Moments after the fatal shooting of 17 students and teachers in Parkland, Fla. Feb. 14, Kevin Hogg rushed to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School fearing the worst news a parent could ever receive. His son and daughter, David and Lauren Hogg, were on campus when an active shooter opened fire into multiple classrooms in the freshman building of the local high school.
Halfway across the country, a close friend of the Hogg family, Melanie Knocke, the Rock Bridge Planetarium Director, recalled the family’s reaction to the traumatic events of the day.
The father, a former FBI agent, began to direct traffic as chaos erupted around the school. Kevin Hogg spotted his son and told him to drive to safety while he searched for his sister. After finding her, the family reunited and returned home, Knocke said. Meanwhile, the nation exploded with the news of yet another school shooting.
“David was very upset and wouldn’t sit down, and [he was] throwing things and banging things and just had to do something, and he wanted to go back to the school, and his dad wouldn’t let him take the car.” Knocke said. “[David’s father] was like, ‘You’re going to hit somebody. You do not go back.’ So David went out to the garage, got his bike, came back in, got his camera and backpack and went out the door, and his dad asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m going to get my story.’”
Fueled by an urge to understand what had just happened to his community, David Hogg, a senior at the high school, spent the day seeking the stories of his fellow students after one of the most deadly mass shootings in American history. His background in journalism, television production and debate programs in school prepared him to be a voice for his peers and a national movement, Knocke said. Since then, David Hogg joined the ranks of the Parkland students fighting for gun control legislature in local and national government. He appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, ABC News’ This Week and Fox News.
“He felt driven, like he had to be there because he had to do something, and so that’s what he did,” Knocke said. “That’s one of the reasons he’s been upfront in the news media because he felt driven. He had to do something, and he was in a position that he could because he had all the training.”
A student-led organization of Parkland, Fla. called Never Again Marjory Stoneman Douglas (MSD) shocked the nation with a unyielding drive to make a change to gun laws in America. Despite their ages, David Hogg and other victims of the shooting have been able to stand up to national gun lobbies, major corporations and government officials to express a message of bipartisan concern: gun violence will never again devastate another school or community.
In a matter of weeks, the Never Again MSD movement gained momentum as it spread through the news cycle and into schools nationally. Marjory Stoneman Douglas students turned their parents’ living rooms into the source of modern-day youth activism, according to an article by Time. Students are planning meetings with Fla. state representatives, organizing The March for Our Lives on March 24 and starting the rallying hashtags #NeverAgain, #MarchforOurLives and #Enough on social media. Sophomore Grace Cunningham sees social media as a powerful tool for modern-day activism.
“I think that social media platforms help bring change and attention to the issues in reaching out to a wide range of people,” Grace Cunningham said. “We are able to organize a nationwide march through social media.”
“We are able to organize a nationwide march through social media.” – Grace Cunningham, sophomore
 
The initiative of these teen activists to make change in their community has not only inspired students across the country to turn to their own school districts and governments and take to the streets in protest, but it also pushed Fla. representatives to make legislature to ensure increased safety against gun violence. On Friday, March 9, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill into law that raised the legal buying age of a firearm from 18 to 21 years old.
While David Hogg and the students of Parkland, Fla. brought the voice of youth to the forefront of the American gun control debate, the Missouri government is taking legislative measures that will allow concealed weapons to be carried into places like schools and churches. The Missouri House committee passed House Bill 1936 Feb. 27. If the bill signs into law, many current Gun-Free Zones, including private property, public college campuses and sports stadiums, would no longer prohibit concealed weapons. In the days before the House committee passed Bill 1936, members faced hours of oppositional testimony from students, teachers and gun-control advocate groups such as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
Sophomore Grace Cunningham joined Moms Demand Action in Jefferson City Feb. 20. With the support of her mother, Beth Cunningham, Grace Cunningham travelled to the Missouri capitol and spoke with various government representatives about her convictions on gun violence in American schools.
“They were looking for as many people to come to the capitol, and so discussing this with Grace, she said, ‘Mom, I’d really like to go, too,’” Beth Cunningham said. “I said, ‘Well, it’s during [a] school day. As long as you’re not going to miss out on a test, I’ll excuse you for that day.’ And so it was her idea to come.”
Before arriving at the capitol, Grace Cunningham composed a letter to her representatives that convinced leaders of Moms Demand Action that she could be a young voice to argue for increased gun control.
“I wrote this letter to give to all of the representatives I talked to,” Cunningham said. “I was the only kid there, so they had me introduce [Moms Demand Action]. They wanted to hear from me because I was obviously a kid. They wanted to see my opinions on [gun violence in American schools].”
In the letter, Grace Cunningham lists the names of victims from all mass shootings in American schools since the Columbine Massacre of 1999.