Your rights, but we cannot protect our guns before we protect our children. Dear congress, how many of the thoughts and prayers do i need for some damn action . We lose confidence in our government because were told nothing can be done time and time again and were tired of hearing that because we know there can be change in this country. What i saw today was discouraging, but i want everyone to know we will not be skren discouraged. We will not stop this movement. Everyone at the nra, were not afraid of you. We will not be silenced by anything you have to say. Were asking, begging, and pleading because this cannot keep happening. We cannot see another friend in a casket. Should you continue to choose your wallets over our lives, i pray you enjoy retirement. Because we will vote you out. This is the moment weve been waiting for. You are the cavalry weve been waiting for. So to you, lets do it. Right now as those parkland students meet with state lawmakers, other teenagers are rallying to their cause. Students are standing up across florida, capitol hill, and the white house. They are screaming right now for politicians to listen. Last night they did not listen. Last night as survivors of the massacre watched from the capitols gallery in florida, lawmakers debated a bill declaring porn, you heard me right, porn, a health risk. They refused to even discuss an assault weapons ban. The porn bill would, quote, protect floridians, teenagers, from pornography. Later today at the white house, the president will pete with people from parkland along with parents from sandy hook and columbine. The administration is calling the meeting a listening session but what will President Trump hear and what will had edo . Yesterday donald trump proposed regulations that would ban bump stocks, the device used in the Las Vegas Shooting five months ago ago. Neither one of you stopped 1yearold gunman from killing 17 people in florida. Something donald trump said he supported back in 2000. The eightyear assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end. [ cheers and applause ] you have a true friend and champion in the white house. Which leads us to our big question once again, what will President Trump do . Lets bring in our team of reporters. Maya rodriguez is in tallahassee, florida. Kelly odonnell is at the white house. Kimberly atkins, chief washington report for the Boston Herald and msnbc contributor. Maya, youre seeing what the students are doing right now. Do you get a sense that theyre in this for the long haul reporter so many of them were heart broken yesterday after the vote in the state house where they failed to take up a measure having to do with a ban on Sexual Assault weapons. They were heart broken, but they say theyre not surprised that they know that this is going to take quite a while, that change does not come easy when it comes to having to deal with lawmakers in general, both at the state and federal level. A number of students were out here that have nothing to do with Stoneman Douglas high school. They decided they needed to be here, that this issue was important to them, lives, and education. One of those students is taylor pal ford. You came up from 20 minutes from here. Why did you decide to come out here . Why was it important for you to make the trek up here . I thought it was important because i dont hear about these things happening close to home. The other shootings that happened in florida, it was very tragic to hear it was happening and we decided something needed to happen. And so we came up here to make sure our voices were heard reporter what would you like to see happen . I think there are theres should be stricter gun laws and a lot of focus on Mental Health awareness to where its more i dont think someone with ale Mental Illness should be allowed to purchase a gun. Reporter Mass Shootings were quite frankly not uncommon, do you think about that when you go to school . I do. Its something that runs through my head every once in a while. Its really unfortunate. These are the things we think about when we go to school. I want that to be a thought thats not there. Reporter taylor, thank you so much for joining us. Maya, hold on. The passion is really intense right now. The emotions are really intense right now. Are these kids willing to keep fighting this fight for as long as it takes . Will they show up to the polls in 2018 or later this year when they have to vote for the midterms . Reporter so katy tur wants to know will this motivate you to go to the polls when you have the right to vote when election time comes around for you and your classmates . It will definitely be something thats on my mind because i dont want my future children to have to deal with the things we dealt with. As far as, you know, the fear of this is the potential of what could happen, i dont think anyone should have to feel that feeling whenever they go to school. We heard a lot of chants out here, vote them out, over and over again. I dont think people we voted in people that are going to speak for us. And then it seems like whenever we want something to be done, they dont hear us and its not fair for us because i know a lot of students feel like they dont have a voice and we should have we are the next generation reporter are you all in it for the long haul . We are. Reporter katy, taylor is just one example of the people weve met out here, people that have come up from orlando, tampa, from south florida to somehow support for Stoneman Douglas high school who are right now inside with state lawmakers, meeting about 70 of them throughout the day and later this evening theyll be meeting with republican governor rick scott of florida in groups of 20. They tell us they understand this is going to take time. They are also looking forward to that march that is supposed to be happening march 24th in washington, d. C. , having to do with gun control, safety in the schools, Mental Health. They want all these issues to be addressed because they keep saying like the hashtag, never again. They do not want to see another mass shooting at a school like they have seen throughout their years. Columbine was almost 20 years ago. These kids have grow up in the shadow of that ever since. Thank you. What youre looking at on the left side of your screen is our cameraman going through security alongside the students and demonstrators and young people. Theyre in florida at Florida State capitol going to rye and confront lawmakers to beg lawmakers to do something down there. Last night lawmakers decided not even to discuss an Service Weapons assault weapons ban. Instead they decided to discuss a measure that had to do with pornography and the Health Effects it has on teenagers. Pornography being bad for teenagers, not assault weapons, which was what killed 17 kids and teachers just a week ago. This is oka la, florida. Were seeing these images far and wide today. Were going to be seeing, again, students going to the white house to talk to President Trump, students from parkland, parents from sandy hook, parents from columbine, folks trying to urge him to do something about it. Kelly odonnell, youre at the white house. The president is having that meeting. What is the white house hoping to get out of this . What are they saying at least theyre hoping to get out of this . They describe it as a listening session. The president invites guests into the white house with a specific issue. He will often open the floor to let them make some comments. And today maybe one of the most interesting opportunities to see that because the emotions are raw, the personal experiences theyre bringing are very relevant, and it could be unpredictable. I was at columbine back in 1999. I worked covering the sandy hook parents on capitol hill who sustained their energy for months in the very difficult sort of mission for their very small children who were killed, going door to door on capitol hill trying to make change. Now here we are wiparkland. The president maybe making incremental progress, whether its the bump stocks he talked about, the adaptation to weapons that could make them operate as if machine gun style, or age limits, or trying to deal with things with Mental Health. Will that be enough . Probably for those he would meet with, no. Does he have the ability to get that done. This is an important data point for a president who has his own personal progression, to now being closely tied and supportive with the nra and now as president having a moment where he may be able to speak to this issue and perhaps try to get lawmakers to take action. Thats where it gets difficult. Well see what hes able to push and not able to push and the limitations of the president s own influence here. Then again, the nra does support the background bill, while it doesnt necessarily support banning bump stocks, it signals they would be open to those regulations. Any sense at all that the president would go further than the nra, potentially go against the nra . Last year and the year before he was at the Nra Convention saying no ones going to impede on gun owners rights reporter he has vacillated on this point. Even when hes moved by something, for example, the daca participants and spoke about passing a bill with love in that address. He gets pulled back by the folks within the party they dont necessarily want him to go that way. So we may see something small like bump stocks. Bump stocks is something the nra was able to get behind, some sort of restriction on the sale of that, but once you get beyond that, it becomes more difficult. Even something that seems as incremental as changing the age limit to purchase guns, to purchase alcohol. If the nra isnt behind it, its going to be difficult politically for the president to back that despite the fact that youve seen this remarkable grassroots Civil Rights Campaign being put on by these young people. Heres the thing about banning bump stocks. The president may want to do it by just signing something and telling the atf to ban it, but the given what the atf said about their ability to regulate, there are going to be court cases about it. So it is something that if you want anything done immediately on it, its going to need to get passed through legislation. Kimberly, were watching these scenes out of tallahassee. There are giant crowds going to the State Capitol demanding something from lawmakers down there. Theres ocala, florida, on the upper right. Not to be cynical, but the news hasnt moved away from this. Is this sort of pressure were seeing on tv enough to not only convince donald trump, but convince lawmakers that something needs to be done and not just something little or incremental, but something substantial when you have young people who are so scared, young people who are so angry, young people who are posing the question, what do you value more, me or your rights as a gun owner . I think thats the difference weve seen here. Yes, its just been a week. In most of these cases of Mass Shootings that are really horrifying, by the time seven days have passed it was not even in the headlines at all anymore. These are young people that are not only motivated, theyre media savvy and politically savvy and theyre using that to keep this issue in the forefront. If theyre able to maintain that, they have a greater chance of changing not just the mind of lawmakers again, for all the reasons and the strength of the nra, legislation is hard on this. I think if they are able to change the culture, motivate other young people, and really make a change from the grassroots up, then you might see some sort of movement akin to the smoking movement, the fact that big tobacco, a lot fewer younger people started smoking and the entire culture around that change. Or the lbgtq community and samesex marriage, they were responding to the people as opposed to the other way around. If they can lead that they are effective, especially when theyre as eloquent as these young people have been and as brave as these young people have been. Because of that, because they are so effective, theyre a threat to a certain status quo. Thats why youre seeing ugly stuff come out about these kids and ugly accusations. Well get to that a little bit later in the hour. Kelly odonnell, thank you, maya rodriguez. Lets go to david cohen, a flori at tallahassee reporting for vanity fair, and author of columbine. A student got shrapnel caught behind mer eye. Lets listen to her. I dont know how columbine wasnt enough. I dont know how sandy hook was not enough. I dont know how the Las Vegas Shooting or pulse nightclub was not enough. I dont know how any of it was not enough. But now it is. This is enough for me. This is enough for my message and my platform. Im not going to let anyone stop me. I dont know if you got a monitor down there. Im not sure if you can see her image, but shes got shrapnel behind her eye, a black eye, she has blood in her eye. She looks wounded. Its a powerful image to see her with that injury. Its a powerful message to hear what shes saying. Do you think from your experience, you wrote the book on columbine, that this could be different . It could be. Ive never seen anything like this. Ive been in a lot of the School Shootings unfortunately for 19 years now. Never seen anything like this. The columbine kids were really shell shocked. There was sort of that blank affect of almost all the kids the first couple days after, nobody was talking about policy, definitely not like gun control. These kids kind of leapt into action day one and theyve been incredibly savvy about how to do events like this today immediately so the momentum the didnt die, but also pacing. For the first time in several years i have hoped it could be different, and theyre kind of the right messenger. I get asked whatll it take to change this and i say i dont know. I wasnt expecting this but this is the best hope weve had in ages. Its all on them. David, on the left side of the screen were watching, its not florida where this is happening. You see snow on the ground. That is parker, colorado, its a student walkout. They are now marching in that suburb all to call for action. These are powerful images. If this is going to effect change, what sort of change should they be shooting for. What is a reasonable ask right now . Thats a great question. Theyre hitting at a couple different levels. They have focused on gun control. They want sensible and called it Something Like major or comprehensive changes of gun control. They are really laser focused. Some of the sessions like today, its a little more mixed. Theyre talking about two major buckets, Mental Health and gun control. Not all the conversations today is supposed to be having a conversation with legislators. Different events have different focus. But gun control is kind of, like, the main point through all of them and the biggest thing theyre all talking about. They want assault weapons ban. Lets listen at the Florida State capitol. [ crowd chanting ] [ crowd chanting ] it is loud in the halls of the State Capitol right now. Students and activists and teachers, victims, survivors, witnesses, people who are passionate about this chanting vote them out, vote them out. Students are also in the Governors Office down in tallahassee. Governor rick scott of florida demanding something be changed with him. A reminder, students are also meeting with the president of the United States, asking him for some change. Heres what they are up against. Theyre up against the nra right now, theyre also up against a republicancontrolled government, not just there in florida, but a republicancontrolled government in the capitol, in the congress, house of representatives, senate, and also donald trump, a republican, in the white house. Historically republicans have not been easily swayed on any sort of measure like gun control. Anything limiting a persons right to own a gun. There are certain bills that are being discussed right now, strengthening background checks, even raising the age of when somebody can buy an assault weapon from 18 to 21, making that a federal law, not a state by state law. Theres also an issue on banning bump stocks, which we saw in the vegas shooting. I dont think its part of an issue for what we saw here down in florida. But, again, these things are hard to do. Theyre difficult. Its hard to maintain the momentum for them. Its hard to maintain the support for them in congress. Not just among republicans, but also among some democrats. These kids are trying to flatten this out and make this not a political issue, but make this a rights issue, a human rights issue. Something that all americans need to worry about. Change the culture around it, not just how lawmakers respond. Jared moskowitz joins me me now. He the broad from marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. Congressman, thank you very much for joining us. I was just talking about how these kids are trying to flatten out the issue, make it so its not just about republicans, not just about democrats, not just about what lawmakers are doing, but changing the culture. Do you think that thats the best strategy . What do you think should be done . Its by far the best strategy. These students are the difference. They are the reason why there will be bills coming forward that will be heard that will change the conversation in the state of florida. Something that hasnt happened in 20 years. Ive been saying to myself that we have to look at this as parents, not as democrats or republicans. I remind myself of a slogan, parents over party. Thats really what we should be doing here. It would be nice if we approached all issues the same way were approaching this as Common People with a common goal with a common purpose. You would think in a country with the most powerful military and the best economy and the best people in the greatest country ever created, we could keep our schools safe. If we cant coalesce around that, what can we do in this country . Lets listen to the scene in tallahassee one more time. Thats a florida lawmaker rallying with the kids. Hold o