A survivor of the Parkland shooting last week, Cameron Kasky, recently spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper where he harshly criticized Republicans for selling their votes to the NRA.

In a poignant statement, Kasky slammed conservative politicians who offered nothing more than thoughts and prayers when what we need is real action in tightening gun control laws.

But his most damning statement was about Republicans’ deeply misplaced priorities. This “pro-life” party, he said, refuses to do anything to prevent more kids from being murdered in their schools, yet they lose their freaking minds if Christian bakers are asked to make cakes for same-sex weddings:

“Do you think change is possible in terms of the kind of change you want?” the CNN host asked. “Everything I’ve heard where we can’t do anything and it’s out of our hands and it’s inevitable, I think that’s a facade that the GOP is putting up,” He replied before turning on the NRA. “After every shooting the NRA sends a memo saying ‘send your thoughts and prayers.’ This is the only country where this kind of thing happens. I’ve heard from other people, they don’t have gun drills. We had to prepare extensively at Stoneman Douglas. This is something that can be stopped and will be stopped.” “There is a segment of this society that will shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers but march for hours over a rainbow wedding cake,” he added.

As soon as he turns 21, I want to buy this kid a drink.

Kasky wasn’t done:

“For those saying ‘thoughts and prayers and this is not the time to talk about guns,” Cooper asked. “This is the time to talk about guns,” Kasky immediately replied. “But there’s much more that can be done, much more that needs to be done and much more that people like Sen Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott are not doing. It’s scary to think these are the people who are making our laws when our community just took 17 bullets to the heart. It feels like the only people who don’t care are the people making the laws.”

It’s easy to feel hopeless after tragedies like these, but Kasky gives me hope for his generation.

(via Raw Story)

