, and they are holding fast. Broward Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie put it in perspective when he told NBC he was proud of the students and their response, saying:
“This is their moment, this is their generation and they’re stepping up and doing what needs to happen. I feel so encouraged that this time it will be different.”
Perhaps what they lack in sophistication, they make up in passion and determination. Today’s communications revolution is on their side.Their message has gone around the world in seconds. They have been featured in prime time television news. They have inspired a major Twitter feed, they’ve held countless interviews. They may have sparked something that will not fade and die, a national movement to control gun ownership.
Survivor Emma Gonzalez, who noted that high schoolers would soon become eligible to vote in an interview for NBC, said this:
“These people who are being funded by the NRA are not going to be allowed to remain in office. When Midterm Elections roll around, they’re going to be voted out of office. Incumbency rates are going to drop.”
We’ve been here before
Young people have spoken up before. It is the purview of the young to question and fight the status quo. During the 1960s and earlier, our generation, and the Beatniks before us, attempted to change the political and cultural course of the country. But it was a movement with elements that are missing here, romanticism, love, sex, drugs and rock and roll.
These young people stand alone at the mics, facing the world. It’s a stark presentation, with no frills. All they have is their sincerity, their pure, clear voices, and the simplicity of a single-issue message.
Now, watch for this:
Today, two weeks after the shooting, we watch in awe, as the movement they started goes on and on.
For more, watch the demonstrations in Washington and many other cities, slated for March 24, by “March for Our Lives,”
I hope that the movement started by school children achieves what well meaning adults have so far not been able to in your country. I wish them well.
I’m following the developments carefully, Rummuser. Like you, I wish them success.
I am so glad when young people speak out. Their power often comes as much from what they don’t know as from what they do. One thing they don’t yet know is cynicism and defeat. Even when they try and fail, it can be good. The experience will teach lessons and harden them in ways they need to be hardened. We and they need to match the NRA’s unbridled hunger for power.
Your phrase, “unbridled hunger for power” describes their credo to a “T”. I can’t believe how they have garnered all that influence and power! Thanks, Barry.
I think we are watching a very important moment in time. These kids are so impressive in speaking out through their grief, horror and anger. Many will be voting this year, and many in the years to come. I live in Canada but hope with all my heart gun laws will be changed in the US. Hopefully these kids are the voice of reason. Good post.
I’m so impressed with these kids. I hope with all my heart their movement takes hold!
Thanks for blogging about this. I’ve felt paralyzed by the outrageous incompetence of the institutions that should have prevented it: the FBI, local law enforcement, school officials. They had all the information about the shooter but did nothing. I’ll be marching in support of the students, tweeting against the NRA, emailing my legislators, and doing whatever else I can.
If I was in your country, I would do that as well. This issue is specific to the US, though, since most countries, including ours, have very strict controls. That is not to say that it won’t ever change for the worse—given the video games out there, and the movies that glamorize violence, who knows where this might go? Anger and violence seem to be attractive to a certain element of any culture. Thanks for your comment, Dr. Rin!
This is encouraging: National Rifle Association facing backlash as corporate giants drop links with gun lobby group .
Fingers crossed!
Out of the most terrible of events comes a strand of hope for the future. I really hope this movement succeeds, as their politicians and leaders have failed them and are showing themselves incapable and unwilling to make the changes that these young people want. They are the future: politicians enslaved and bought by the likes of the NRA will hopefully soon be consigned to the rubbish bins of history.
It’s a BIG hope, but as long as there is a shred of hope, there is possibility. One thing is clear about this whole issue—things need to change.
Again, you tapped into what I felt as I watched the aftermath of the shooting and the growing support the students have gained from state governments and corporations. Oh how I hope those entities and the children stay the course. As I did more than once in the sixties, I plan to find a march anywhere in Colorado and join it on the 24th of next month.
It’s been almost two weeks since that shooting, and resolve seems to be holding. We can hope!
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