PA Bill Number: HB829
Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Last Action: Signed in House
Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024
Parkland survivor Hogg greeted by gun rights rally at Penn State :: 01/21/2019
STATE COLLEGE — A survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre told a Penn State audience Friday night that he does not want to take guns from anyone who is not suicidal, abusive or a terrorist, but demonstrators at a nearby gun rights rally thought otherwise.
David Hogg’s lecture in Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center attracted a sold-out crowd of nearly 400. Hours earlier, about 20 pro-gun rights students and demonstrators rallied at the edge of the campus.
Organizer Aidan Mattis, a Penn State junior, called the rally, “Come and Take It, Hogg.” Mattis, a medieval studies and English dual major from Chester County, said Hogg is “either an ignorant pawn of the left-wing establishment, or he’s a liar and he knows it.”
Hogg, 18, is the co-founder of March for Our Lives, an advocacy group for gun violence protection in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas massacre in Parkland, Florida. On Feb. 14, 2018, former Stoneman Douglas student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 and wounded 17 with a semi-automatic weapon.
Almost a year after the tragedy, Hogg was invited to speak at Penn State as part of the Student Programming Association’s lecture series. During Hogg’s speech, titled Engage in Change: Our Generation Must Own Democracy, Mattis sat just outside the doors of the lecture hall with a sign reading, “Shall not be infringed … Change my mind.”
Hogg was in an advanced placement environment science class when he heard the first bullets ring out. He recalls learning about municipal waste on that day, which he now jokingly compares to Congress.
After escaping the school, Hogg ran home, where he learned that his sister, a freshman, had lost four of her friends just an hour earlier.
“As a 17-year-old walking hormone, I felt empathy for the first time,” he said.
His experiences from that day led him and his classmates to create March for Our Lives. On March 24, 2018, an estimated 500,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., in support of stronger gun violence prevention measures.
Since then, Hogg has traveled the country with his fellow activist classmates on the “Road to Change” tour. They stopped in nearly 100 cities to meet with people who had lost loved ones to gun violence as well as the politicians representing those areas.
After the tour ended, Hogg concluded that the “validity of suffering” for gun violence victims is dependent upon two factors: “the number in your bank account and your zip code.”
Nakoa Sheppard, a sophomore biobehavioral health major from Philadelphia, stopped to observe the gun rights rally at the university gates on Allen Street.
“Do what you want as long as you’re not hurting anyone,” Sheppard said to the activists. Sheppard said he respected the idea of the rally, but “once you back morals with politics, they’re not morals.”
One of the demonstrators, Michael Csencsits, held a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag over his shoulder while talking to both supporters and critics. “It’s good that both sides listen,” he said. “We support the First Amendment as much as we support the Second Amendment.”
As a Penn State senior majoring in political science, Csencsits plans to run for a seat in the state Legislature in coming years.
Mattis was inspired by political commentator Steven Crowder to place a “Change my Mind” table outside the lecture hall. According to Mattis, Hogg “completely disregards the truth in order to get a political agenda across and he refuses to actually debate anyone.”
Mattis said the table creates opportunity for “a civil conversation, not a Twitter fight.” A handful of the nearly 75 students who had not been able to get tickets talked with Mattis and his fellow activists during Hogg’s talk.
“We don’t want to scare anyone — except maybe Hogg,” Mattis said of the rally.
Hogg thanked anyone in the room who opposed him but came to listen anyway. He urged audience members to be civically engaged and vote, saying that it is the only way to own democracy.
Malia Schimminger is a Penn State University student majoring in print and digital journalism.
