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.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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