01 March 2018•Update: 02 March 2018
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
In many ways the widespread outrage in the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida feels the same.
There is the usual chorus of thoughts and prayers flowing from the expected corners. Some politicians insist this is not the time to discuss gun control. Others say the time is far past.
But this shooting is different in large part because the survivors of a madman's slaughter are not fading into the background.
The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are grieving, yes, but they are using that sorrow to launch a nationwide movement that is at least forcing America to sit down and have a conversation.
That has flown in the face of special interests, most notably the heavily influential National Rifle Association (NRA).
The NRA is, by most accounts, the most powerful lobbying group in Washington. Last year alone it doled out more than $5 million to fight curbs on gun rights, according to Open Secrets, a website that tracks political spending.
However, the political clout those funds have historically given the group may be fading.
Just this week, Dick's Sporting Goods and Walmart -- two of the nation's leading gun sellers -- chose to restrict the purchase of all firearms to those who are at least 21 years of age. The federal age requirement for handgun purchases is 21. Other firearms, including the AR-15 assault rifle used to take innocent lives in Parkland, are restricted to individuals 18 and older.
Dick's went one step further by halting the sale of all assault rifles at their stores. Walmart, for its part, curtailed the sale of items resembling assault rifles such as children's toys, adding that it stopped selling assault rifles in 2015.
And Kroger announced it is raising the age for firearms purchases at its Fred Meyer superstores to 21 as well.
The decisions are major blows to the NRA, which continues to fight a national age bump for firearms purchases and the reinstatement of a nationwide assault rifle ban.
So too are the decisions of about one dozen companies to cut ties with the NRA. Those actions have taken a variety of forms, from national car rental companies and airlines ending discounts for NRA members to at least one bank halting issuance of an NRA-branded credit card.
Perhaps, most prominently, President Donald Trump has publicly clashed with the NRA over an increase in the age requirement for assault rifle purchases. It is exceptionally rare for a Republican president to lock horns with the group over a major gun policy overhaul.
None of this would have happened without the Parkland survivors' campaign.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, students flocked to the state capitol to demand legislators take action to prevent the next school shooting. They were met that same day by a state legislature that voted to decline debate on a proposed assault rifle ban.
Undeterred, they insisted now is the moment for the adults in the room to act like adults and do away with the perfunctory “thoughts and prayers” coupled with a refrain of "nothing would have stopped what happened".
“We’ve had enough of thoughts and prayers,” said school senior Delaney Tarr. “No longer can you take money from the NRA, no longer can you fly under the radar doing whatever it is that you want to do, because we are coming after you. We are coming after every single one of you and demanding that you take action, demanding that you make a change.”
This time, the adults seem to be beginning to listen even as signs of push-back start to form. The Georgia state legislature moved to remove a critical tax break that would have benefited Atlanta-based Delta Airlines after Delta ended its NRA discount program. The jet fuel tax break was removed by legislators shortly before they overwhelmingly approved the larger tax bill, sending it to the governor to be signed in to law.
The tax break would have reportedly been worth millions of dollars to Delta and other airlines.
But with Marjory Stoneman students set to lead a march on Washington later this month alongside about a half-million others, the time of political inaction on gun control may be rapidly drawing to a close.
