Two student journalists from the Eagle Eye, Stoneman Douglas high school’s newspaper, interviewed the Vermont senator about the search for a breakthrough in the gun debate – and his own voting record

We are a part of the Eagle Eye newspaper at Stoneman Douglas. We just wanted to ask a couple of questions. So first, has the Parkland shooting affected your opinion on how gun laws should be handled federally?

Bernie Sanders I wouldn’t say it affected my opinion other than it made the entire country start focusing on an issue, which previously did not get the attention that it deserved. And I think, you might ask, “Why Parkland? Why not Las Vegas, the terrible tragedy we had in Las Vegas or other shootings?” I don’t know why. But somehow or another, maybe because of the response of the students, or maybe because the American people finally had enough, the consensus was [it was] the straw that broke the camel’s back, and people looked around and said, “What is going on in America? We have got to do something.” Saying that in a way that we have not seen for a long, long time. I think people are saying, I am saying, many members of Congress are saying, “We have got to do something. We’ve got to do it now. Kids have got to be safe in school and we cannot allow people just to be shot down with military weapons.”

In the past couple of years we’ve seen a lot of grassroots movements, like the #MeToo movement, and Black Lives Matter and now the Never Again movement. What do you feel is the importance of these kinds of grassroots movements on changing policy?

Extraordinarily important. That’s how change takes place. I’ve said it a million times in every speech that I give. Change never takes place from the top. It always comes from the bottom on up. So right now, when you have large numbers of young people all across this country who are saying to the leaders of this country, “When we go to school we want to feel safe,” that will have an impact, absolutely, to my mind.

So what do you think of the importance of students and young people getting involved in politics?

How many hours do you have here? I think it is enormous. I think you are the future of this country. And I think, one of the things … There are two truths here and that is young people in general, not just high school students but younger people in general, don’t know their political strength. They don’t know their political strength. They can turn this country around.