Today as hundreds of thousands of students and their families march for #GunSanityLaws in Washington, DC an even greater number of students and family are doing the same in hundreds of cities across the nation and around the world. The numbers will ultimately total in the million plus range.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was the site of a mass murder spree by a lone white former student with an AR-15 rifle. While a weapon which is used to assault is by definition an "assault weapon" proponents of unrestricted gun sales impotently point out the AR-15 is not an Assault Rifle. It is worthy of being pointed out the AR-15 is the murder weapon of choice by mass shooters who are defined by the characteristics: Male, White and Young. Yeah, there are some middle-aged shooters but still they are white males.
The NRA has mounted its propaganda campaign in support of the gun manufacturer and tout the absolute necessity of owning such weapons to protect self and family. The mount their lame 2nd Amendment ascertains the Constitution grants them the absolute right to own and carry any and all weaponry anywhere all of the time. They also denigrate the school students who are the source of the motivation for this march. Students have been bullied, bad-mouthed, threatened and punished for their stand on this issue by the NRA, the NRA public and the school systems where the children attend classes.
Some of the NRA-sponsored rhetoric circles around how the far-left media are using the children as pawns to further their liberal agenda of disarming America. Yes there is a continuing left-leaning agenda to make the country safer by reducing the ownership of guns rather than increasing it. Yes those activist parties see a champion when he/she/they step out of the scenes of carnage declaring "Never Again." But are the children being exploited?
Yes, they are being exploited by the NRA and manufacturers. They are expected to sit down and shut up while some disgruntled white male sprays them with rapid-fire AR-15 bullets.
No, the media is not exploiting them. There is a fully willing collaboration taking place which serves to make the children's lives safer even at the cost of gun manufacturer profits.
One of the biggest fear-factors of the NRA is a generation of pre-voting age citizens becoming eligible to vote by November 2018.
These children reach the milestone of first adulthood rights. Voting. They have not been co-opted by incessant NRA and far-right propaganda. While older voters may be voting for their philosophy, the students are voting for their lives.
