At the Democratic Party Convention in Texas, the message was clear: “apathy kills, hopelessness kills” when it comes to fighting gun violence and demanding stricter gun control laws.
“It’s obviously very difficult to advocate for this, but our numbers are growing,” said David Hogg, a gun control activist and survivor of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school shooting. “Democrats are no longer running from gun control. In most cases they get to work on it. We’re showing that it’s a winning issue. However, it will take time.”
Over the past decade, Texas has experienced some of the nation’s most horrific mass shootings. Those attacks have occurred at an elementary school in Uvalde, a Walmart in El Paso and even a church in Southland Springs.
Hogg was one of several speakers on a “Stop Gun Violence” panel at the Texas Democratic Party Convention, being held between Thursday, June 6 and Saturday, June 9 at the El Paso Convention Center. Nearly 70 people attended the “Stop Gun Violence” panel.
Hogg received a standing ovation as he entered the conference room. After his speech, he was harassed by attendees who asked for photos and wanted to talk to him further about gun control laws.
Continued fight for stricter gun laws
Hogg talked about the success he and other gun control activists have had in passing gun control laws in his home state of Florida, a largely Republican-led state.
“In the years since I’ve gone to these state legislators, I’ve met Democrats and Republicans, and too often, even from some Democrats in other states, not in Texas of course, but in other states, I hear, ‘Gun violence is terrible. What happened in Parkland is terrible.”
‘I hear people all the time saying that criminals just don’t follow the laws. So there’s no point in having gun laws, which is one of the most illogical things I’ve ever heard. Why are there laws at all? We know these laws work. I know they work because I have been personally influenced by them.”
He and gun control activists found success in Florida when the state passed gun control laws, including raising the age to purchase a gun to 21 years old and a law that could help authorities disarm people at risk of hurting themselves and others , Hogg said. .
The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida resulted in the deaths of 17 people and another 17 injuries. Most of the victims were students. The shooting was the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in American history.
Hogg became a nationally known leader in the fight for stricter gun laws. The notoriety led to him and his family receiving death threats from members of the National Rifle Association, he said.
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“If we as young people in Parkland listened to the pollsters and the experts and the consultants and everyone who said that, ‘It’s great child care, but this is Florida. Things don’t change here.'” Hogg said. “If we listened to that and participated in a self-fulfilling prophecy of hopelessness and apathy that is destroying our country. If we believed in that, maybe I should have buried my own mother. Don’t believe in that. Apathy kills. Hopelessness kills not only people, but our country and our democracy.”
Call to action to fight for gun control laws
El Pasoan and gun control activist Sarah Ronda, who attends Texas Tech University, also spoke on the panel about the El Paso Walmart mass shooting on August 3, 2019. The shooting left 23 people dead and dozens of others injured.
“El Paso will always be my home and growing up here, I always recognized that El Paso was generally a safe city,” Ronda said. “Before August 3, 2019, I never expected to see this area targeted by one of the deadliest attacks on Hispanics in modern American history.
“It still doesn’t feel real to say that that day shattered our sense of safety here. Like many others, I remember exactly where I was and who I was with when I found out (about the El Paso shooting). I had gone out to have breakfast with my cousin and then the first news stories started pouring in. It was very surreal to see my hometown being put in the national spotlight.’
Since nearly five years have passed, the El Paso Walmart shooting seems to have been forgotten on the national stage, Ronda said. The racist gunman admitted he targeted Hispanics. “This attack is in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” the gunman posted on a popular white supremacist website before the attack.
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“It seems like five years ago we lost 23 people, but it often seems to get swept under the rug,” Ronda said. “I think a lot of this is because these events, these mass shootings are happening all too often. Already located in this corner of Texas, El Paso often seems to be left out of the conversations – whether perhaps due to racial bias or other reasons. We need more advocates for El Paso. We are really quiet people and don’t like the attention, but we just need more people to speak out and represent El Paso the way we want to be represented.”
Hogg and Ronda called on all Texans to take a stand and fight for stricter gun safety laws.
“My message to Texans when it comes to passing gun laws, coming from Florida where we could do that, is don’t lose hope,” Hogg said.
“In this state there are great young people dealing with this issue. There are great older people, people of all ages dealing with this issue. And it’s impossible until it isn’t. If you don’t try, If we hadn’t tried Parkland, it would never have changed.”
Aaron Martinez can be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com or on Twitter @AMartinezEPT.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Pasoans, Texans urged to fight for stricter gun control laws
