David Hogg: The NRA 'Takes Pleasure in Attacking Grieving Kids'

Mark Judge | July 2, 2018
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The National Rifle Association doesn't argue for the Second Amendment because people have a right to defend themselves, or because they believe that armed security will make schools safer, or because guns can be a protection against a despotic government.

No, according to gun control activist David Hogg, they do it because they get pleasure from attacking grieving kids.

Writing in the new editon of Rolling Stone, Hogg, who survived the Stoneman Douglas school shooting on February in Parkland, Florida, lays out his case. "People like Wayne LaPierre, Dana Loesch and Donald Trump have sold the narrative that life is irredeemably dark and 'they' – the faceless and nonexistent bogeymen – are coming for your guns." 

He goes on:

The NRA, as an organization (not the individual members), takes pleasure in attacking grieving kids who have survived a mass murder. That befuddled gun-runner, Ollie North, recently called my friends and I “civil terrorists.” We are nothing but school kids pitted against the most powerful lobby in the country. The NRA and politicians that are funded by them are being exposed; the young people can see through the lies that we’ve been force-fed for years.

After February 14th of this year, my friends and I were filled with pain. To realize your community will forever be struggling, your school reduced to a statistic, is utterly heartbreaking. As angry as we are, though, we will never stoop to the NRA’s level; we will never be cruel, because hate never wins. Slick propaganda and professional liars might oppose us, but we gun violence survivors want to convert our pain into action. No one else should experience what we did.

Hogg does not quote NRA president Oliver North's full comments.  In May, North called the shooting in Parkland a "travesty" and a "failure on the part of the local authorities and unfortunately the FBI as well." North said gun control advocates had "confused the American people" about the attack.

According to the original Washington Times interview:

 Mr. North said the NRA is now the victim of “civil terrorism” after vandals splashed fake blood on the Virginia home of a top NRA official and other opponents aimed personal “threats” at NRA leaders and members.

“They call them activists. That’s what they’re calling themselves. They’re not activists — this is civil terrorism. This is the kind of thing that’s never been seen against a civil rights organization in America,” he said.

 

Later North added:

“What they did very successfully with a frontal assault, and now intimidation and harassment and lawbreaking, is they confused the American people," North added. "Our job is to get the straight story out about what happened there, and to make sure that kind of thing doesn’t happen again because the proper things are being done with the advocacy of the NRA."

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