Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg remembers only too well the cries of wounded students at his Florida high school on Feb. 14. He is not remaining stuck in that day of tragedy.
The 18-year-old gun safety advocate told students at Nassau Community College on Wednesday that he is pressing forward, looking ahead to the 2020 presidential election when he and other members of a national group that he helped organize will have another chance to support candidates who back their calls for stricter national firearms controls.
“What my goal is for 2020 is to create a youth voting bloc that is even greater” than the huge turnout in the Nov. 6 midterm elections, Hogg told a mostly receptive audience of 300-plus students and others gathered in a college auditorium on the Garden City campus.
“We’ve changed America, and I’m really proud of that,” he said.
Hogg was a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when a lone gunman killed 17 people and injured 17 others with a high-powered assault rifle on Valentine's Day.
Nikolas Cruz, then 19, a former student of the school, was identified by witnesses as the assailant and arrested. Authorities said he had legally purchased the AR-15-style assault weapon used in the attack.
Cruz confessed to the deadly rampage, according to court documents, and has been indicted on multiple counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder. Now 20, he is awaiting trial and remains jailed in Broward County, facing additional charges brought earlier this month after he allegedly tackled and repeatedly punched a guard.
Immediately after the shooting, Hogg and a core group of Stoneman Douglas students — Cameron Kasky, Alex Wind, Sofie Whitney, Emma Gonzalez and others — spoke out strongly against gun violence, drawing
