The Patriot Post® · Parkland Parents Put Gun Control Rhetoric Aside

The name David Hogg is probably familiar by now. Hogg has basked in the spotlight in the weeks following the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. His views on guns are best characterized in a new March for Our Lives promotional in which the activist antagonistically wonders, “What if our politicians weren’t the b—h of the NRA?”

It goes without saying that he’s more than calling politicians a derogatory name; he’s lampooning five million NRA members, most of whom are average Americans who understand the importance of the Second Amendment. Demeaning them with juvenile crudeness is hardly a recipe for success.

Crudeness aside, Hogg asserts that “lobbyist groups like the NRA … can buy our politicians, but they can’t buy our voices as American citizens.” He also alleges that “children have been allowed to be slaughtered in our schools because these politicians haven’t taken action.” And that’s “because they’ve only seen the green money that this is. And now there’s blood on their hands.”

Question for Hogg: Would you accuse the Democrats who fundraise off every school tragedy as having blood on their hands?

Hogg’s rhetoric is the kind the Leftmedia feasts on. As such, he and other fellow student activists from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have literally become the poster children for gun control thanks to the Left’s greedy and despicable exploitation of them.

But what about the the victims’ parents, the actual grownups? Unbeknownst to most, they are exemplifying refreshing levelheadedness in the face of tragedy. According to Sarah Rumpf, who writes over at Red State, 13 of the 17 victims’ families co-signed a March 16 congressional letter in which they endorse the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act and the Fix NICS Act. Both actually contain what lawmakers commonly, but usually only rhetorically, refer to as commonsense measures and fall short of gun bans.

In Rumpf’s words, one parent explained to her that “the sentiments expressed in the letter do reflect the wishes of all seventeen families.” And “all seventeen families signed a similar letter and voiced their support regarding Florida’s Senate Bill 7026, which contained several provisions to which some of them objected, like the school marshal program. Still, these seventeen families felt that the overall bill would have a positive impact, and were united in their support for it.” The discrepancy between the signee figures is likely “due to the fact that they are ‘just people, just parents’ trying to go about their normal lives, as they continue to go to work and send children to school, all the while grieving their lost loved ones.”

The STOP School Violence Act recently passed the House by a 407-10 vote. As the aforementioned parent wisely put it, “No wonder [this bill] is moving forward. You can spend your time arguing your point or you can sit down across the table from your representatives, bring your ideas, have a discussion, change minds, and get things done.”

Sadly, the truth is that post-crisis media darlings are generally there mostly for the fame that comes with it. That’s a difficult thing to say — much less swallow — but it needs to be said. Being in the spotlight rarely reaps anything beneficial. A grassroots groundswell does. The media sure isn’t reporting it, but gun confiscation and gun bans aren’t the “one true way” as the press makes them out to be. Thank God the grownups are in charge.

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