Children’s Crusade, version 2.0

Since the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., student anti-gun activism has risen, most notably with a massive walkout that took place exactly one month later. And some who are criticizing their goal of reducing the number of guns available to cause such carnage are also complaining that they’re being manipulated by others — liberal groups, the media etc.

There’s actually historical perspective here — the 1963 Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., during which children and teens cut class to protest segregation. On the surface it may have appeared to be a cynical ploy as was charged, but the kids themselves took to it as ducks took to water. Martin Luther King Jr., the spiritual leader of the movement, wrote that for the first time they were able to put into practice the Gandhian maxim “Fill up the jails.” (It got to the point that police couldn’t even arrest most of the students, thus forcing the politicians to negotiate with demonstrators to address segregation.)

It seems to me that many of the critics of the student activists really don’t want their voices heard at all if they differ from their own; it isn’t new, of course, because academia has been under attack for decades for similar reasons. And in fact, many movements — the anti-Vietnam-War movement most notably — started on college campuses; students had the energy and the passion to get their message across.

I found it amazing that many of their opponents who actually are politicians said publicly, in effect, “We know better.” Oh, really? The kids are the ones who are having their schools shot up, so they’re the ones actually living the nightmare. Why don’t the people in power actually listen to them? Oh, that’s right — they don’t want their pet agendas challenged.

Some have said that the Second Amendment encourages an unfettered right to firearms, which, as some courts have ruled, is a gross overstatement. Or that it would keep people safe from a “tyrannical” government, never mind the tanks, bombs and assault weapons at its disposal. Being armed to the teeth doesn’t keep the peace; it can in fact turn into war, and students are living that reality today. So perhaps their critics need to quit blaming outside groups for publicizing and helping the students out — and perhaps learn something in the process.

Dr. King quoted one Birmingham teen demonstrator as telling his parents that he wanted freedom for them too, “and I want it to come before you die.” He understood the stakes, and thus so do these students. Ignore them at your peril.