David Bowie said it best:

“And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through.”

America is coming up on an unprecedented two full weeks of discussing gun control, without any foreseeable end. After the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting on Valentine’s Day in Parkland, Florida resulted in the deaths of 17 people, something novel happened.  The surviving victims didn’t accept thoughts and prayers. They didn’t allow an apathetic nation to clutch its collective pearls for a day or two before deciding “now isn’t the time to discuss gun control.”

To quote school shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez: BS.

The Parkland survivors decided the line is drawn here– this far, and no farther. These kids weren’t going to stand idly by and tolerate the usual handwringing about how nothing can be done.

Plenty of things stayed the same at first. Politicians tweeted that their thoughts and prayers were with the victims and their families.  What wasn’t unusual about this mass killing was how it was handled by those being attacked.

Heroes walk among us every day, and they were certainly present there–the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets covering themselves and other terrified kids with Kevlar sheets; teachers trying desperately to protect their students, some shielding those children with their own bodies and paying with their lives. A notable exception: the sheriff’s deputy tasked with protecting students and staff who instead hid outside, and who has since resigned.

What’s different now is that the Parkland survivors aren’t just mourning and grateful to have lived–they are furious. Nor are they willing to allow their tragedy to be another footnote in an ever-increasing casualty list of domestic bloodletting.

“What we really need is action,” explained student David Hogg. “We’re children. You guys are the adults.”

One power of the Parkland survivors: this is the first generation raised entirely in a digital world. Nothing that happened on February 14, 2018 can be swept under the rug. Students were live-tweeting the massacre as it happened. They were in contact with loved ones while listening to the low ‘chow-chow-chow’ of AR-15 fire. They were speaking out with righteous fury before the day was out. When politicians offered their trite, worn-out, milquetoast condolences the response was short and sweet: BS. And “Never Again MSD” was formed.

Survivors of the Parkland shooting are becoming the spokespeople of their generation. Emma Gonzalez. David Hogg. Cameron Kasky. Annabell Claprood. These teenagers have their teeth sunk into the National Rifle Association and the politicians the organization owns. They’re asking the hard questions that so many others have shied away from.

At a CNN town hall mere days after the massacre, Claprood asked: “Will my school campus be safe when I return? Because I plan to not return until I know that something is going to change. And I’m not the only one.”

Kasky asked: “Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA in the future?”

Gonzalez asked: “Do you believe it should be harder to obtain semiautomatic weapons and modifying devices like bump stocks?”

Politicians trying to mollify these kids (and soon-to-be voters)… could not. Every question got an effective “No.” Gonzalez had to frequently remind a bumbling, hem-hawing politico what her question even was. But in a bizarre and hopeful twist, Marco Rubio (R-FL) backtracked on his historically unshakeable support of the NRA and its efforts to deregulate gun control.

Rubio said at the town hall that “…I traditionally have not supported looking at magazine clip size. And after this and some of the details I’ve learned about it, I’m reconsidering that position, and I’ll tell you why… I’ll tell you why – because while it may not prevent an attack, it may save lives in an attack.”

As with every mass murder involving guns, a groundswell of ammosexuals immediately began the attempt to discredit the survivors who dare to question the state of affairs in the United States. After virtually every shooting in the past few decades, claims of ‘false flag operations’ and accusations of crisis actors being hired to play victims arose. As ever, these claims are ridiculous at their face and deserve zero credible consideration. The only further attention the conspiracy theorists will receive in this article: you should be ashamed.

In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, there is a National School Walk-Out scheduled on March 14, a month after the Florida massacre. Further, on March 24, students and allies across the nation are encouraged to join the MSD survivors in the “March For Our Lives.” Marches will take place throughout the country, though a large march is planned to take place in Washington DC.

Various school districts are trying to dissuade students from joining in, but as one student, Delany Tarr put it: “…we are teenagers who have nothing to lose. We don’t have jobs to protect. We don’t have anything that we need to conserve right now. We are just teenagers who were victims, and we are ready to speak out.”

We’re behind you, guys. Thanks for the glimmer of hope.