Saturday, February 17, 2018

I will leave you today with the powerful words of Emma Gonzalez, who was in that Florida school the day a man came in with an AR-15 and massacred 17 of her schoolmates.

I know it is hard to hear, but I urge you to listen to it in its entirety.

The raw emotion coming from this young woman is exactly what we should never forget as we call out Senators and Congresspeople and demand that they do something so that these victims in Florida become the LAST victims of school gun violence, and not simply the most recent.

For those who cannot get through with breaking down, here is a transcript:

We haven't already had a moment of silence in the House of Representatives, so I would like to have another one. Thank you. 

Every single person up here today, all these people should be home grieving. But instead we are up here standing together because if all our government and President can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it's time for victims to be the change that we need to see. Since the time of the Founding Fathers and since they added the Second Amendment to the Constitution, our guns have developed at a rate that leaves me dizzy. The guns have changed but our laws have not. 

We certainly do not understand why it should be harder to make plans with friends on weekends than to buy an automatic or semi-automatic weapon. In Florida, to buy a gun you do not need a permit, you do not need a gun license, and once you buy it you do not need to register it. You do not need a permit to carry a concealed rifle or shotgun. You can buy as many guns as you want at one time. 

I read something very powerful to me today. It was from the point of view of a teacher. And I quote: When adults tell me I have the right to own a gun, all I can hear is my right to own a gun outweighs your student's right to live. All I hear is mine, mine, mine, mine. 

Instead of worrying about our AP Gov chapter 16 test, we have to be studying our notes to make sure that our arguments based on politics and political history are watertight. The students at this school have been having debates on guns for what feels like our entire lives. AP Gov had about three debates this year. Some discussions on the subject even occurred during the shooting while students were hiding in the closets. The people involved right now, those who were there, those posting, those tweeting, those doing interviews and talking to people, are being listened to for what feels like the very first time on this topic that has come up over 1,000 times in the past four years alone. 

I found out today there's a website shootingtracker.com. Nothing in the title suggests that it is exclusively tracking the USA's shootings and yet does it need to address that? Because Australia had one mass shooting in 1999 in Port Arthur (and after the) massacre introduced gun safety, and it hasn't had one since. Japan has never had a mass shooting. Canada has had three and the UK had one and they both introduced gun control and yet here we are, with websites dedicated to reporting these tragedies so that they can be formulated into statistics for your convenience. 

I watched an interview this morning and noticed that one of the questions was, do you think your children will have to go through other school shooter drills? And our response is that our neighbors will not have to go through other school shooter drills. When we've had our say with the government -- and maybe the adults have gotten used to saying 'it is what it is,' but if us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead, so it's time to start doing something. 


We are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks. Not because we're going to be another statistic about mass shooting in America, but because, just as David said, we are going to be the last mass shooting. Just like Tinker v. Des Moines, we are going to change the law. That's going to be Marjory Stoneman Douglas in that textbook and it's going to be due to the tireless effort of the school board, the faculty members, the family members and most of all the students. The students who are dead, the students still in the hospital, the student now suffering PTSD, the students who had panic attacks during the vigil because the helicopters would not leave us alone, hovering over the school for 24 hours a day. 

There is one tweet I would like to call attention to. So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities again and again. We did, time and time again. Since he was in middle school, it was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he was the shooter. Those talking about how we should have not ostracized him, you didn't know this kid. OK, we did. We know that they are claiming mental health issues, and I am not a psychologist, but we need to pay attention to the fact that this was not just a mental health issue. He would not have harmed that many students with a knife. 

And how about we stop blaming the victims for something that was the student's fault, the fault of the people who let him buy the guns in the first place, those at the gun shows, the people who encouraged him to buy accessories for his guns to make them fully automatic, the people who didn't take them away from him when they knew he expressed homicidal tendencies, and I am not talking about the FBI. I'm talking about the people he lived with. I'm talking about the neighbors who saw him outside holding guns. 

If the President wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I'm going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association. 

You want to know something? It doesn't matter, because I already know. Thirty million dollars. And divided by the number of gunshot victims in the United States in the one and one-half months in 2018 alone, that comes out to being $5,800. Is that how much these people are worth to you, Trump? If you don't do anything to prevent this from continuing to occur, that number of gunshot victims will go up and the number that they are worth will go down. And we will be worthless to you. 

To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you. 

Crowd chants, shame on you. 

If your money was as threatened as us, would your first thought be, how is this going to reflect on my campaign? Which should I choose? Or would you choose us, and if you answered us, will you act like it for once? You know what would be a good way to act like it? I have an example of how to not act like it. In February of 2017, one year ago, President Trump repealed an Obama-era regulation that would have made it easier to block the sale of firearms to people with certain mental illnesses. 

From the interactions that I had with the shooter before the shooting and from the information that I currently know about him, I don't really know if he was mentally ill. I wrote this before I heard what Delaney said. Delaney said he was diagnosed. I don't need a psychologist and I don't need to be a psychologist to know that repealing that regulation was a really dumb idea. 

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa was the sole sponsor on this bill that stops the FBI from performing background checks on people adjudicated to be mentally ill and now he's stating for the record, 'Well, it's a shame the FBI isn't doing background checks on these mentally ill people.' Well, duh. You took that opportunity away last year. 

The people in the government who were voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and our parents to call BS.Companies trying to make caricatures of the teenagers these days, saying that all we are self-involved and trend-obsessed and they hush us into submission when our message doesn't reach the ears of the nation, we are prepared to call BS. Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. They say guns are just tools like knives and are as dangerous as cars. We call BS. They say no laws could have prevented the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred. We call BS. That us kids don't know what we're talking about, that we're too young to understand how the government works. We call BS. 

If you agree, register to vote. Contact your local congresspeople. Give them a piece of your mind. 

(Crowd chants) Throw them out.

This young woman will be voting soon.

Somehow I think that the GOP lost her vote. 

26 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:16 PM

    The Democrats have a perfect opportunity to use gun control against their opponents, contrary to what the terrrorist group,the NRA,says,the majority of Americans want more gun control.

    It is way past time that the USA is freed from the claws of the NRA.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:22 PM

    "Freed from the claws of the NRA" and, I'd like to add 'and Republicans"!

    Vote Democratic folks in the upcoming elections. The Republicans in Congress as well as throughout the country where they have the majority in their state Legislatures need to be taken down! They have ruined our country! And, of course, Trump should never win reelection should he run again. Hopefully, he'll be impeached or will have resigned prior to us even getting to that point.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:36 PM

    Not trying to be funny, but it reminds me of the scene in the movie Network where the tv anchor tells people to yell out their windows "I'm mad as he'll and I'm not going to take it anymore". Only instead of just yelling, these young people will follow up with action. I don't think the republicans have to worry about this young lady voting against them. They have to worry about her running against them. And others like here. O tho k they feel they can't count on their elders doing the right thing. And if that was me, I probably would have let some f bombs fly. And 45 would never talk to her. She's a young woman. He would b afraid to face her

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope she takes Marco Rubio’s seat from him.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous4:39 PM

    The NRA and Shithead have turned 3,000 students from Douglas High School into future Democrats.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:22 PM

      Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was named for the Taunton woman who became known as the “Mother of the Everglades” for her environmental work in the Sunshine State.
      http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/20180216/florida-school-in-shooting-was-named-for-taunton-woman



      I think this school is destined for greatness.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous5:05 PM

    GIVE THAT GIRL AN ADDRESS TO CONGRESS FOR JUST FIVE MINUTES!

    She'll school those feckers good. She just articulated what alot of people feel needs to be done. I hope Preznidint Peckerhead was watching. Oh, no. I guess not. He had a "Disco Party" at Mar-a-Loco to attend...Priorities...

    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/trumps-went-straight-parkland-studio-54-themed-disco-party-mar-lago-report/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:28 PM

      Well gosh he certainly couldn't give up partying just because some students didn't carry guns to school to defend themselves.

      Cadet bone spurs was reliving his draft dodging days

      Delete
  6. Anonymous5:10 PM

    This young woman is awesome! Seeing this video gives me great hope.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous5:30 PM

    Marjory Stoneman Douglas - A Remarkable Woman Who Lived To 108

    http://whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2018/02/marjory-stoneman-douglas-remarkable.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FoJTgpu+%28What+Do+I+Know%3F%29

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous6:09 PM

    https://twitter.com/hashtag/wecallBS?src=hash

    https://twitter.com/search?q=%22Emma+Gonzalez%22

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous6:11 PM

    (THREAD) Yulya Alferova—ex-wife of Russian oligarch Artem Klyushin and a member of Trump's entourage in Moscow in 2013—is yet another witness who confirms, albeit inadvertently, Trump lied about what happened at the Ritz Moscow. The list of such witnesses is now very, very long.

    2/ With new evidence Trump can be successfully blackmailed over sexual exploits—just as the Steele dossier says he's being blackmailed right now by the Kremlin—and with Trump's recent Twitter lie that no one knew he'd run for president until mid-'15, Alferova is back in the news.

    https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/964976324749209601

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous6:15 PM

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DWRVHXWX0AAakv6.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6:16 PM

    Keep her safe, Emma has what it takes to move mountains.

    It's about time.


    19 years ago.....
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine


    No wonder they are so fearful. Attack the opposition with misinformation.
    https://malialitman.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/palin-fuck-you-michael-moore.jpg?w=767&h=575&zoom=2


    "Share it and make it trending"
    https://malialitman.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/palin-fuck-you-further-away-smiling.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous7:40 PM

    I saw this on the local news and thought it was a creative idea.

    A man that lives in MI sent his rep that is bought by the NRA a check for his thoughts and prayers(wrote that in the amount line)
    All my reps in Congress are democrats ,but i thought anyone here with bought and paid for by the NRA might want to send them a check!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8:24 PM

    Call Chuck Grassley out on his lie. Washington DC office
    202 224-3744

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous9:54 PM

    And so right down the road was a HUGE gun show this weekend. Good old Florida claims that they have a right to defend themselves. AR 15 was the most popular gun. So let me get this right. They sell assault weapons to screwed up kids of maga and then sell them to screwed up deranged adults that want to shoot the screwed up kid? right? And everyone in between gets killed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:00 AM

      "In Florida, to buy a gun you do not need a permit, you do not need a gun license, and once you buy it you do not need to register it. You do not need a permit to carry a concealed rifle or shotgun. You can buy as many guns as you want at one time." ... This is F'n insane. I knew the gun laws in the U.S. were ridiculous but this is beyond belief. If nothing is done after this mass shooting it will be evident that the lives of innocent Americans mean less than being able to purchase unlimited firearms. Utterly disgraceful!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:09 AM

      Florida's gun culture is one of several reasons it is on my "DO-NOT-VISIT" list. Admittedly my list of states I don't want to visit states keeps getting longer but I take it seriously.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
    3. Anonymous5:19 AM

      Bealemom, it would be interesting to know how many tourists have given the U.S. and in particular, Florida, a pass since Trump was elected President. It was a yearly tradition for a good number of senior citizens from Canada to spend the winter months there but I'm betting that number has dramatically decreased since then.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous10:06 PM

    We the people of the United States of America demand that our congress do as we say.
    We vote to remove all assault weapons from America and stop the sale of assault weapons.
    We vote to overturn citizen united.
    We vote to remove all supreme court judges that voted for citizen united.
    We vote to IMPEACH Trump NOW.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Trump already bought either the url for MAGA or the copyright or something. He had the “rights” to Make America Great Again in 2012.

    He was going to run against Obama but decided to wait one election cycle. So in 2012-13 he was planning to run in 2016. If for no other reason than to erase everything Obama did because the orange snowflake got his feefees hurt at the White House Correspondent’s dinner in 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's starting.

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/al-hoffman-jr-assault-weapon-ban-gop-donor_us_5a890fe8e4b05c2bcacbbd85

    "Following Wednesday’s shooting massacre at a Florida high school, a top Republican political donor has taken a stand for gun control ― by tightening his purse strings.

    Al Hoffman Jr. told the New York Times that he “will not write another check” for candidates and political groups that don’t support a ban on assault weapons. The Florida-based former ambassador to Portugal has donated millions to GOP candidates and political groups over the years, reported the paper.

    “For how many years now have we been doing this — having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings — and how many years has it been that nothing’s been done?” said the 83-year-old, who announced his decision in an email to several Republican leaders, including Florida Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Jeb Bush. “It’s the end of the road for me.” "

    So, it's only one donor.

    So far.

    What happens if they keep taking a stand and cutting off funds? The GOP can't withstand an election with only the NRA's money. So they may have to make a choice.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous5:21 AM

    A brilliant address and the kind of address that needs to be made again and again. I think that after the Connecticut mass shooting at an elementary school we were in such a state of shock that our anger became muted. Not anymore. There is too much easy, filthy money available to politicians and we, the people, need to begin to fight it.

    The Second Amendment has been reframed in the image of an increasingly insane NRA and that has to stop. We need to elect politicians at every level who will commit to doing just that.

    No, we do not have the right to own any kind of weapon arsenal imaginable and we no longer have the need to form militias (the purpose of the Second Amendment) to address violent attacks on small isolated villages on the edges of great wildernesses. Even the posses of Wild West movies are a stretch for interpretations of the Second Amendment. They are not needed today.

    Kudos to Emma Gonzalez, to her teachers and to her family. She spoke truth to power. It needs to be repeated at every opportunity from now until the day when the gun insanity in this country ends.
    Beaglemom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:07 AM

      I am so sick and tired of the NRA and republicans bbastardizing the second amendment,like one of those kids stated,we have the right to live. That should take priority over the right to own an assault rife.

      Delete

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