Florida shooting survivor calls for action on guns in op-ed: ‘We can’t vote, but you can’

A student who survived the mass shooting at a Florida high school this week called for Americans to take action on gun control in an op-ed Friday.

Cameron Kasky, a 17-year-old junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, wrote in an op-ed for CNN that he and his brother were trapped in the school during the shooting.

“Though we made it home, 17 people didn’t. Those 17 people were murdered on the grounds of a school that has always felt like the safest place to be in a town that’s been called the safest town in Florida,” Kasky wrote.

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The teenager called for Americans “to take action now,” after the shooting.

“Why? Because at the end of the day, the students at my school felt one shared experience — our politicians abandoned us by failing to keep guns out of schools,” he wrote.

“But this time, my classmates and I are going to hold them to account. This time we are going to pressure them to take action. This time we are going to force them to spend more energy protecting human lives than unborn fetuses,” Kasky continued.

The student wrote that the shooter “is not the only one responsible for this tragedy,” citing large donations to Republicans from the National Rifle Association. He added that Democrats “lack the organization and the votes to do anything about it.”

“I’m just a high school student, and I do not pretend to have all of the answers. However, even in my position, I can see that there is desperate need for change — change that starts by folks showing up to the polls and voting all those individuals who are in the back pockets of gun lobbyists out of office,” Kasky wrote.

“Please do it for me. Do it for my fellow classmates. We can’t vote, but you can, so make it count,” he wrote.

Seventeen people were killed when a shooter opened fire at the South Florida high school on Wednesday.

Democratic lawmakers have insisted that Congress and President Trump take action on gun laws, but Trump has not said whether he will work on gun control in the aftermath of the shooting.