Parkland student David Hogg has spent the past several days dismantling his opponents on social media
David Hogg has quickly established himself as among the most outspoken of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who were catapulted onto the national stage following the Feb. 14 mass shooting at the school. And he's proving to be especially adept at calling out national lawmakers on Twitter.
The 17-year-old recently took Rep. Steve King to task on Twitter.
The Iowa Republican is one of several conservative figures who has criticized the March 24 student-led protest against inaction on gun violence, March for Our Lives.
King tweeted on Monday evening in regards to one of the aims of the march, to increase the legal age to purchase guns to 21, writing, "if you are a teenager and believe you won't be responsibile enough to own a gun until 21, why should you vote before 21?"
Hogg was swift to reply, telling the Republican in a tweet, "you prove exactly why so many Americans are done with politicians like you."
King has also come under scrutiny after his campaign posted a meme about Parkland, Florida, student Emma Gonzalez following her emotional speech in Washington, D.C., at March for Our Lives.
"This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don't speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp, after removing all weapons from its citizens; hence their right to self-defense," read the post on King's campaign Facebook page, referring to Gonzalez’s Cuba flag patch visible on her arm.
Hogg triangulated his criticism into pressure on Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has -- at times -- struggled in his response to the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting.
Hogg has also taken on former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s controversial CPR comments and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in another tweet this weekend.
Santorum was widely criticized for saying Sunday on CNN: "How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that."
Hogg's tweet, in which he wrote that Santorum "might need to learn CPR for the NRA following midterms," has so far amassed over 20,000 retweets.
Hogg's social media presence has caught the eye of the NRA. Multiple videos on NRATV’s Twitter feed in the past week have made Hogg the focus of strident criticism -- a move that could threaten to turn the powerful lobbying group into a Goliath ready to be felled in the public eye.
The most effective at parrying criticism, Hogg is just one of several other Marjory Stoneman Douglas students who have proven adroit at leveraging the speed and the amplification of social media to maintain attention on the issue of gun violence.
It’s one factor in the early success of their nascent movement, and could be an explanation of their success in compelling change on gun laws, where so many efforts have been frustrated before. The March for Our Lives wasn’t even two days old before Hogg was already tweeting about the next round.
