After Manuel and Patricia Oliver lost their son in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, they assumed their neighbors would be sympathetic. So when they protested gun violence last summer by staging a “die-in” at the local Publix grocery store, they were shocked by the reaction. Gun rights activists and some shoppers taunted and mocked them. …
The shooting, which left 17 students and staff members dead last year, sparked a nationwide movement of marches, student walkouts and a massive voter registration campaign to demand gun control. More than 100,000 supporters converged on downtown Washington a year ago for a rally that became a defining symbol of the students’ determination to upend American politics.
But the movement has had relatively little effect on voters here, who made a three-point shift toward the Democratic candidate between the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 gubernatorial election, when compared with Florida voters overall. CONT.
Tim Craig & Scott Clement, Washington Post