Parkland Survivor David Hogg Called for a Boycott of Florida Spring Break
Here's one way to push for more gun control laws in Florida: vacation somewhere else. On Saturday, Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High's student news director, proposed an alternative method of gun control protest. The 17-year-old suggested on Twitter that spring breakers withhold their tourism dollars until Florida politicians passed gun legislation in the state.
"Let's make a deal DO NOT come to Florida for spring break unless gun legislation is passed," he tweeted. "These [politicians] won't listen to us so maybe [they'll] listen to the billion dollar tourism industry in FL. #neveragain."
Instead, David encouraged tourists to spend their money in a part of the United States that needs it a lot more. As Fast Company reported, Puerto Rico needs a lot of money to rebuild after Hurricane Maria, and the territory's secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, Manuel Laboy, has suggested vacationing as a great way to help. "Better Idea: Spend your spring break in Puerto Rico, it's a beautiful place with amazing people," David continued in a follow-up tweet. "They could really use the economic support that the government has failed to provide."
Spring break in Florida isn't the only thing David wants Americans to boycott. Over the past week, he and his classmates have been tweeting about companies that support the National Rifle Association. "So which companies use @FedEx the most? We could pressure them to stop business until @FedEx ends their support for the NRA," David tweeted on Saturday. "At this point we should [probably] just use @eBay instead of @Amazon eBay uses a government corporation @USPS and doesn't support @NRATV #changeiscoming," he continued, in reference to Amazon offering streaming of the NRA's television channel.
On Monday, David resumed his discussion of boycotting Amazon and other delivery companies that support the NRA. "So how else should we pressure @FedEx to end their relationship with the NRA? Same question for Amazon also I've been trying to cancel my prime membership along with everyone else that doesn't want to support @NRATV how should we go about that? @amazon," he wrote. "No matter who you are or what organization are [it'd] be a huge help if you changed your shipping service over to @USPS or @DHLUS or @UPS in support of us. In fact tweet out at companies that use only use @FedEx and demand action! Let's get this done! #boycottfedex I say we keep pressuring @amazon until they fully end their relationship with the NRA."
As of Saturday, several businesses — from Delta and United Airlines to Symantec and MetLife — have announced an end to their partnerships with the NRA, according to NPR. The NRA has since responded with a statement, calling the boycotts "a shameful display of political and civic cowardice" and saying the defecting companies would be "replaced by others who recognize that patriotism and determined commitment to Constitutional freedoms are characteristics of a marketplace they very much want to serve."
"Let it be absolutely clear," the statement continued, according to NPR. "The loss of a discount will neither scare nor distract one single NRA member from our mission to stand and defend the individual freedoms that have always made America the greatest nation in the world."
Meanwhile, according to HuffPost, companies including Amazon, Apple, and YouTube (all three of whom stream NRA TV), as well as FedEx, Roku, SiriusXM, and more, have not announced any plans to sever ties with the gun rights organization.
Related: An Open Letter from a Douglas Alum to the Parkland Survivors
