Parkland Shooting Survivor Rips Into NRA's Dana Loesch

"The NRA is an organization that's completely broken," said young activist David Hogg.

Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg sharply criticized the NRA Sunday for its continued opposition to stricter gun control and lambasted the organization’s spokeswoman for misrepresenting its agenda.

“Honestly, it’s disgusting. [The NRA acts] like they don’t own these politicians, but they do,” Hogg said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week. “They’ve gotten gun legislation passed before in their favor, in favor of gun manufacturers.”

“The NRA is an organization that’s completely broken,” he added.

Hogg was responding to comments made earlier in the program by NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who contended that the NRA was working to make people safer.

“We have been supporting proposals to make sure that the system works,” Loesch told host George Stephanopoulos. “We’ve been calling for politicians to work with us and make sure that dangerous people who have received due process” can’t access firearms.

″[Loesch] is serving the gun manufacturers,” Hogg said during his appearance following the conclusion of Loesch’s interview. “She’s not serving the people of the NRA, because the people that are joining the NRA, 99.9 percent of them are amazing people that just want to be safe, responsible gun owners. And I fully can support that.”

Hogg was joined on the program by one of his teachers, Ashley Kurth, who sheltered her students in a classroom during the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Kurth voiced her opposition to President Donald Trump’s proposal to arm some teachers across the country.

“These are kids that have passions, very raging passions, and when they get into fights,” observed Kurth, “having something like this in their vicinity is just not a good idea.”

Asked whether he and other gun control activists can maintain the political momentum spurred by shooting, Hogg, 17, cited his generation’s growing electoral influence.

“Columbine was about 19 years ago,” Hogg said, referring to the shooting at a Colorado high school in which 13 people were killed. “Now that you’ve had an entire generation of kids growing up around mass shootings, and the fact that they’re starting to be able to vote, explains how we’re going to have this change. Kids are not going to accept this.”

Seventeen people were killed and another 14 wounded when suspected gunman 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. In response to the shooting, Hogg and about 20 of his classmates founded Never Again MSD, a group dedicated to enacting stricter gun control measures to stymie school shootings.

During his “This Week” appearance, Hogg reflected upon his upcoming return to classes.

“It’s never going to be the same, and never will be the same,” Hogg said. “I can’t even imagine emotionally what me and my fellow students are going to go through that day.”

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