Five years later, David Hogg and Rep. Maxwell Frost reflect on the impact of the March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington, DC.
Last week marked the fifth anniversary of the 2018 March for Our Lives demonstration in Washington, DC.
The student-led demonstration brought the issue of mass shootings to the forefront of American conversation and reignited a longstanding debate on what to do about the pervasive issue of gun violence across the country.
Now, five years later, its first national organizing director, Maxwell Frost, is a first-term Congress member representing Florida’s 10th District.
Today, Explained hosts Noel King and Sean Rameswaram sat down with Frost and David Hogg, a co-founder of March for Our Lives. Hogg and Frost are part of America’s increasingly politically influential Gen Z generation. They shared what they think their generation cares about when it comes to gun violence, climate change, and the 2024 presidential election. Plus, Rep. Frost walks us through the details of a new bill he co-introduced with Sen. Chris Murphy, which would create the first federal office dedicated to gun violence prevention.
Below is an excerpt of the conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so find Today, Explained on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen.
Sean Rameswaram
How are you feeling right now about the five-year anniversary of the March for Our Lives?
David Hogg
Complicated. I wouldn’t say that I’m always hopeful by any means, considering what happens every day in this country with this issue. But I also am not entirely pessimistic either. How could you be? We were a group of high school students that started out five years ago, who many people said would never do anything and would never amount to anything. But now I’m sitting in this room with you all five years later, with the first member of Congress from our organization to be elected as the youngest member of Congress.
Maxwell Frost
You want to organize on the ground, but you want a movement that permeates the culture, bridges the gap between cool and consciousness, and builds an environment where people want to do it because it’s the thing to do or it’s cool or whatever. And that’s really what March for Our Lives did, especially that whole year. It was cool to go to the march. I remember going to mine and seeing a ton of people I didn’t see in a long time. They were like, “Yeah, I just felt like I had to be here. Like it’s the moment.” And that’s why I always say, the way you know the strength of a movement, it’s what they’re doing when no one gives a shit, when it’s not in the news, when no one cares. Because when it is on the news and people care, the way you organize the infrastructure you built, that’s what matters. And so that’s what we see March for Our Lives doing today,
Noel King
What was the objective five years ago? I mean, you have, as you say, millions of young people out in the streets. But at that point, you also need them to do something. What was it you were trying to get out of this moment?
David Hogg
One, it enabled us to help register voters. Two, it helped set the tone for a generation and a cultural shift in that generation to say, this is who we are. I think one of the most important things the marches have done is offer survivors solidarity and in knowing that they’re not alone. I think that’s one of the really hard things about this is survivors, because of the guilt that they feel, put so much pressure on themselves that they have to solve this that it crushes the movement because those people end up not being able to take care of themselves and they end up feeling crushed. When you’re there with your friends and your allies and you make new friends, you know that you’re not alone and you know that you can have the permission to step back when you need to rest. And it’s not reliant on any single one of us.
Noel King
March for Our Lives sent me and Sean this very tantalizing fact, which is that this movement has won the passage of 250-plus gun laws since it began. That’s an extraordinary number. What are those laws and where would we see them out in the wild?
David Hogg
One of the laws that we did pass after Parkland was the thing called an extremist protection order or a red flag law that enables you to disarm somebody that is a risk to themselves or others. An instance where this was actually used was for my own mom. Somebody threatened to kill my mom and sent her a death threat that said F with the NRA and you’ll be DOA. We used the law that we passed after Parkland to disarm that individual that lived, I think, only like 20 minutes away from us. That law has now been used at least, last I checked, I think it was around 9,000 times. There’s a lot of people, the detractors out there say, well, you know, gun laws don’t work. But the reality is no law is perfect. I will fully admit that. But, you know, that law may have helped prevent me from having to bury my own mom.
Sean Rameswaram
How do you go about taking credit for 250 laws when there’s been this preexisting movement for decades?
David Hogg
I would say that we are part of it and helping to reignite a movement that was already there before us, especially a movement pioneered by Black women in places like Jamaica, Queens, in New York City, like Erica Ford. I like to think that part of the change that March for Our Lives helped bring, from really the beginning when we started this work, was about making sure it’s not just about Parkland, it’s not just about Sandy Hook, or any community that goes through mass shootings. It’s about communities that go through all forms of gun violence, and not speaking for them, but making sure that people understand that they have always been in this conversation and they have to be part of the conversation. It can’t just be about how we stop gun violence inside of schools.
Noel King
Rep. Frost, I hear that you’re getting ready to introduce your first piece of legislation. Can you tell us what’s in it?
Maxwell Frost
We’re releasing a piece of legislation that’s bicameral, introduced in both the Senate and the House, with Sen. Chris Murphy, who I’ve known for a long time from my work going to the Sandy Hook vigils and everything. This is a piece of legislation that’s pretty simple. What it does is it creates a federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which is really important for many different reasons. Number one, the federal government does not have a coordinated approach to ending gun violence. And so what this would do is have a coordinating office department that works with DHS, ATF, HHS, all these different agencies to provide a coordinated response to ending gun violence that’s both preventative and reactionary and looks at the root causes and provides data for members of Congress. Most of the data and research that comes from this issue does not come from our government. It comes from outside organizations, third-party organizations, nonprofits. That’s important work but [government work is needed] for an issue that takes 100 lives a day. In this country, right now, the leading cause of death for children is gun violence. So this would be a federal coordinated approach to ending gun violence, looking at the causes, providing real data after these horrible situations happen. So that way members of Congress, state legislatures, municipal governments have real data from the government, so that way they can act upon it.
Sean Rameswaram
Do you have any idea how this is going to land?
Maxwell Frost
I think we have a really good opportunity to get this done, whether it’s through Congress or through executive action, because the president can also create the office himself. So we’re hoping that one of the two will end up happening.
Sean Rameswaram
What else is on Gen Z’s agenda?
Maxwell Frost
I don’t think Gen Z cares about different values or issues more than other Americans, right? If you were to ask people of past generations about moments that were defining for their generation, no matter who they are, you hear about the moon landing, post 9/11. Where the country came together for our generation, you ask them and you’re gonna hear Parkland, Pulse, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, death, death, death, trauma. It really changes the way a generation thinks about the issues because we’re kind of confused, like why are we still dealing with these issues? And we want to be a part of the solution. We’re not here to play the blame game.
I think we care about the existential climate crisis that we’re seeing the effects of. We care about ending gun violence because we see that young people are really at the front lines of this issue a lot of the time, especially when it comes to, yes, mass shootings, but also, unfortunately, what many folks call daily gun violence, that’s in a lot of our communities — especially Black and brown communities, that stems from underinvestment in our communities, poverty, and the economic status of a lot of our people. I think the age of the single-issue voter is kind of dying because young people really see things holistically and they really care about everything because they know everything is connected.
Noel King
In order to enact the agenda that you are talking about, a Democrat needs to be president of this country. Right now, two of the biggest threats to that happening in 2024 come from your home state — former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis — who, Maxwell, you have accused of engaging in, um, fascism.
Maxwell Frost
Number one, I think Ron DeSantis is the greatest threat to democracy in this country right now. This governor took the New College of Florida, a small liberal arts college, less than 1,000 students, and he wants to make an example of them. So he abused his power as governor and completely took out the board of trustees, put a bunch of conservative lap dogs on it, fired the president of the university, and installed a new interim president who is the former Republican speaker of the House, who is not qualified to be the president of the university. DeSantis also changed the salary from $200,000 to $699,000 a year. Then the state allocated $15 million in like a few days to this university for “institutional changes,” which they’re going to use to market to a lot more conservative areas to change the demographics of the students. I say that to say, this is not something that governors do. He’s using his power to close down businesses and attack teachers. There’s this atmosphere of fear in, not just in Orlando, but across the entire state, because of what he’s doing.
Sean Rameswaram
What does it say to you guys that this individual you define as a fascist is exceedingly popular?
Maxwell Frost
We have to realize that a lot of these polls poll likely voters who are not the entire population of a state. I’m not saying he’s not super popular in the state of Florida, but there’s a difference between policy and politics. When you have enough money and when there’s voids in democratic organizing in a state, you’re able to shift the narrative. Most people would hear about permitless carry and over 70 percent of Floridians say, “No, that’s a stupid idea. We don’t want that.” But then a lot of the same people would say, “Yes, I want to vote for DeSantis.” It’s because he’s effective at separating those two things.
David Hogg
What’s happening is Republicans are doubling down on their efforts to fuel voter suppression to change who can vote, to change who the voters are instead of changing their policies. It’s going to backfire on them eventually when those demographics that they’re relying on die out because they are inherently older and our generation can come in to start replacing them.
Noel King
But Joe Biden does not represent your generation per se. Joe Biden is not a young progressive, and young progressives have argued he’s not even that progressive. We’re looking at a situation in which potentially the Democratic nominee is in his 80s. You are both in your 20s. Should Joe Biden run again or is it time for someone new, someone younger?
Maxwell Frost
I always have the same answer to this because I truly believe this. If the president wants to run again, which it seems like he does, I’m gonna support him. Do I agree with him on everything? No, I worked for Bernie Sanders in the primary. I’m definitely to the left of the president. But I’m very pleasantly surprised. The president just took this executive action on gun violence. He signed into law the bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Is it everything that we need to end gun violence? No, but it’s going to save lives. You look at something like Build Back Better — the fact that the president put that forward, free universal tuition, free college, two-year college for all of our people, free child care for all of our people. Everything that was in Build Back Better, I think if we would have passed it, Democrats would still have the House right now. I think we’ve seen a president that’s really surprised me as a young progressive. Do we agree on everything? No, but I’ll support him.
Sean Rameswaram
When you see President Biden approving new oil drilling in Alaska, do you feel like you can come out and speak out against him? Or is the race in 2024 too fragile to risk speaking ill of the sitting president?
Maxwell Frost
I spoke out against the Willow project, and a lot of times in life, you have to hold multiple truths, especially in politics. The president who signed the law, the most money ever going to defeating the climate crisis, also approved a drilling project, which is going to be really bad for our environment. Both things are true, at the same time in our reality. It’s just something we have to hold and we figure out, how do we move forward? Does it mean we don’t work to hold them accountable? No. I talked about the fact that part of the reason Gen Z turned out is because of the president’s bold vision on the climate crisis and ending it and so I was honest about that. But that’s not to the detriment of 2024.
David Hogg
I think there’s two ways that you can look at this. You can either look at what’s going on in Florida as, “Oh my gosh, everything’s turning back and we’re losing,” which is what they want us to believe, that there was absolutely nothing that we as people can do to stand up for the founding principles of our country. Granted, the men who talked about them are very, very, very deeply flawed. Nonetheless, I still think that most of us agree on those principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It means that all of us can succeed together because we all know and care about each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans that want a better future for all of us, because we know the best is ahead and not behind us.
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