February 15, 2018

Trump Refuses to Talk About Guns After Florida School Shooting. So This Student Is Doing it for Him.

It’s left to teenagers to say what Republicans won’t about senseless gun violence.

President Donald Trump on Thursday addressed a grieving nation once again gripped by the horrific violence of a school shooting, this time in Parkland, Florida, where at least 17 people inside a high school were killed the day before. The president urged Americans to “answer hate with love” and vowed to tackle issues of mental health.  “I will heal you,” Trump added.

But in his first public remarks since Wednesday’s shooting—the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook—Trump never mentioned the word guns. He never cited the suspected gunman’s use of an AR-15 rifle, which he was legally able to purchase despite a troubled personal history to carry out the massacre. Trump also failed to include the fact that there was an armed officer patrolling Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the shooting.

The absence of any mention of gun control in Trump’s remarks is business as usual for Republican lawmakers who routinely avoid discussing gun control legislation every time a mass shooting takes place in the US.

When asked on Thursday if he had a message for Trump and congressional lawmakers, David Hogg, a student at the school, expressed frustration: “Ideas are great, ideas are wonderful, and they help you get reelected and everything. But what’s more important is actual action, impertinent action that results in saving thousands of children’s lives.”

“Please this is the 18th one this year,” he continued. “That’s unacceptable. We’re children. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. 

Hogg also appeared on “Good Morning America” to discuss the shooting, which he revealed killed two of his sister’s best friends. “What I wish people would know is that this is something people cannot get used to. This is something that we can’t let keep happening. Because if we do, and we get used to it, it’s going to happen again.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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