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PHOTOS: Armed police, military protect thousands at ‘March for Our Lives’ gun control rally
55 mins
While hundreds of thousands march for gun control in Washington, armed police officers protect the rally. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Hundreds of thousands of students and Americans have descended on Washington for the first ever “March for Our Lives” rally. The rally was organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who are outspokenly in-favor of gun control.
So it wasn’t without irony when photos and videos surfaced showing a very heavy police and military presence at the march. And yes, those offering protection are armed with firearms.
The rally has garnered support from every corner of the world, including celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West to former President Barack Obama. Progressive organizations like Planned Parenthood and Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety are also supporting the rally.
The Outline interviewed David Hogg, a 17-year old survivor of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, who says he is the NRA's "worst nightmare." Hogg's interview was laced with profanity against his detractors, Gov. Rick Scott, the NRA, old people and others.
Hogg said he became an activist because adults don't know how to "use a f*cking democracy":
"When your old-ass parent is like, ‘I don’t know how to send an iMessage,’ and you’re just like, ‘Give me the fucking phone and let me handle it.’ Sadly, that’s what we have to do with our government; our parents don’t know how to use a fucking democracy, so we have to."
"I’m beyond exhausted," Hogg said. "I get to a certain point where I just get so tired that I keep going. It creates a positive feedback loop in some ways — the more stress and work I put on me, the more stress and work I can deal with."
"It just makes me think what sick fuckers out there want to continue to sell more guns, murder more children, and honestly just get reelected," Hogg said. "What type of shitty person does that? They could have blood from children splattered all over their faces and they wouldn’t take action, because they all still see these dollar signs."
"Honestly, it's alright that people are buying more guns. I just care that they are being safe individuals. And they can practice their Second Amendment rights all they want. I don't give a f*ck about that. I just want to make sure that a crazy-ass individual doesn't get an AR-15 or any weapon at all," Hogg said about guns.
To Florida Gov. Rick Scott: "You’re kind of like Voldemort at this point. You should just retire, because you aren’t going to get elected to Senate."
To Sen. Marco Rubio: "What about the $176,000 you took for those 17 people’s blood?"
Tucker Carlson on the why David Hogg, Emma Gonzalez and other their friends should stay out of the gun control debate. Carlson called Hogg an "extremist" for his positions and that he wants to make policy but is not interested in what people who disagree with him think. He said the media has made the student activists into "heroes" that "you're not allowed to disagree with."
TUCKER CARLSON: The organizers would rather not get into all those details and they certainly don't want to have all those debates. And that's why they are hiding behind the victims in the latest horrific school shooting. The kids are front and center by design.
A handful of teens from Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, they have a right to their views, obviously. This is a given. This is one of the rare shows that support the rights of people we disagree with to talk. But the rest of us also have rights including the right to assess what they are saying and decide whether it ought to become law to which we are subject. These are not religious figures; we are not the faithful. We're all citizens here. Let's take a look at what they are saying and decide if it's a good idea or not.
For example, here is David Hogg. He's a Stoneman Douglas student, you may have seen him on television. He's dutifully trodded out by the media as a gun expert. Here's part of his take:
TUCKER CARLSON: Sell more guns, murder more children, get reelected. That is David Hogg's view of the other side of the debate.
Emma Gonzalez, meanwhile, another celebrated survivor the shooting basically agrees with that. She recently said in a speech, quote, 'I don't really care what people who defend the Second Amendment have to say.'
Let's take this seriously. We should take it seriously because it's serious. If you honestly don't care what the people who disagree with you think, if you believe they want to "murder more children," who are you? Well, you're angry. You're definitely not fit to be making policy for the rest of us. You are by definition an extremist. You should not have power if you really believe anyone who disagrees with you is evil and wants to kill the innocent.
Maybe a journalist can point that out but, no, journalists agree with Emma Gonzalez and David Hogg so they've slapped them on the cover of TIME magazine and declare that they're heroes and you're not allowed to disagree with them...
TUCKER CARLSON: Wait, you say, 'Why are you picking on David Hogg? He's only a kid, he shouldn't be held to adult standards of reasoning or think critically about the consequences of what he espouses.' Well, yeah, exactly. He is a kid. He has just been through unspeakable tragedy. And that's why adults shouldn't be using him or his friends to push their agendas to the rest of us...
So this is the problem that I have is that if you sincerely believe that people who disagree with you want to kill children, then you shouldn't be involved in making policy because that's exactly what we don't need more of, it seems to me. Why is he being pushed to the front of this movement? ...
TUCKER CARLSON: This kid who saw unspeakable tragedy, he saw his classmates killed. And that's exactly why he shouldn't be involved in formulating a response to it. Because he is a kid. So you can't simultaneously argue that you need to shut up and listen to him and if you don't you're bad which is what the left is arguing and that we shouldn't take what he says seriously or literally. You kind of have to choose one. I'm happy to choose the first one.
On Saturday, a student from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School told ABC's "Good Morning America" that he and other far-left activists "are going to start a revolution" over gun control.
Hogg completely ignored an ABC News/Washington Post poll that the hosts of the program showed viewers which found that 57 percent of Americans thought mass shootings were the result of mental health problems vs only 28 percent who thought it was a reflection of gun control laws.
"Today we are going to start a revolution," David Hogg said. "This is the beginning of a lifelong marathon not only for me, but for my generation."
"We are sick and tired of the inaction here in Washington and around the country at different state capitols and in different cities [by] politicians who are owned by the NRA and are not listening to their constituents and the future of America." Hogg continued.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg on day of the March for Our Lives, tells @ABC: "Today we are going to start a revolution. This is the beginning of a lifelong marathon not only for me, but for my generation." https://abcn.ws/2pE4qzk
On Friday, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School left-wing activist David Hogg complained that the school's new policy of making students use only clear backpacks after spring break infringes on his "First Amendment rights."
Grabien News reported "Hogg appeared Friday at a gun control forum with Axios's Mike Allen," where he launched into varying off-topic political tirades, advocating for far-left Democratic positions.
After attacking American's Second Amendment rights for over a month, calling the NRA "child murderers," Hogg complained about having to use clear backpacks at school.
Hogg claimed that the decision by Democratic Broward County officials violated his "First Amendment rights" as he also cited potential embarrassment for students going through "their menstrual cycle" because of their "tampons and stuff."
"It’s unnecessary, it’s embarrassing for a lot of the students and it makes them feel isolated and separated from the rest of American school culture where they’re having essentially their First Amendment rights infringed upon because they can’t freely wear whatever backpack they want regardless of what it is," Hogg said.
"It has to be a clear backpack," Hogg continued. "What we should have is just more policies that make sure that these students are feeling safe and secure in their schools and not like they’re being fought against like it’s a prison.”
Students at Rocklin High School (RHS) in Rocklin, CA, a suburb of Sacramento, are planning a walkout to protest abortion. This walkout comes on the heels of last week’s 17-minute walkout in many public schools protesting guns. The pro-life protest, students say, originated with a teacher’s innocent question.
CBS reports that RHS AP history teacher, Julianne Benzel was placed on administrative leave after questioning what would happen if a walkout occurred for a different issue. Abortion was one that came to her mind. The story reports:
Benzel was placed on paid administrative leave when she asked students to consider whether there’s a double standard in the national school walkout.
“I would like a conversation about when is too much? And are we going allow this on the other side?” said Julianne Benzel
Benzel’s intent of opening up discussion on the history and organization of protests, an appropriate topic for history class, led to complaints,and Benzel was placed on leave. That leave only lasted two days, and she was welcomed back to her classes, but one student took the question seriously and said he “would like to see if there really is a double standard and what will come of that.” Brandon Gillespie, the protest’s student leader said the point of the protest is “[t]o honor all the lives of aborted babies pretty much. All the millions of aborted babies every year.”
Ironically, Benzel wasn’t intending to make the comment about abortion itself; it was the first example that came to her, she said, as she posed a critical thinking question to her students, as The Blaze reports:
And so I just kind of used the example, which I know it’s really controversial, but I know it was the best example I thought of at the time — a group of students nationwide, or even locally, decided “I want to walk out of school for 17 minutes” and go in the quad area and protest abortion, would that be allowed by our administration?
But that didn’t sit well with the editor of the school paper, who authored a staff editorial. Naeirika Neev, wrote in the editorial:
Due to the First Amendment, those who wish to hold protests on abortion, or any other matter, have the freedom to do so. However, the controversy of abortions has nothing to do with the school administration or the school environment. Therefore, it is unreasonable for such protest to take place on school ground, during school time and unreasonable to make such comparison.
Abortions aren’t really anything that has to do with school or students here.
While neither Benzel nor Gillespie equated abortion with violence using guns, as Neev accused in her editorial, the fact remains that both are relevant issues to high school students, albeit different ones. According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 18 percent of all abortions in the state are from teenage pregnancies; thus, to say that abortions have nothing to do with students in a local high school is clearly far from reality. The chances are that more lives at RHS will be lost to abortion than to guns. Gillespie, however, is not attempting to equate the two issues — he simply decided that a protest against something he and other students believe in was something he wanted to organize.
Neev is correct that students may hold any protests they want, under their First Amendment rights, and much of the history teacher’s line of reasoning was to cause students to consider various viewpoints and reasons. As Breibart reports, “Benzel appeared on Fox and Friends on Friday and told host Steve Doocy that the hypothetical abortion protest had come up during a class discussion in preparation for Wednesday’s national student walkout for gun control”:
I just wanted to make sure that my students were informed. And so I just said, “Are you guys aware what is happening next [W]ednesday?” And very, very few of them were. So I said, “Well, this is a brief overview.” I said, “I want you to please go look deeper yourself. And I also want you to go home and have a dialogue with your parents, and let your parents know this protest is taking place.”
And I opened up the discussion for, if schools, not only just our school and our administration, but across the country are going to allow one group of students to get up during class and walk out to protest one issue, would they still give the same courtesy to another group of students who wanted to get up and walk out to protest. And I used the example of abortion.
The story adds: “Benzel said that two students and one parent complained, and she was placed on leave as a result.”
The school told CBS 13: “The teacher was not penalized or placed on leave based on her viewpoints. The actions were taken due to complaints from parents and students.”
Meanwhile, on the The Glenn Beck Radio Program, Benzel praised Gillespie as “unbelievably brave and courageous” for taking the question to heart. Benzel said:
I am impressed beyond belief because he — and I just want to be clear that I never advocated, I asked a question, and it came to his mind because he actually understood my question and he actually thought, and he’s like, “Hmmm. I wonder if this administration would. And he had the courage and the audacity to make an appointment and see what they say.”
Benzel is back at work, and Gillespie, who hasn’t set a date for the protest, has a meeting with the principal set for Friday in order to discuss the protest itself.
Democrats from nearby states are busing adults and students to Washington, D.C., for the student gun control control march Saturday.
Pro-gun-control students at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School organized the march in response to the mass shooting at their school in February.
Teacher’s unions and progressive groups including Women’s March and Planned Parenthood helped the students organize the march just days after the shooting.
Democratic groups in Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia are bolstering the march’s numbers as well by busing supporters into D.C. for the protest.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin is hosting a pre-march rally in his district, then busing supporters over to the D.C. march, Bethesda Magazine reported.
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“Please join me and dozens of other Members of Congress on Saturday, March 24 at the ‘March for Our Lives’ in D.C. with thousands of Maryland high school students and Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg and all the grieving young people coming up from Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,” Raskin wrote in a Facebook event for the march.
Democratic Maryland Rep. John Delaney, who is already running for president in 2020, is listed as a “special guest” in promotions for Trone’s event.
Do you think the left should stop using kids for political gain?
Baltimore‘s Democrat mayor, Catherine Pugh, is using taxpayer funds to bus up to 3,000 students to the march, The Washington Post reported. The city will provide T-shirts and lunches for the students.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is leading a Democratic group in nearby Arlington to the D.C. march, Arlington Democrats announced in a press release. “Led by former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, Arlington Democrats will march in solidarity from Memorial Bridge to the March for Our Lives!” The press release states. The group plans on bringing banners.
Other Democratic groups in the state are also bringing supporters to the march. A group in Rockingham plans on filling two buses.
The Democratic Women of Clifton and Northern Virginia are driving buses to and from the march.
