But a surprising new force has arisen from the Florida school shooting tragedy. Students at the Parkland school, through their grief and pain, have staged powerful protests against Congress and their own state legislature for their failure to address gun violence. Students and their allies are now organizing nationwide school walkouts on March 14 and April 20, and planning a March 24 protest rally in Washington, D.C. and other cities across the U.S. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Andrew Patrick, media director with the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Here, he assesses the response to the Florida school shooting, and the prospect that new student activism could help break the deadlock in Congress.
ANDREW PATRICK: In 2016, we saw Orlando, which surpassed Virginia Tech as the most horrific mass shooting. Just last October, we saw the Las Vegas (massacre), then the deadliest church shooting in Sutherland Springs. And now we have the deadliest high school shooting. It’s horrific and awful and horrible to see every single time. The scenes are all too familiar of children running out of school like it’s a war zone. The breaking news alerts terrify parents have kind of become an unfortunate, awful part of American life.
The difference is, this time, this rapid movement take place, grasssroots, by these students who have been incredibly passionate, but also very smart and very savvy, and very poised in their response to this. And that’s not only has kept us talking about the issue of gun violence, but it feels like there’s a real movement afoot to actually make some changes.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Andrew, what’s the difference? What provoked, you think these students, unlike others in previous horrendous mass murder incidences – why do you they’ve taken a different route to dealing with their mourning of their fellow students, but also, anger which has fueled their action and calls for mass demonstrations across the country?
ANDREW PATRICK: Yeah, it’s really remarkable. These students – I guess if you were a sophomore or a freshman in this high school, you would have been in elementary school when Sandy Hook happened five years ago. So this is an issue that they’ve grown up with. This unique horror of American life that they’ve seen. And I think there’s just a – to be able to have a student-led, grassroots-led group come out – I mean, I’m sure they’re talking to some of the other groups.
But this is really being led and it’s their voices, it’s their words, it’s their passion and it’s remarkable to see. And everyone – from the president, according to reports, to parents across the country, to gun owners, to NRA members – are really hearing them.
And it’s really something that we haven’t quite seen before. Everyone thought Sandy Hook was going to be the turning point and it was in many ways. It built the current movement we’re seeing now. But Sandy Hook turned out to be the catalyst and now we’re actually starting to get to a place where people are becoming single-issue voters and activists on this year-round, not just following a horrific tragedy.
BETWEEN THE LINES: After so many mass shooting incidents, there are many people in the country who are cynical that any action will be forthcoming from Congress because the recent history shows that Congress, dominated by Republicans – many of whom get a lot of their campaign contributions from the National Rifle Association – has effectively blocked any action on the part of Congress, including stopping people on the terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns.
Just an amazing number of proposals have been blocked. Is there any reason to hope that things will be different this time?
ANDREW PATRICK: Well, I think, and you saw this movement kind of start to take place after the Las Vegas shooting. It’s not just that these bills are being introduced, it’s that they’re bipartisan bills. The “Fix NICS” (“Fix National Instant Criminal Background Check System”) Act that came up after the Sutherland Springs shooting that would improve our federal background checks system, because it’s good to have them, but they’ll only work as well as the information we put in there.
It turned out in that case, that the proper information was not carried to stop that person from getting a gun. It is a bill from Sen. (John) Cornyn of Texas, Sen. (Orrin) Hatch of Utah and the two senators (Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal) from Connecticut. It is a bipartisan bill. And we’re looking at real solutions in Congress, but also at the state level, where most of this action is going to take place.
It turned out in that case, that the proper information was not carried to stop that person from getting a gun. It is a bill from Sen. (John) Cornyn of Texas, Sen. (Orrin) Hatch of Utah and the two senators (Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal) from Connecticut. It is a bipartisan bill. And we’re looking at real solutions in Congress, but also at the state level, where most of this action is going to take place.
Congress has a difficult time passing a budget. They have difficult time keeping the government open. They have a difficult time passing farm bills. Tackling gun violence is an incredibly hard and complicated issue that requires broad support from both sides. And with all of these mass shootings, we’re slowly starting to take these modest steps to get there. So, we’re hopeful that some of these laws, and maybe ending the CDC ban on research is another thing that we, I think, could attract bipartisan support.
And the bills, in and of themselves, are not going to stop all gun violence. No one is saying that. What we’re saying is, these are steps moving in the right directions and then hopefully, that’ll be when we’ll be able to see these more comprehensive universal background checks, assault weapons bans. At least the discussion is taking place.
So, in a Republican president-Republican House-Republican Senate, these are good signs, because we thought we were going to be playing defense on bad NRA bills this entire session of Congress, and it turns out we’re actually starting to push some of the items that we’d like to see.
For more information, visit Coalition to Stop Gun Violence at csgv.org; Educational Fund To Stop Gun Violence at efsgv.org; March For Our Lives (April 24, 2018) at marchforourlives.com, National School Walkout at facebook.com, Every Town For Gun Safety at everytown.org and the Gun Violence Archive at shootingtracker.com.
