March 25, 2018

The Parkland Students Went on Fox News and Perfectly Explained Why the NRA Is Wrong

“They’re fear mongers. They want to sell weapons by exploiting people’s fears.”

Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School, appears on Fox News to discuss the #MarchForOurLives./Fox News

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Washington, DC on Saturday to protest gun violence and call for stricter gun laws. The March For Our Lives was organized by student survivors of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, several of whom have become prominent leaders of a new wave of activism around gun control in the wake of the shooting.

Two of the students, Delaney Tarr and Cameron Kasky, appeared on Fox News Sunday to lay out what they sought to accomplish with yesterday’s march. The interview’s most striking moment came, however, when one of the students slammed the NRA in response to a question about the student’s true agenda. Fox’s Chris Wallace asked Kasky to respond to a clip of one of his classmates seemingly accusing supporters of the march of wanting to take guns away from law-abiding gun owners during an interview that aired yesterday on Fox. “The NRA wants people to think that,” Kasky said. “They’re fear mongers. They want to sell weapons by exploiting people’s fears. So the second we want to put common sense regulations on these assault weapons, the NRA will say ‘They are trying to steal every single one of your guns.’ And people believe them. Fortunately, the majority of the American people see past this.”

Fox News released a new poll on Sunday that backs up Kasky, with a majority of Americans supporting enhanced gun control measures, such as universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons.

Earlier in the interview, Kasky and Tarr slammed Donald Trump for seemingly bowing to the NRA in the aftermath of the Douglass shooting. Tarr noted that the president endorsed gun control measures immediately after the shooting, but backed away following a subsequent meeting with NRA leadership. “To call it a coincidence seems like a bit of a stretch,” Tarr said.

You can watch the full interview below.

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate