Surrounded by cops with guns, politicians; teachers; and their oh, so self-important, clueless, and manipulated students walked out of classes nationwide, ostensibly to protest "gun violence."  (As inanimate, lifeless objects, guns can't be violent by themselves, but never mind.)

Our parents did not succeed in ensuring our safety at school. So we must do it ourselves.

The killings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida may be the massacre that finally gets federal and state governments to enact common-sense gun control laws.  That should have happened after Columbine.  It should have happened after Virginia Tech.  It should have happened after Sandy Hook.  But it didn’t. ...

We are Generation Z, the generation after millennials.  We outnumber them by nearly one million and may be the largest cohort of future American spenders since the baby boomers.  We have more than $30 billion in spending power and wield enormous influence in family spending.  Our spending power will only increase as we begin to earn our own wages.

We will flex our muscles at the ballot box, too. Many high school seniors will cast their first ballots this November, and in 2020, a majority of today’s high school students will most likely be able to vote in their first presidential election. And we will not forget the elected officials who turned their backs on their duty to protect children.

Let us remind politicians like Donald Trump, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell who accept donations from the National Rifle Association and oppose efforts to restrict gun purchases that we are the future leaders and voters of this country.  Let us remind corporations like FedEx that provide discounts to N.R.A. members that we are their future customers.

The Stoneman Douglas students who began speaking out after the killings last month have better articulated the need for common-sense gun control laws and school safety than our elders ever have. 

Notice that the kiddies who marched, and their adult string-pullers, don't mention the shooting in Las Vegas several months earlier...but then again, that was Vegas, and the victims were just people who enjoyed country music.

And the students conveniently ignored last year's Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, which occurred in a gay bar courtesy of a Muslim man devoted to ISIS about an hour's drive from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas H.S. in Parkland, Florida.

All of this – and more – would disrupt the narrative of the walkout engineered by the bigoted folks of Women's March Youth, who brought the country the so-called Women's March, and other liberal lefty groups who are using the walkout to get more empty headed-voters and to rail against their favorite target (I couldn't resist): the National Rifle Association.

Wear orange in solidarity! You can also take action by registering to vote: text P2P to RTVOTE (788-683) right now to get registered or to check/update your registration! #ENOUGH

But some young people across the country, mainly males and mainly minorities, ignored the walkout – and were in turn ignored by the protesters and politicians – and continued their old habits of shooting others with guns obtained by...um...unconventional methods that bypass "commonsense gun laws" and even the NRA, as occurred in Chicago around the walkout times.

All of the Chicago victims were under 25 and were shot not in school, but just walking down the street, in a store, or at home.

The walkout students and their teachers don't want to talk about these common incidents because it would raise uncomfortable questions about certain segments of society and disrupt their narrative that they are good and the NRA and gun-lovers are evil, so the former group must control the country.  

Today the walkout is over; the students are back in school.  Maybe even in a school where teachers are armed and ready.  But probably not.

And amazingly, violent people, using guns, continue to shoot other people.  And will keep on shooting, no matter what these student pawns demand.