There’s a new gun control movement burgeoning in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School which left 17 people dead, and it’s almost entirely comprised of teen survivors of the shooting. Their message is simple: a ban on the types of weapons used to kill our classmates and others is long overdue, and we’re not shutting up until it gets done.
One of the prime targets of this new student movement is the NRA, which they see as the prime obstacle to enacting sensible gun restrictions. Now, they’ll have a chance to face off with the organization’s spokeswoman, Dana Loesch.
This Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET, CNN will host a live town hall discussion with Loesch and some of the survivors from the shooting. The event will be titled, “Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action.”
Also attending the town hall will be Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL). Florida’s GOP governor Rick Scott and President Trump declined to attend.
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The NRA hasn’t yet commented on the Florida shooting, but is facing pressure from outside groups like never before. The organization has its annual convention scheduled for May in Dallas, but it’s getting pressure from city officials to move the convention elsewhere.
“I am saying to the NRA, reconsider yourselves coming to Dallas,” Dallas City Council Member Dwaine Caraway said at a news conference on Monday, according to AOL. “There will be marches and demonstrations should they come to Dallas and we, Dallas, will be the ones that have to bear the cost and the responsibility and to protect the citizens.”
Loesch has been a divisive figure while representing the NRA. ThinkProgress listed some of her most controversial rhetoric, which included her calling gun control advocates as “tragedy dry-humping whores.”
Loesch has been the face of the NRA’s effort to sow massive division in this country, defending President Trump against any and all critics. In October, just three weeks after the Las Vegas shooting, Loesch starred in an NRA video featuring footage from riots in which she promised that Trump’s critics will “perish in the political flames of their own fires.”
“We are witnesses to the most ruthless attack on a president & the people who voted for him…in American history." –@DLoesch #NRA pic.twitter.com/rcPAKMVJI0
— NRATV (@NRATV) October 20, 2017
Featured image via screen grab
