Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school accused the National Rifle Association on Sunday of exploiting people’s fears to sell weapons and criticized the Trump administration for its stuttering response to last month’s gun rampage in Florida, which left 14 of their peers and three teachers dead.
Hours after hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren took to the streets of cities and towns across the US, as well as in several locations around the world, to call for action to curb gun violence, student survivors of the 14 February mass shooting in Parkland appeared on talk shows to press home their point.
The students were scathing about the NRA’s influence on the national debate, and expressed profound disappointment about what they perceive as the lack of a meaningful action from Washington.
“The NRA are fearmongers,” said Cameron Kasky, a Parkland survivor and one of the organizers of Saturday’s historic March for Our Lives. Speaking on Fox News on Sunday, and wearing a #MSDStrong T-shirt to underline the resilience of the new movement his school has spawned, he charged the NRA with wanting “to sell weapons by exploiting people’s fears. The second we try to put common-sense regulations on these assault weapons the NRA will say they are trying to steal your guns – fortunately people see past this.”
Stoneman Douglas students were equally excoriating about the record of state and federal politicians in tackling the issue of gun violence since the shooting. Jaclyn Corin, the school’s class president, told CBS’s Face the Nation that she was unimpressed by the Stop School Violence Act that was included in the $1.3tn omnibus spending bill passed on Friday.
