Parkland Shooting Survivors To Bring Message Of Hope To San Diego

Speaker 1: 00:00 Survivors of the Parkland school shooting are finding a recent and tragic connection between San Diego and their experiences at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school last year, two of the survivors are speaking here just one month after the fatal shooting at the Habbat of Poway synagogue. They'll be at the Lawrence Family Jewish community center in La Jolla this coming Sunday, talking about the book, glimmer of hope by the founders of the march for our lives movement, one of the founders of that movement, Brendan Duff joins us to discuss how he and other parkland students are coping and what's new in the movement to reform the nation's gun laws. And Brendan [inaudible], welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:41 Thank you so much for having me, Morgan. It's a pleasure. Speaker 1: 00:43 Now, this event was actually planned before there was that shooting in Poway. When you heard about the shooting at the synagogue, what was your reaction? Speaker 2: 00:52 I mean, it's devastating. It's, it's in so many ways. It's, it's discouraging because, you know, we spent over a year now advocating and on a national level just trying to do whatever we can do anything within our power to prevent this from happening to other communities. And it's especially in such a tragic way as it did in San Diego where it was clearly a direct attack. And, um, when talking to survivors, when talking to people of other communities that have gone through the same thing, every single person says the same thing. I just wish that I could stand up and make other people realize how important this is before it happens to them, which is absolutely heartbreaking. It's something that every single one of us in March for our lives has said from the start. We wish that we had paid more attention to this from the beginning and we wish that we had gotten involved before it affected us directly. Speaker 1: 01:38 No, of course this, this shooting took place here in California, a state with some of the toughest gun laws in the country. How do you reconcile that fact? Is that discouraging? Speaker 2: 01:48 It's, it's a bit discouraging to hear that, um, you know, that that's something people will go to immediately and say, well, you know, they have strict gun laws so this is pointless. Why are we still talking about this? We should be redirecting the attention elsewhere, but I think that we still need to look at what's going on in, in surrounding states, what's going on in specific other areas of the country. Because you know, there's things like gun trafficking and illegal purchase, Straw man purchases and blue poles where people are getting guns from other states. People are going elsewhere to go through these means. Um, and it's really just a reminder that we need to act with the urgency that this issue deserves on a national level as well. Speaker 1: 02:22 Now your book, the Movement Book Really Glimmer of hope is a collection of essays by survivors of the Parkland shooting from various perspectives. But it also acts as a manual for how to build movements. What are some of the biggest lessons you learned becoming a part of the march of our lives movement? Speaker 2: 02:39 The biggest thing that I've taken away is that you don't have to be able to do it all. You know, I'm, you know, you don't have to be this expert in every single field and be able to do this all on your own. We are, the power of our movement came from the, like the different skills that we all brought to the table, um, as students just trying to do our best. So I think that that's been the biggest lesson for me is, you know, in order to be good at something and in order to create change and be effective, you know, of course you have to be passionate, but you don't have to have every single skill set. You know, you can find other people that, that work well with you and in order to create the most attention that you can. Speaker 1: 03:14 Well, the reaction from students from the recent stem school shooting in Colorado has kind of been the opposite of parklands reaction. Many of them angrily got up and left a gun reform rally and they started chanting mental health, mental health. And instead of sitting down and listening and listening to the need for tighter gun laws, is there a reason to think this youth movement may be splitting along political lines? Speaker 2: 03:39 I think a lot of people will point to the mental health argument, um, as sort of a detraction from that, from the gun argument. And I think a lot of people will just focus on guns while not acknowledging that we can improve. I'm not telehealth significantly. Um, so I think yes, we see a little bit of a split, but you know, who's to say that we can't accomplish both? I think that there's room for improvement in both, uh, measures in both mental health and uh, gun reform. Yes. Speaker 1: 04:06 Now I understand you're back in Parkland for the summer after being away at college. What's it like to be back there? Speaker 2: 04:12 I was actually just talking to my mom about this. They called minutes ago, but it's bittersweet in a lot of ways. Um, I was talking about a really minor way in which I have like a march for our lives, bumper sticker and, and never again bumper sticker on my car and everything. And up in North Carolina, it definitely stands out and people ask questions about it and, and you know, I see some looks sometimes, but I'm here. It's, it fits back in with everything. And I was talking about how, you know, it's nice to not stand out. It's nice to be in a community that understands and a community that kind of went through this together. And, but at the same time, it's a constant reminder. Every single time you come back, you cannot get away from it. You drive by the school and you see the flowers and everything in the beautiful garden they've created. And it's bittersweet because it's, you know, that people are working hard to memorialize the people that they loved so much and, and rightfully so, but at the same time, you remember why that's even there in the first place. Speaker 1: 05:01 What message Brendan, are you and Sophie you going to bring to San Diego on Sunday? Speaker 2: 05:05 I think solidarity is a huge thing for this, for this event specifically. You know, a lot of times we go to communities that aren't necessarily impacted by gun violence that heavily. Um, and we urge them to take action before it happens. Now in San Diego, the situation's a little bit different where it has already happened. And specifically, um, at the JCC where we'll, at least speaking, it's right, the community that was affected. So it's, it's, it's understandable that I think solidarity is a huge, is a huge cornerstone of what we're going to be talking about. You know, we, we can stand in solidarity with each other and uplift each other and hopefully keep this fight going. Speaker 1: 05:43 Brendan Duff and former Parkland students, Sophie Whitney will be here Sunday at the Lawrence Family Jewish community center. The event is free and open to the public. And Brendan, thank you so much. Speaker 2: 05:55 Okay. Thanks so much for having me, man. Appreciate it. [inaudible] Speaker 3: 05:58 [inaudible].