Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Kyle Kashuv, 16, spoke with The Daily Signal’s Rachel del Guidice about the media blackout of his conservative views in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida, shooting. Kashuv appeared at the White House’s Generation Next forum for millennials Thursday. An edited transcript of his Daily Signal interview is below.
Rachel del Guidice: We have seen survivors from the shooting speak out. You are kind of a countervoice. Has there been any media blackout on what you’ve been doing, and why do you think that is?
Kyle Kashuv: There’s definitely a media blackout. Everything that isn’t Fox News doesn’t agree with my agenda practically and they haven’t been reaching out. I was supposed to have a CNN interview yesterday, but that got canceled. There’s a clear media blackout for people that don’t have the same agenda as the news organization.
Del Guidice: You’ve met with a couple of different lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. You met with the president and with senators. Do you think that we’re going to have comprehensive reform, and how do you feel you’ve been able to contribute?
Kashuv: Every lawmaker I met with truly cares about this issue passionately—about making sure that school shootings are a thing of the past and everyone is, practically the Republicans mostly, really don’t want this to ever happen again.
The Democrats more so want to talk about gun control. But right now I’ve really seen that with the STOP School Violence Act, that’s had bipartisan support across the aisle and almost passed in the House.
Del Guidice: What is your message to young people who are like you, who are pro-Second Amendment but feel like they’re being silenced on their campuses because their message isn’t what the media wants to hear?
Kashuv: I’ve had a bunch of people reach out to be in Twitter DMs, telling me they’re being silenced at their school.
My biggest word of advice is to keep on going. Don’t let anyone silence you and don’t give in to the criticism that you get.