Parkland Survivors Unveil Plan on Guns

Most, if not all, of the proposals in the Parkland group’s “Peace Plan for a Safer America” would face opposition from the gun lobby and its supporters in the federal government, who would be likely to argue that the measures would impinge on Second Amendment rights.

The student activists, who organized and led the March for Our Lives — their first act of protest — are calling for a comprehensive plan that is as sweeping and demanding as the Green New Deal, the resolution introduced in Congress this year that charts a grand plan for tackling climate change.

“We know this seems ambitious, given Washington’s apathy to decades of bloodshed in our schools, neighborhoods, and even our houses of worship,” David Hogg, 19, a Parkland survivor and a founder of March for Our Lives, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning. “It’s okay to disagree with us — but we know video games aren’t to blame.”

The sweep of the Parkland group’s plan is indicative of how young progressive activists have rejected the incremental approach seen in past legislation. “Young people are demanding bolder solutions,” said Brent J. Cohen of the Center for American Progress. “We are sick of being ignored by Congress, and done begging for half-measure solutions.”

The plan’s major proposals include:

— A national licensing and gun registry.

— A ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.

— A mandatory gun buyback program for assault-style weapons, and a voluntary buyback for other firearms.

— A limit of one firearm purchase a month per person.

— The establishment of a “national director of gun violence prevention” who would report directly to the White House.

— Raising the minimum age to buy guns to 21, from 18.

— A Peace Corps-style program that would pay for young people to work on gun violence prevention for a year in communities and nonprofit groups around the country.

— A new multistep gun licensing system, overseen by Washington, that would include in-person interviews and a 10-day wait before gun purchases are approved. Licenses would need to be renewed annually.

The backbone of the plan was drawn up during a two-month bus tour last summer, when the group traveled to more than 50 cities and towns in 20 states to meet with local activists, hold rallies and register voters. They gathered ideas as they went.

“We tried to be as diverse and broad as possible for how we built this plan,” said Charlie Mirsky, 19, one of the group’s founders. “We reached out to students, experts, every kind of demographic possible to make sure that we had the most comprehensive plan.”

At least 40 people worked on the plan directly, according to Ariel Hobbs, a member of the group’s student executive board. They collaborated through phone calls, in shared documents online, and face to face at a summit meeting last month in Houston.

Like the Green New Deal, the Parkland group’s proposal is a road map for legislative action rather than the legislation itself. “This isn’t a bill; it’s a plan,” said Mirsky, who has led the group’s lobbying program in Washington.

Hobbs added that lawmakers “can take the parts they want.”

“It’s not our job to pitch what they want to implement,” she said, “but we’re offering solutions to every single avenue of gun violence.”

The group never seriously considered a more gradual approach. “We kind of decided, at the end of the day, what are we doing if we’re not pushing for the strongest possible plan we can have?” Mirsky said. “We want to save the most lives that we can. We didn’t have a real choice.”

Hobbs, a student at the University of Houston, added: “There are always going to be people who say that we should wait, that we should take things slow. But while they’re saying that, people are getting killed.”

Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, said that the proposed mandatory buybacks would be a huge logistical challenge but that much of the plan was feasible, particularly establishing a director of gun violence prevention.

“Gun violence takes many forms that are relevant to multiple agencies,” he said, adding that “you would want someone to direct and coordinate efforts.”

The Parkland group is hoping its plan will influence the political debate around the 2020 presidential election, and is asking each candidate to endorse it. It has also set a goal of mailing voter registration cards to all Americans when they turn 18.

After the shootings earlier this month in El Paso and Dayton, President Donald Trump vowed to pursue “background checks like we’ve never had before.”

But on Sunday, after discussions in Bedminster, New Jersey, with gun rights advocates — including Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association — Trump appeared to walk that promise back, saying that “people don’t realize we have very strong background checks right now” and that this is “a very, very big mental health problem.”

Trump spoke again with LaPierre on Tuesday, and the president echoed the gun rights group’s talking points from the Oval Office, saying that Democrats wanted to take radical steps in violation of the Second Amendment.

Despite political opposition, surveys show that Americans are coalescing in their support for some type of legislative action.

Though the vast majority of voters support universal background checks, NRA officials say they would be a first step toward large-scale gun licensing that would warp the Second Amendment into “a European-style privilege reserved for wealthy elite who can afford to comply with burdensome, bureaucratic procedures to acquire a firearm.”

And though polls find that a majority of Americans support a new ban on assault-style weapons, Trump, speaking in Dayton two weeks ago, said that “there is no political appetite” for such a ban.

Other gun control proponents spoke approvingly of the Parkland group’s plan. “We welcome any and all ideas to the table when it comes to saving lives,” said Stacey Radnor of Everytown for Gun Safety, a national group that advocates tougher gun laws. “Student activists across the country have brought tremendous energy and leadership to the gun violence prevention movement.”

The proposal comes at a time when there is growing tension among local, state and federal officials over gun laws, and who should have the right to set them.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.