Parkland Survivors Urge Americans To Vote For 'Morally Just Leaders'

Lauren and David Hogg tell how they went from mass shooting survivors to gun control activists.

Lauren and David Hogg, who were among those who survived the February mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are urging people to get involved in efforts to improve school safety.

The siblings, who have become gun-control activists since the Feb. 14 massacre that killed 17 people, pointed out on “The Tonight Show” Tuesday how NRA-backed politicians thwart reforms like background checks, even though Americans favor them.

David wore an orange price tag pinned to his lapel that said ”$1.05.” He said that represented the amount of money Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), had taken from the National Rifle Association, divided by the number of students in the state.

“What the NRA does is a lot of the time they’ll block common-sense gun laws like universal background checks that 97 percent of the country supports, but they’ll actively lobby, to make sure that they don’t have,” David told host Jimmy Fallon. Rubio, who has taken $3.3 million in donations from the NRA, has defended the gun group’s lobbying.

The brother and sister appeared on the show to promote their new book, #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line. David, who graduated this year, and Lauren, a member of the class of 2021, write about the day of the shootings and their turn to gun-control advocacy.

On “The Tonight Show,” Lauren described the hours of terror that she and her classmates experienced.

“I saw kids I knew running and screaming, and just the look in these people’s eyes ― my friends’ eyes ― I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. “It’s like what they show in movies, but no actor could ever portray that sort of trauma and terror.”

David urged people to pay attention to politics. “Make sure you vote,” he said. “We have to get morally just leaders elected that aren’t Democrats or Republicans. Don’t just vote for people because they have a ‘D’ or an ‘R’ next to their name. Make them have an ‘A’ next to their name, for American.”

Check out the video above to hear Lauren and David Hogg tell the story of the mass shooting, and how you can help make schools safer.

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