Rep. Jared Huffman Gets an Earful at Student Gun Violence Summit

Following nationwide student walkouts this past week, North Bay Representative Jared Huffman visited Dominican University in San Rafael to urge students to continue calling for gun regulations.

Student leaders and activists from 15 public and private high schools and colleges across Marin and Sonoma and as far away as Mendocino attended the summit Sunday.

Huffman said the energy from young activists makes a difference, especially for elected officials who have been working for gun regulation for years without much progress.

“Many of us have been beating our heads against the wall of gun reform for years and getting nowhere. And along come these young people who are just speaking so eloquently and so emotionally. And they are changing the country and changing the world in ways that we can't,” he said.

Huffman told the students that they should register to vote, educate themselves about policy and not get distracted by President Trump's rhetoric.

“This is about celebrating and encouraging this amazing younger generation that is stepping up and giving voice to their concerns and aspirations,” he said. “It’s about how we can support them and work with them in what I hope will be an intergenerational and transformational coalition to bring some sanity to our gun laws.”

The students pushed him to not forget inner cities where gun violence is more common. They grilled him with questions about why their teachers seemed confused about procedures during school lock-down drills. They hooted and booed when Huffman asked them what they thought of Trump’s proposal to arm classroom teachers.

Emma Gonzalez, a survivor of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida who spoke at a gun control rally just days after the attack, was scheduled to speak but her flight was delayed. Instead, Bradley Thornton, a 20-year-old college student and 2015 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, used Skype to address the Northern California students.

“One of my favorite things about your advocacy is that when the adults, the governor of Florida, the state legislature and President Trump and others offer things that are rather cosmetic as a response, that are not substantive or responsive to the scale of this problem, you guys call them out. You say this is not good enough,” Huffman told Thornton. “Keep setting the bar high.”