David Hogg, a survivor of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history and now an advocate for gun control, was the featured speaker for Cal State Fullerton’s Beyond the Conversation Series, held March 17 at the Titan Student Union.
Hogg was a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14, 2018, when a 19-year-old former student entered the school with a semi-automatic rifle and killed 14 students and three staff members and injured 17 others.
Hogg, who turns 23 on April 12, was among a group of Stoneman Douglas High School students who went on to organize the March for Our Lives movement and the student-led political action committee Never Again MSD.
Hogg’s talk in front of about 200 students, faculty members and staffers was hosted by Associated Students Inc., and the divisions of Student Affairs, and Human Resources, Diversity and Inclusion. Aida Aryan, chair of the Association of Inter-Cultural Awareness for ASI, said Hogg is one of the most compelling voices of his generation.
“His call to get over politics and get something done challenges Americans to stand up, speak up and work to elect morally just leaders regardless of party affiliation,” Aryan said. “He informs, challenges and energizes, empowering his generation to become catalysts of positive social change.”
The day lives changed
Hogg began his talk by recounting details of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. He talked about sitting in a classroom with fellow students, hearing gunshots, wondering whether they would leave the room alive, whether the gunman would kill his younger sister, who was a freshman at the time.
In addition to the fatalities and survivors who were wounded, Hogg said countless others have mental scars that will last forever.
“My life has forever changed,” Hogg said of the shooting. “It changed because one man, who never should have been allowed to own a gun, came into a place of learning and decided that he…
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