David Hogg tells Montco crowd he’s ‘exhausted’ following fatal shooting of Trump ally Charlie Kirk

“I am beyond tired of having days like today,” David Hogg said to an audience of more than 100 people as he took the stage at a Montgomery County middle school Wednesday night, hours after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in Utah.

Just that afternoon, a school shooting had taken place in Colorado.

“I am exhausted.”

Hogg, an anti-gun violence activist who survived the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., spoke to a crowd of progressive adults for a Q&A at Penndale Middle School in Lansdale alongside State Sen. Nikil Saval, a Democrat who represents parts of Philadelphia.

The event, hosted by local chapters of the progressive organization Indivisible, was organized to discuss progressive organizing and right-wing extremism, but the significance of Hogg’s visit as gun violence led the news cycle was inescapable.

“No other country like ours that has anywhere near the level of advancement and income that we have has to deal with this,” Hogg continued. “This is not a conversation that they have to have. You know why? Because they actually did something about the guns.”

He was met with applause.

Hogg believes a Democratic Party that is more open to younger candidates can pave the way for more gun safety laws and lower the political temperature. He said in an interview with The Inquirer that he worries people are turning to political violence because the “government does not work for the people.”

He said running for office himself is a “last resort” and he would rather support numerous strong young candidates through his group, Leaders We Deserve.

“Unfortunately, days like today remind me of all the death threats that I’ve gotten over the years,” he told the crowd.

“And I know that no matter what happens to me, all of those great young people will still be out there doing this work,” he added.

Only four people stood up when Hogg asked who in the room was under 30.

He said the party needs to find a message that will resonate with the young people who “are not in this room right now,” and pointed to the enthusiasm behind New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s campaign.

“A lot of the time it’s going to be talking about things that really make some of our incumbents to the party uncomfortable, because it’s going to be talking about taking on the party machine,” he said. “It’s going to be talking about taking on the corruption that enables that party machine.”

Saval said he was inspired by Mamdani, a democratic socialist New York Assembly member whose campaign turned out people in the Democratic primary who had not previously voted or had voted for President Donald Trump.

In response to questions from the audience about reaching people who are not motivated to vote, Saval suggested to start by asking people what is important to them.

“I think we have to take this extremely seriously … and the last thing I think we need to do is shame people for this activity,” he said in response to a woman who wanted to know how to resonate with a young relative who believes the whole system is broken.

Hogg said the party should improve its door-knocking operations and hyperlocal engagement year-round, and Saval said unengaged committee members should be challenged, which can make way for younger people to get their foot in the door.

“The work to build a new inclusive country is steady, and we are in this for the long haul,” Saval told the crowd.

“We can find new leaders, we can build a better party, and we can build a society that we deserve,” he added.

One of the young people in attendance was Anna Alava, 22, of Morrisville, Bucks County, who said it was new to her to be surrounded by older people interested in the same cause she is.

“For me it was really refreshing to hear David be so candidly angry on stage and to see that so well received by everyone here,” she said. “For me, I’m not as used to seeing people from older generations be aggressive or be mad about these things.”

Hogg made waves in the Democratic Party earlier this year when he announced his plan to spend millions to support candidates in primaries against incumbent Democrats through Leaders We Deserve. He briefly served as Democratic National Committee vice chair alongside State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia) but stepped down from the organization instead of running for reelection after a procedural error put their positions at risk.

And as much as he criticized the Republican Party on Wednesday, he also emphasized that real work can get done when both sides of the aisle find common ground.

He pointed to the 2022 national gun safety law — the first of its kind in decades — that was enacted with bipartisan support following mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, and a decrease in gun homicide rates since.

Following the Parkland shooting and advocacy from Hogg and survivors, Florida raised the age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21, and a red flag law was implemented.

“It hasn’t even been repealed by [Gov.] Ron DeSantis, because guess who uses it most? Republican sheriffs. You know why? Because our policies work,” Hogg said to the crowd. “Because it doesn’t make sense that somebody who threatens to kill themselves or somebody else should ever be allowed to have a firearm, right? That’s common sense.”

The Parkland shooter legally purchased an AR-15 after mental health counselors told his mother he should not have guns. Law enforcement also received numerous warnings about him before he killed 17 people at the school.

Hogg said in an interview that he hopes Kirk’s death can help push people to a mutual understanding that even if they don’t fully agree, they agree “something needs to be done.”