Young activists mobilized by the massacre of 17 students and faculty at a high school in Florida have begun to focus their fury on bringing change in November's midterm elections.
As gun regulation efforts continue to face obstacles in Washington and state capitols, the students are appearing at candidate events, mounting voter registration drives and threatening to haunt politicians who stand in the way of their demands. And well-funded professional organizations that have long focused on curbing gun violence are rushing to find ways to harness their energy for the fall election.
Dozens of high school students showed up Friday afternoon for a voter registration rally at a park 23 miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the site of last month's deadly attack. They pointed to the student activists at Douglas, who had promoted the event, amid tweets with the hashtag #votethemout, as their inspiration.
"I saw Emma González tweet and I came," said Veronica Carbonell, 17, a senior at nearby Cypress Bay High School, referring to one of the students who has emerged as a leader after the Parkland, Florida, shooting. The rally was organized by Democratic candidate for governor Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, who has refocused his own primary campaign on encouraging the student activism.
"My generation gets a lot of flak for being lazy and being addicted to our phones," Carbonell said. "Well, social media is powerful."
The groups that have long focused on curbing gun violence are finding ways to back the students' efforts. They have announced funds to encourage young voters' mobilization around guns, including a $1 million donation from Democratic financier Tom Steyer; bankrolls for student protest groups; and shifts in their own policy priorities around gun control to better align with the demands of the teenagers.
"This is going to go from what would have been an important issue in the 2018 election cycle to what I think will be a defining issue in the 2018 election cycle," said Peter Ambler, the executive director of Giffords, the group founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot in the head during a 2011 mass shooting that killed six.
Historical patterns suggest that the public outrage after school shootings tends to fade months later, and the political map in 2018 remains difficult for advocates of stricter gun control, with incumbent Senate Democrats playing defense in largely rural states and partisan redistricting protecting House Republicans.
The National Rifle Association, which opposes most of the student demands, including bringing back a ban on assault weapons, restricting high-capacity magazines and raising the age to buy a long gun to 21, has reported significant enthusiasm among its own members.
Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for the NRA, said members had been heartbroken by the events in Parkland and were supportive of student efforts to improve school safety. The group supports efforts to arm school employees and increase school security.
"It's unfortunate that the gun-control lobby is so