Hogg to Trump: 40,000 Americans dying annually from gun violence ‘a pretty damn good’ national emergency to start with

Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivor and outspoken gun control activist David Hogg slammed President Trump on Tuesday for saying he may “call a national emergency” to build his long-desired U.S.–Mexico border wall.

“If we really want to start talking about the national emergency like the president likes to talk about, 40,000 Americans dying annually from gun violence is a pretty damn good one to start off with,” Hogg said during an appearance on CNN on Tuesday.

{mosads}Hogg’s remarks came days after the president said he was mulling calling a national emergency to build a wall along the U.S.–Mexico border. 

“We can call a national emergency because of the security of our country, absolutely. We can do it. I haven’t done it, I may do it. I may do it, but we can call a national emergency and build it quickly, it’s another way of doing it,” he said at a press conference Friday.

The president also threatened to keep 25 percent of the government shut down for years until he receives his desired funding to build the wall. The government entered a partial shutdown late last month amid an impasse between lawmakers and the White House over Trump’s demand for billions of dollars in border wall funding.

Hogg said Tuesday that gun control should be considered a “nonpartisan issue” considering “the fact that both Democrats and Republicans die from gun violence.”

“Bullets don’t discriminate and neither should our legislators,” he added.

Hogg, along with fellow Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivor, Jaclyn Corin, discussed a new Democratic-led bill that would require background checks on private transactions that are related to gun sales.

The new universal background bill, which has been sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Rep. Peter King (R-NY), is set to be introduced on Tuesday, the anniversary of 2011 Tucson mass shooting that left six dead and nearly killed former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords (D).