I'm really upset by the multitude of adults who should know better than to shamelessly blast kids for being kids. Let's not kid ourselves: we're seven months out from a midterm election, and calling so many neatly-organized synchronous 'demonstrations' in so many cities (with permits and march routes and guest speakers and stages with pretty professional-level sound design) a spontaneous youth movement would be naïve to the point of absurdity. Of course there are opportunistic politicians circling these kids like vultures, hellbent on appropriating their voices for their own campaigns. That's what politicians do, and why damn near all of them should fuck right off. But while much of the 'movement' around these kids is being punched up and reframed by national media and special interests, that doesn't take away that at the core of this are a bunch of scared kids who are shockingly good at getting their shit together, by the standards of scared kids. No, they don't appear to have the best grasp of constitutional law. Yeah, they seem especially uninformed on the subject of firearms legislation - though I honestly wouldn't place them below the mean on a national level when it comes to either of those. But I find I need to remind people that these are high-school kids, many of whom probably haven't even had a chance to take the relevant social-studies classes yet! And some out there want to hold them to a standard of expertise on con-law - not to mention a standard of dispassionate objectivity - that's far beyond the schlubs they voted into office. And for any of us to dismiss the fears they're voicing as irrational, when so many of them have literally watched their friends die, is simply ridiculous. Is this 'movement' rooted in a knee-jerk panic response? Absolutely. But these kids aren't tilting at windmills here. The least we can do is encourage our legislators to actually have some constructive dialogue about this for once. If I have an issue with their "agenda", I'm going to politely point out that no, that's not what an 'assault rifle' is, no, you can't legally do that right now, no, these sorts of incidents - and those sorts of weapons - don't actually account for a very big statistical slice of gun violence at all, and you really should keep in mind the ripple effect of legislative precedent represented by the 'common-sense changes' you're demanding. I'm not going to throw a tantrum and spew venom at a bunch of kids who are scared because they have a reason to be scared, and who feel like nobody is listening to them or talking about the very real problem they want to discuss. That's reprehensible. But maybe that's just me speaking as a parent.
