Since the tragic Parkland Shooting on February 14, 2018, many students from Stoneman Douglas High School have stood up and become advocates for Gun Control in the United States. One of the more known students who has taken the media and country by storm through leading the March for Our Lives movement is David Hogg. Alongside his friends Emma Gonzalez and Cameron Kasky, David has pushed for the people of America to fight for common sense gun control such as the banning of bump stocks, raising the age to purchase a firearm to 21, and the possible ban of AR-15s.
I applaud them for their amazing work for a cause that has had a large effect on their lives, and the incredible passion they have for this issue. Even if I do not agree with them, I find their fight and grit admiring.
However, I want to tell David Hogg something, and everyone else who follows him.
Yes, the young people will win. Just not the young people you think are going to.
All over his twitter, David Hogg has repeatedly plastered the phrase, "The young people will win," in reference to the March for Our Lives movement and the hundreds of thousands of young Americans still in high school and college. David is hooked on the idea that as the young people become more involved and influenced by politics, they will realize that they must act now and fix the injustices that have been caused through gun violence. It seems as that he believes that all the young people believe exactly what he believes, and not only that, they fall to be liberal.
The problem is that not all young people believe in the March for Our Lives movement.
Not all young people believe there is a gun violence problem.
Not all young people are Democrats.
And especially, not all young people believe that removing guns and providing more restrictions to buy or own one will solve any of the problems America has faced in the last decade.
Contrary to popular belief, there is a mass following of "young people" who support the second amendment and believe in the system we have in place today. And boy, has David Hogg pissed them off. This community of young people understands guns, their purposes, and the 2nd Amendment in its entirety. This group of young people understands the terminology and the dynamics of guns. When they hear David Hogg or others in the movement calling for a ban of all semi-automatic weapons, they know that means virtually all guns. Because they are educated on the topic so well, they know what is and is not effective on the March for Our Lives list of policy changes.
Young people, like Kyle Kashuv, are already stepping up and taking action. Kyle Kashuv is another student from Stoneman Douglas High School who is in support of the 2nd Amendment and understands what can also be done to prevent further shootings. Kyle has already worked to help pass legislation in Congress that will and can be the beginning steps to preventing school shootings.
He understands that criminals do not abide by the law, and putting more restrictions on law abiding citizens will change nothing.
He understands that not always a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun, but any chance a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy is better than nothing.
He understands that schools should be protected like our government officials are.
Yet, he has gained hardly any media attention and publicity because he does not fit the narrative that the "young people will win."
There are plenty of high school- to college-aged "young people" that do not fight for the cause David Hogg fights for. People just never hear about them because they do not go out to grocery stores and lie on the ground for hours chanting to defund the NRA (which is not even funded by the government), or go marching into the streets to take away a God-given right. They work through upholding their rights, defending them, and voting whenever they can for people who are qualified and support what they support. These are the young people that will win. Try taking away guns from the people that own them, I dare you.
Taking away guns will not solve any problems. It could, however, create more.
That is why the "young people" that David Hogg refers to will ultimately never win. There are too many of the other young people who embrace their rights, understand them, and have complete knowledge that once you give up a right, the chances of you getting it back is slim to none.
Now I know the March for Our Lives does not support the removal of all guns (yet), but the only effective way to end all "gun violence" is through the removal of all guns. Even then, gun violence probably still will not be solved. If someone wishes to break the law, they will do so. That is why it is called "breaking the law."
The young people that stand with David Hogg have heart, passion, and grief. I feel for them and understand. But I also understand that the young people who stand with me, with Kyle Kashuv, and the second amendment will be the ones who win because we fight for our rights, not against them.
