CNN’s Anderson Cooper talks to Florida school shooting survivor Cameron Kasky
A survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida recently spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper. He talked about the Republican lawmakers who sell their votes to the National Rifle Association (NRA). In particular, the student took issue with lawmakers issuing ‘thoughts and prayers’ but no tangible legislation around gun control.
The interview
‘I’ve never been to a school after a shooting like this where I’ve met so many students talking about issues of guns when so many politicians are saying now is not the time to talk about the it,’ Cooper began.
‘Everybody has done an amazing job responding to this: the Stoneman Douglas community, the Parkland community — everyone is an equal amount of supportive and grieving and inspired,’ student Cameron Kasky replied. ‘We’re going to use this to try to make something better out of it.’
‘Do you think change is possible in terms of the kind of change you want?’ Cooper asked.
‘Everything I’ve heard where we can’t do anything and it’s out of our hands and it’s inevitable, I think that’s a facade that the GOP is putting up,’ Kasky responded. ‘I think that after every shooting the NRA sends a memo saying “send your thoughts and prayers, say let’s not talk about it now, say this happens.” This is the only country where this kind of thing happens. I’ve heard from other people, they don’t have gun drills the way we do. We had to prepare extensively at Stoneman Douglas, and that shocked people. This is something that can be stopped and will be stopped.’
Kasky said that the shooting has made him reconsider his path in life, that standing up for gun control is ‘a calling.’
‘It doesn’t feel like a hobby. I’m trying to spread as much awareness about this as I can,’ he said. He added that he and his classmates started a Facebook campaign to inspire change.
Pointing out hypocrisy
‘There is a section of this society that will shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers but march for hours when they have to bake a rainbow wedding cake,’ he stated.
Watch the full interview below:
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CNN_02-16-2018_Kasky from Tom Boggioni on Vimeo.
