A Year After Parkland, Democrats and Activists Celebrate Long-Awaited Gun Reform Progress
*By Carlo Versano and Chloe Aiello*
A day before the anniversary of the Parkland shooting, a massacre that re-framed the debate over gun control as a defining cause of Gen Z, Congress advanced its first piece of gun legislation in decades.
A universal background check bill was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in a 23-15 party-line vote ー sending it to the House floor. It marked the opening salvo in a Democratic push on gun control that was reinvigorated by the activism of the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which lost a total of 17 students and staff members in a mass shooting one year ago.
Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a newly elected Democrat from a Parkland-adjacent district who sits on that committee, told Cheddar on Thursday that the bill passed despite intransigence from Republican lawmakers, who were "doing everything and anything possible to delay it."
For Mucarsel-Powell, an immigrant from Ecuador, the issue of gun violence is deeply personal. Her father was shot and killed by an armed criminal in her home country. She made gun control a cornerstone of her campaign to unseat Rep. Carlos Curbelo in Florida's ultra-competitive 26th district.
It worked.
"A year ago, the state of Florida lost its soul," Mucarsel-Powell said. She met with Parkland families in the aftermath, which helped galvanize her resolve to put gun violence front and center in her campaign. "When you meet other family members who lost their loved ones in the same way, it just brings everything back," she said.
She gave credit for the progress in the House on the background check bill to the students-turned-activists from MSD who lobbied Congress to make the epidemic of gun violence a legislative priority.
Rep. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat who represents parts of Broward County, said the nation is now looking to Florida as a leader in school safety and gun control ー but the fight is far from over.
"Let's be honest, people are tired of the thoughts and the prayers. They're great, but at the end of the day, people want action," Jones told Cheddar. "We have become stalled, because, truth be told, the gun lobby is holding Florida hostage."
Cameron Kasky, a survivor who co-founded the grassroots group Never Again MSD after last year's shooting and helped organize the March for Our Lives nationwide protest, was invited by his representative to attend this year's State of the Union. He [told Cheddar](https://twitter.com/jiveDurkey/status/1096058759967719424) that night:
"President Trump can declare a crisis at the border all he wants," but the real "national crisis" is gun violence in schools.
That activism helped propel Democrats to the majority, Mucarsel-Powell said, adding that gun control has gained new urgency for her fellow Democrats.
"They have to hold all of us accountable," she said. "We need their voices."
It seems Gen Z is up to the challenge.
A group of 200 teen reporters from across the country are cementing the legacy of the Parkland victims by ensuring children lost to gun violence are never forgotten. In partnership with The Trace and Miami Herald, they've documented the names and stories of an estimated 1,200 children killed by gun violence in the past 12 months for the project, called [Since Parkland](https://sinceparkland.org/).
Sokhna Fall, a high school senior from Jamaica, Queens, who has been working on the project since August, called the process "traumatic," but said she felt an obligation to act.
"Teens are one of the demographics who are most impacted by gun violence in America, especially when it involves school shootings, so I felt kind of like an obligation as a teenager myself to act and do something about this," Fall said, adding that she began to see herself in the victims whose lives she was chronicling.
After the Chicago teachers union voted to work remotely due to what they say is a lack of safety protocols amid the COVID-19 surge, the school system canceled classes on Wednesday, citing harm that remote learning has done to the city's children. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Cheddar to discuss the issues surrounding the latest dispute between educators and schools. She said that the return to in-person learning would likely be halted until more COVID tests could be provided for districts. "This is a terrible situation for everybody, and we need the testing, and we need the masks," she said. "It's the omicron surge that has created this disruption, and we are trying to do the best we can. And this is the only school district that has this kind of action right now." The teachers might not be returning to their schools for at least two weeks amid the ongoing tensions.
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick joins Cheddar News to discuss the new bill he co-sponsored allowing students in the state to take 5 mental health days without a doctor's note.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
