Over five years ago, on Feb. 14, 2018, David Hogg’s childhood ended.
Now in college, Hogg is a survivor of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. In commemoration of the tragedy, Hogg, a co-founder of March For Our Lives, sat down for a conversation with senior political reporter Anthony Brooks at WBUR CitySpace on Monday night.
When Hogg first started March For Our Lives to eliminate the epidemic of gun violence, he said he set out to “show our generation that we aren’t powerless.”
“We wanted to create a cultural shift within our generation that negated the ageist stereotype, frankly, that young people don’t care about politics,” Hogg said. “Trust me, we care. It’s literally getting us killed.”
Hogg, who recently spoke in Michigan in the wake of the Michigan State University shooting, said it is up to young people to “keep the pressure on” when it comes to holding officials accountable.
“[Gun rights activists] have shown up every single year for decades at state legislatures,” Hogg said. “The people that come up to me and say, ‘Wow, David, you’re such an inspiration … My generation really messed up. Thank God you’re here to save us’… I need those people to stop thanking me and start marching with me.”
Sean Waddington, president of Boston University College Democrats and a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said that as shootings occur more frequently, “we need to do what we can to be safe.”
Hours before the event, three students and three adults were killed in a shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. This is the 89th school shooting this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.
“It keeps happening again and again and again, and we’re the vulnerable generation,” Waddington said. “I think we’re seeing the geography of protests is really huge, it’s everywhere … and action’s happening universally because this is a generational issue.”
On Feb. 24, in the wake of the MSU shooting, BU College Democrats helped organize a “cross-university protest” in Boston.
Ana Villarreal, an associate professor of sociology at BU who researches gun violence, said the U.S.’s lack of gun control legislation has effects that go past the country’s borders.
“It is the flux of guns south of the border that is so worrisome for Mexicans and for the Mexican government that actually recently sued U.S. gun manufacturers here in Boston,” said Villarreal. “So when I see students organizing for gun control … I think there’s an opportunity to really work together and to think about the importance of this topic, not only for lives in the United States.”
According to BBC News, the number of mass shootings in the U.S. — in which four or more people were killed or injured — continues to rise from 336 in 2015 to 647 in 2022. Hogg said that, on average, state gun laws get weaker after a mass shooting.
“I don’t think it’s a question of how do we get more people involved, they’re involved,” Hogg said. “It’s a matter of how we make sure that we’re uplifting those people and broadening the spotlight.”
Ellen Bick, a retired Brookline resident, attended the CitySpace event as a “supporter against gun violence,” and wanted to hear Hogg speak.
“I’m interested in learning more about [gun violence] and what is happening in the movement and if it’s making any progress,” Bick said.
Hogg said that as a people, we must “show the world we want to build” — one in which the American Dream is not “stolen” by “an AR-15.”
“We want to build … a future where kids don’t have to go through school shooter drills or fear gun violence outside of school. Where kids don’t have to go to sleep to the sound of gunshots every night,” Hogg said. “Because we actually stood up and did something as a country and came together for a common cause which is the protection of our kids and protection of our future that our kids represent.”