EDITORIAL: The youth will vote against the NRA

Amid the rising coverage of the Maryland school shooting and the bombings in Austin, Texas, Triad residents could be forgiven for missing media reports that Greensboro College in downtown Greensboro, and Weaver High School right next door, both went into lockdown after a “physical assault” on campus for an hour or so on Tuesday afternoon.

Likely, the kids took it in stride — this is the school-shooting generation after all; surely all of them by now, even the dumb ones, have thought about what they would do if something went down at their school: how they might escape, where they might hide, which of their fellow students might be capable of such an act.

These days, it’s just another fire drill.

The gun nuts and false patriots of the National Rifle Association — were they even to address this most recent spate of school terror — might call the Greensboro incident a victory, as no firearms were involved.

As it was, the NRA was quick to pounce on the Maryland shooting as vindication of their heavily armed worldview: A school resource officer — a good guy with a gun! — nullified the threat after just two students had been shot. Slam dunk![pullquote]And so the NRA and its borg-like minions must fight back, because the smarter ones among them have realized that most current high school seniors are eligible to vote this year, and more are coming down the pipeline.[/pullquote]

But the kids don’t believe it.

Look at the faces of the kids from Stoneman Douglas High when they fend off the vile accusations from the stupidest and meanest of adults, or the kids in Pennsylvania who sat out their detention — incurred after National Walkout Day — with arms defiantly linked on the gymnasium floor, or any of these young survivors, for they are all survivors, who have collectively come to the realization that the grownups are unable to do anything about the NRA and its influence.

And so the NRA and its borg-like minions must fight back, because the smarter ones among them have realized that most current high school seniors are eligible to vote this year, and more are coming down the pipeline. There are 41 million Americans between 14- and 19-years-old. By and large, they don’t share the gun fetish so many Americans succumb to.

Perhaps that’s why the NRA views them as expendable.