Stop trolling, shaming student protesters

“...and these children that you spit on
as they try to change their worlds
they’re immune to your consultations
they’re quite aware of what they’re going through.”

- David Bowie

Social media was supposed to bring the world closer. In the wrong hands, it's tearing the world apart and driving a stake through the heart of civility. Just like a gun in the wrong hands can do so much damage. Ironic, right? Because law abiding, responsible gun owners can be the most irresponsible people when it comes to things like social media.

Students who survived the mass shooting in Parkland, FL were born after Columbine and have grown up in its dark shadows, shadows that grow darker with every slaughter. They didn't have the luxury of growing up when the people trolling them did. They didn't grow up in a time when a school shooting seemed unthinkable. These kids were 9, 10, 11 years old when they heard about first graders being shredded by bullets in Connecticut. These kids have gone through 'active shooter drills' the way we went through fire drills. Only instead of walking calmly outside single file, they were told to hide in closets and don't make a sound because the imaginary gunman might hear them and blow their heads off. Not those exact words, but they knew that's what it all meant.

So when a deranged 19 year old with a legally purchased AR-15 came into their school and began killing their friends and their teachers and they had to hide in classrooms, on floors, in closets, beneath desks texting their families that they loved them just in case this would be their last minute on earth, who the hell are you to judge them?

You, the ones who are posting memes like LAST WEEK THEY WERE EATING TIDE PODS...THIS WEEK THEY WANT TO DECIDE OUR GUN LAWS. You, the people who are deciding an entire generation is all alike. So if half of your generation wanted Hillary as president then you're entire generation wanted Hillary as president and therefore YOU wanted Hillary as president. See how stupid that is? So stop with your moronic Tide Pods memes.

While you're at it, stop trolling these young people altogether. Even if you disagree with their positions, you have to be self-absorbed to not understand how they could feel this way after what they just went through. For many of you constitution thumping gun enthusiasts your only experience with guns is at the range, target shooting. For these kids their gun experience was quite real and visceral, surrounded by pools of blood and dead friends. Yet you call them naive.

naive (adjective): showing a lack of experience, natural and unaffected, innocent.

No, these kids are not naive. They stared death down and tasted it in their throats and right or wrong in how to get there they don't want others to go through this anymore. And you sit behind your computers and talk about their liberal parents or how insincere they are or how it's a waste of a generation or worse yet, how none of it even happened?

The conspiracy trolls.

David Hogg who survived the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has been attacked as a "crisis actor" and not a real student. Some say the entire incident never ever happened. 17 people were never really shot to death. Nikolas Cruz never really did anything. It was all staged by the people who want to "take your guns away." These types also claimed the same of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut. Ironically these are the types of twisted minds who should never own a gun.

Again, even if you don't understand or disagree, to attack these young people is despicable. Even if you don't understand that the 2nd amendment was written at a time when the federal government was a loose framework and the states' militias were heavily relied upon to serve if necessary in protecting our nation, these kids have a right to be heard. Even if you don't understand that's why the 2nd amendment was written with the specific wording, "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." They could have left it simply, "The right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." They didn't. They explained their reasoning for at that time in history a well regulated militia was necessary, and the states militias were most heavily relied upon. Today they are not. Today we have our U.S. armed forces. Even if you don't understand all that, these kids have the right to be heard. It's okay for your NRA to exist and buy politicians but it's not okay for young people who were in the middle of a massacre to speak their minds on the issue? Stop trolling these kids! Or do we need background checks and mental health evaluations for people to use social media?

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