The fight for sensible gun control laws will be a "generational thing" that won't stop after the news about the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School starts fading away, school senior David Hogg said Monday morning.
"We just have to continue fighting to save every other child in America because these politicians won't," Hogg told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"These lobbyists aren't going to stop buying them."
He said he's learned, as he's become one of the more prominent students from the school calling for change after the deadly shootings, that "millennials are some of the most political and critical individuals" that he has met, and he thinks that will sustain the process of "realizing what's wrong with America and trying to fix it, because the previous generation won't."
Hogg's school will reopen this week, but he said he does not want to return until legislators, at least in Florida, pass "just one bill" where either the minimum age for gun purchases is raised, or a universal background check system is in place.
"At this point, why should I have to work if my elected officials won't work to save my life and everybody around me?" said Hogg.
"I want to point something out to you, all the glass that's being replaced in our school isn't being replaced with bulletproof glass, it's being replaced with the old glass that's a shooter shot through.
"None of the locks are being replaced with locks that can be locked from the inside. I know that's going to cost a lot of money, but if every school does it because of economies of scale the price will go down."
He also addressed the National Rifle Association and the belief that more people have to have guns in order to be safe.
"I would say that it's good to have your Second Amendment rights," Hogg said. "It's good to believe that you can protect yourself and protect those around you, but I want people to acknowledge the fact that we do have a major gun violence problem in this country one that's not going away.
He added that the First Amendment also has limitations, so "you shouldn't be able to get an AR-15 or any weapon that could kill a number of people if you're a mentally unstable individual, if you're a person with a criminal background or somebody with a history of domestic violence.
"I don't get what's so hard for these legislators to understand. . . they sadly can't because they're bought by the NRA."
He also addressed the news that several Broward County Sheriff's Department deputies did not enter the school while the shootings were happening, asking how President Donald Trump's call to arm teachers can happen.
"How can we expect our teachers to step in and take action if trained security guards that are part of the Sheriff's Department wouldn't take action?" he said. "Why are these elected officials trying to blame this on the bureaucracy?"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.