WASHINGTON - A student survivor of the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, who is helping to lead the March for Our Lives for gun control said Saturday’s protests in Washington, D.C., and around the country "are going to start a revolution."

"We are sick and tired of the inaction here in Washington and around the country" by politicians who are "owned by the NRA," David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, said on "Good Morning America".

"Today we are going to start a revolution." "We will change America with or without these politicians," continued Hogg, who lost 17 classmates and teachers in the mass shooting on Feb. 14.

Organizers of March for Our Lives expected hundreds of thousands of people to converge on Washington, D.C., for the main event there, with hundreds of other protests around the country and the world.

Hogg was asked about Parkland survivors' hopeful slogan of #NeverAgain after the massacre at their school considering there was another school shooting this week in Maryland high school in which one female student died and the male gunman was killed by a school-resource officer.

The Florida teen suggested the problem of gun violence has an array of causes in addition to the need for more firearms restrictions.

"It's due to a ... mental health care problem, a gun control problem, and an American problem," he said.
Hogg has been a harsh critic of the National Rifle Association.

The NRA is "just disgusting," he told ABC News. "They act like they don't still own these politicians, but they do."

President Donald Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida during the Washington rally, but White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said in a statement, “We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights. Keeping our children safe is a top priority of the President’s, which is why he urged Congress to pass the Fix NICS and STOP School Violence Acts, and signed them into law."

Americans have been reluctant to give up their guns and there have been few changes in gun laws in response to mass shootings.

A new poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates, however, that sentiment may be changing. The poll found that 69 percent of Americans surveyed now think gun laws should be tightened, up from 61 percent in in October, 2016 and 55 percent in October 2013.

Overall the survey indicated 90 percent of Democrats, 50 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of gun owners now favor stricter gun control laws.

But nearly half of Americans, the poll revealed, do not expect their politicians to take action towards changing gun laws, voanews reported.

Story Date: March 25, 2018