Parkland survivor David Hogg joins Michigan State students, community in calls for gun reform after mass shooting

LANSING — Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg Monday spoke forcefully about the need for gun law reforms during a visit to Lansing in the wake of a mass shooting Feb. 13 on Michigan State University's campus.

Hogg, who survived the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida, went on to become a founder of March for our Lives and has spoken about gun reform before Congress and across the country. He appeared at a press conference Monday with more than 20 MSU students, survivors of the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School, and others who called upon legislators to immediately enact reforms.

“The reality is this, what we are doing right now as a country is not working. The cycle that we’re in of endless debate, inaction, is not working,” Hogg said. “I know that this is not something that just Democrats are tired of, or just Republicans are tired of, every single student in America is exhausted.

"Every single parent in our country is exhausted, not just because of the shootings that happened at places like MSU, at Parkland, at Oxford, but by the fact that what happened at MSU, what happened at Parkland, in the form of individual shootings, happens every single day, multiple times a day in our country and it does not get the attention that it deserves," he said.

Monday marked one week since a lone gunman walked onto MSU’s campus Feb. 13 and left after killing three students, injuring five and terrorizing an entire campus and East Lansing community. The man was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in north Lansing about 5 miles away from campus.

Hogg told those gathered at the John A. Hannah Building in downtown Lansing he is tired of having to be somewhere after a mass shooting to continue his advocacy. Everyone is tired, he said.

The MSU gunman, 43-year-old Anthony McRae, had two 9 mm handguns, nine magazines and extra rounds on him when he was found, police said. Both guns were purchased legally, but not registered, according to Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez.

McRae had previously been charged with possessing a loaded weapon in a vehicle and for violating Michigan’s concealed carry law. Prosecutors allowed McRae to plead guilty to the misdemeanor possession charge and dismissed the felony concealed carry violation. He spent about a year on probation. McRae completed his term of probation on May 14, 2021.

Because he was not sentenced on a felony charge, Michigan law allowed McRae to legally purchase a firearm once his probation was complete. The Lansing Police Department remains in possession of the firearm involved in McRae’s 2019 arrest, according to Lansing police chief Ellery Sosebee.

Sosebee said former Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon's decision to negotiate down McRae's charges in his plea deal would be a decision “scrutinized for a long time, I'm sure."

On Thursday, Senate Democrats introduced nearly a dozen bills that would require universal background checks for all gun purchases, safe storage of firearms and red-flag gun laws intended to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a risk to themselves or others.

State Sen. Rosemary Bayer, D-Beverly Hills, and chairperson of the legislative Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention Caucus, said the bills soon will receive hearings and votes, and she is confident the bills will be signed into law.

Educators and students spoke Monday in favor of stricter gun control laws, saying if they had been on the books, the shootings at MSU and Oxford may not have happened.

“I cried for days, the tragedy is so great,” Bayer said. “The entire community will never forget, never forget this moment, this week, this day. They will never forget this horrible tragedy. We must, we have to fix it. We are the adults, we have to fix it. We are all dedicated to solving this horrible, pervasive, massive problem.”

MSU junior Zoe Haden, co-president of March For Our Lives MSU, said she now has been affected by mass shootings twice and something must be done.

“This is the second mass shooting that has directly affected my life,” she said. “No one should have to experience one, let alone two events of gun violence, and I was lucky. I was lucky that both times I was safe."

She spoke about how she received a text from her sister a year and three months ago saying there was a shooter at Oxford High School, and that her sister was locked in a classroom and hiding.

Haden sent her sister a similar text Feb. 13, alerting her that there was a shooter at her school, MSU.

"I was lucky that my sister survived, I was lucky that the friends I had on campus survived, but not everyone was," she said. "Not everyone has the privilege to say what I am saying now, because of gun violence, because of the lack of change that has been made.”

Contact Mark Johnson at majohnson2@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ByMarkJohnson.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Parkland survivor David Hogg joins gun reform call after MSU shooting