David Hogg speaks on Georgia high school shooting

Unfortunately, it's, it's happening in every community. And at this point, it, it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when, um, until we come together and do something about this. And I'm just really sick and tired of the, the hatred and the division and the debate over and over about all this stuff and us not focusing on what we can agree on. You know, after Uvalde, many people said that it wasn't going to be possible for us to change any gun laws. But for once Congress actually did something we, you know, expanded background checks for people under the age of 21 attempting to buy a gun. Um, and we put billions of dollars in school safety programs and community safety programs. And obviously that was no near enough given that I'm talking to you right now, but we have made progress on this. Over 800 high risk individuals have been stopped from buying guns like the ar 15 since you all day because of the passage of that law, we have so, so much more work to do. But the point I really want to come back to is we know this is a very divisive issue. We know as a country that we have very strong opinions on both sides of this issue. But ultimately, we all agree that nobody wants to see these school shootings continue and nobody to see gun violence continue. And I think it's time that our leaders have a real conversation about what can we agree on moving forward so that these stories, these school shootings can be left in our history books and not in our headlines. I mean, look, there's obviously a lot of Republicans in Georgia, there's a lot of Democrats too. Um, my message would be to put politics aside. You know, we heard the sheriff talking earlier about the importance of not politicizing this moment. I think what it looks like to politicize this moment is frankly doing the same thing that we've always done, which is nothing right. Nobody wants these shootings to continue. And what I would urge those lawmakers to do is do something potentially like a special session in Georgia and have some real conversations not out in public between the lawmakers where they're in the public sphere and they, you know, they need their guards up a lot of the time, especially the Republicans. Um because they don't want to be seen talking to democrats about this but have a real conversation behind closed doors and figure out what you can agree on to move forward. Florida, we raised the age divide gun to 21 and we passed red flag law. Obviously, there's work that needs to be done as we find out more details about this incident. Um uh to make sure that we're passing things like child access prevention laws to make sure that parents whose child is able to access a gun that is owned by that parent and go and do something like this, that, that they're held accountable. This is child endangerment for like period. There, there's nothing more than that and that's what I'm encouraging those lawmakers to do is have a real conversation. And more than that though, I would encourage the voters of Georgia. I would encourage young people across this country and people of all ages to make sure that we aren't just uh sending our thoughts and prayers. But remembering that, you know, it's about action. We need to do more to address this issue and come together as Americans to address this and acknowledge the fact that we're always gonna have disagreements. Why don't we come together and focus on what we can agree on and move forward on that because none of us want to see that this violence continue.

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