Gun violence. High School Students across the country are staging demonstrations, rallies, and walk outs calling for lmakers to take stronger action or face consequences at the polls this fall. Joining me now to talk about what bay area youth are doing are two high School Students. Lily conovallndaxwell stern. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having us. Lily, i want to startwith you. What was your reaction when you heard about parkland . I was devastated to see that were still dealing with ma shootings in this country. It made me scared for my own safety as a high school student, and, really, just absolutely , as i said maxwell, do you feel the same way . I mean, do you feel safe in your school . I feel safe in my bschool, i think perhaps it is a false sense of safety because a shaoting like can happen anywhere. And weve seen it happen anywhere. So i do feel safeo in my s now, but the problem is i dont know if ill feel safe tomorrow or the day after that unless anything changes. Do you have to train at school for these types of incidents . Is this something youve, you know,h experienced youre going to school . Yeah. Weve had lockdown drills before. We havent had the shooting drill yet but there are talks of it next month. Weve had l a of lockdown drills. Teachers lock your doors and students under the dress. In case something happens onll knoche door. One thing that the. Brought up is the idea of arming teachers. Im curious, lily, would you feel comfoable . Absolutely not. School is about learning. And any weapons there could be a hazard to the students. And ialso feel like its just putting a band aid on the larger issue we have. We have an issue withcegun violen general. Armening more people doesnt seem like a good way to help aid that. W maxwell, i meaat do you think you and your peers are talking about whenwe talk about change . What do you want to go out and sort of push politicians to do . Well, i think politicians reed tognize this is no longer just, you know, setti up prayers and thoughts. I thinkt its important t change happens. And i think change for youth mean stronger backgroun checks, who has access to guns. And that i ink is the most important issue. Who is able to own a firearm in untry. So i think change means really listening to youth and hearing what we have to say about this issue. Because it is affecting all of us. I mean, were the after columbine generation. Has normalized. It has. Maxwell talked about stronger background checks and other sts of legislative fixes. We have strong gun laws in california. Howo you want t focus your Energy Moving forward . I know youre 16. You cant vote yet. You can get out there and talk about this. To me, its about really unifying as students and being able to really come together for what we want collectively. I think thats going to take a lot of discussion. Its going to take a lot of work. Because there are Bigger Picture things we can askfor but theres Little Things that can make the world of a difference. That, you know, weve seen some push back from the nra and other folks. Do you guys feel like adults arl listening w enough . And or is it patron nicing when they say youre young and dont know what youre talking about. Its frustrating to hear that. Dont think they recognize that, i mean, im going to be able to vote in a couple of years as will my peers and a lot of their constituent finance they dont reuesent our v and belief, then well see change in the voting polls. I think thats something tt e adults in, you know, Congress Need to hear. And i think, you know, thats really important that they understand that. Yeah. So one thing, you know, we know is that the nra does have a lot of power. Be votingd, you will in a couple of years. But are your peers feeling when youre having ns conversat lily, will your peers. Do you think theyre feeling ewre motivated in the last weeks than before . Absolutely. I think theres Something Different about this time. I think it has a lot to do with the leadership from the students from parkland who have taken the stand and have been tbold. Nk were seeing theres blood on the hands of the politicians who are out therean have taken money from the nra and are continuing to protect the right to bear arms that arety assault rifles. I think thats just not okay. I mean, it seems like th might be a tipping point, but weve had las vegasappen just five months ago. You know, you talked about columbine. We saw ndy hook. Do think its because, maxwell, se happened at a high school and, you know, ttudents do have more of a voice. Theye they understand how to work social media and other platforms. I think so. I think it also has to do with e fact we lived through sandy hook, columbine. All of us livedro thegh the pulse nightclub shooting and other shootings. For it to happen, its sfr frustrating and were tired of g thoughticians send and prayers. Its time for them to do something about it. Its become a point where does the safety of our children become more freedimportant than freedom to own a gun. I would echo maxwells point saying were High Schoolers. Were made for change. Hr we seeghout history how youth and especially high school and College Students have made such huge impacts in our country. Anhink were seeing that here. And i would also say that, yeah, weve grown up with these Mass Shootings. This affected our lives. Weve never lived in a world n where it been a part of our daily lives and our fears. Andi think thats really important to know when were talking about High Schoolers versus elementars schooler or versus adults. Becauseol high scs have been so directly affected at thisi. What is next . What do are you doing this weekend and the coming months oefore you can actually get to the polls make change . Well, were definitely organizing walk outs and protests and make sure thathe politicians in office know that youth are listening and youth care about the issues. Think that, also, educating our peers about gun control and gu violence in our country can eally make a big impact. I know im helpi organize a walk out at my school. Theres a march for lives in oakland and San Francisco and ross the bay area in a couple of weeks. And putting the word out there that carnage has to stop and the vicious cycle of Service Needs to end now. Lily, i know youre helping organize some of the protests, too. Why a walk ot . What message does that send . I think a walk out sends a strong message to o politicians and, also, to our community is that it needs to endl now. Keep walking out until we see some gun control happen. Great. Th thank you or coming in. Thank you. Nk tha you. The parkland, Florida Shooting is spurring new efforts from gun control advocates. One strategy to singlein out ividual politicians like this Television Ad criticizing Florida Governor rick scott for his record on ns. Governor scott has an aplus rating from the nras Political Victory Fund and considering a run for the u. S. Senate. The ad was supported by giffords run by gab by giffords. Joining me now is giffords executive director. We heard rick scott would support raising the age to 21 for some of the gunurases. Im curious reaction and these mite shifts could hurt the efforts to attack those types of republican politicians that hava historically been supportive of the guns. Thats a response primarily to the Grassroots Energy that is cong from the students in parkland and all across the country. You see it here in california and across the bay area. And soth do you k, i mean, this is a good thing for folks who want more on the side of gun safety . Could it potentially make it a little more muddled when were going into the 2018 midterm elections . Gts aat thing. I mean, have to be careful to not be too tacto al. You have loo at the sort whole truths around politicians like governor rick scott. Like you said, hes been an aplus rated governor of state of the florida by the nra. Florida itself has been a laboratory for the most dangerous pro firearm policy that the nra and the restobf the guning can possibly dream up. Rick scott had an opportunity to protect kids commnities in orida. Not only did he do nothing, he used his opportunity,s henure as governor in florida, one of the largest, most important states in the country, to turn his ste into the nras own private laboratory for policy. I so what is the strategy here it . A statebystate approach. Doou think theres hope to change hearts and minds in congress . Its both. I want to go back to 1994. When in, youanow, two into bill clintons term he lost his majority in the house and t nra was credited for driving a lot of thos defeats and brief republican gains. Right. That defeat redlly hind the strength of the Gun Violence Prevention Movement for decade and generations to come. It scared the bejesus out ofci polis from coast to coast. Rights, democrats, too. Right. Democrats and and lead to this, you know, collective giving up that occurred that persisted all the way into until 2012 in the san hook shooting. Its been five years since then weve been building a gssroots Army Infrastructure to fight back against the nra and elect, you know, committed politicianss ache country. What the kids are doing, though, its important. Does it feel different . F itls different. Its for a lot of reasons. Its, one, its kids. Like we were discussing wi, im dad. Ive been a dad for 15 months. Ive been working on gun olence prevention for five years. It feels different to me to. Y as a fath most americans are parents or kids and i think thats driving the light of change. Second, theres a additivet. Eff its, you know, the third of the top ten worst Mass Shootings in this country taki place within a period of five months. And yet you see ts collective inaction from politicians owned by the nra, the nra spent 50 million to elect these people in 2016. And, you know, this inaction and collective paralysis theyre getting what they paid for. Part of the nras power comes from how big of a group they are. I want to know what youre doing to get gun owners on board with some of these safy measures. I think it has to be part of the conversation for your side. You look at Gabby Giffords and mark kelly. Gabby is is a rmer republican gun owner herself. Captain mark kelly in additionb tog an astronaut hes a combat veteran. Right. You know he was, you know, i think 42 combat missionsn the desert storm. They are both gun owners. They live in a state likear zona. Theyre gun owners. And they can speak. Owners. E still gun they are. Absolutely. And, you kn, are able to, you know, speak to the rest of the country and explain why we ne change things so kids dont keep on dying. So our communities dont experience this awful toll of gun violence day after day. Its not just the Mass Shootings that hurtry this cou that leave families and communities devastated. Right. They can show their or nal experience that you can protect kids, protect communities, pass laws that keep guns out of the wrong hands, kee weapons of war off the strts while also protecting our basic rights as guaranteed by the second amendment. Quickly, we only have a few seconds left. What are the specifics . What do you want to see done besides, obviously, changing the make up of congress . Were going district by district. Were going to elect the congressct that canlly go in there and do sreething. E talking about assault rifles ban . All of the above. We need to getpo w of war off our streets. Make sure that every single purchase of the gun is scrutinized by, you know, comprehensive and strong background check. We need to get the cdcth and Public Health institutions in this country off the sidelines. They pe beenhibited from doing basic research into the problem of and solutions to gun violence prevention. That ought to change. We can save lives from car accidents. Any numberf thing we need the same collective National Effort that starts here in 2018 and is driven by the sort of moral certainty of these kids. Right. And, you know, thats what we need riant now. You for coming in. My pleasure. Now to safrancisco politics. Last month the San Francisco board of supervisors apprknted errell as mayor. Ousting board of surervisors dent who served as acting mayor following the sudden death of the mayor in december. Injune, San Francisco voters will elect a new mayor. Until then farrell will face a number of challenges including rising homelessness. Joining me now is San Francisco mayor marc ferr fl. Thank y coming in. Thank you for having me. You were on the board several years prior to this. What is it like going from supervisor to mayor that suddenly . And what do you think you can complish in the Mayors Office that you couldnt do as supervisor . Look, being the mayor San Francisco, obviously, is a wholly different proposition than being a member of the board of supervisors. But a few things. Im lucky to be born and raised in San Francisco. And serving as a memberf the ard of supervisor for seven years, on top of that, gave a great backgroundmito as this job. And really running our government for the next ha year. As you think about the challenges that we face as a city, its nos secret. Public safety, homelessness, and in addition to that, in the Mayors Office ill be putting together our citys budget for the upcoming two years. And i serve as budget chair fur ears on the board of supervisors. Again, i have that ckound, you know, hopefully allow me to do a good job over the next half year. Know th your appointment came of something as a surprise to a lot of people. And you were baed bay group the board that a lot ofu ways sparred with in the past years. More liberal wing already liberal board of democrats. Why do youthink your politica foes wanted you in room 200 . Itsneot about person in the job. It was the fact that at this point in time, we had one person servinas the mayor as, a district supervisor, someone running mayoral campaign. I think from many peoples perspective that was too much to be vested into one pe on. Nted somebody over the next half year that was able to be dedicatedo the job of being mayor for the residents of San Francisco. Thats why i allowed myself to n have myme put in the ring. Thats where we are today. I understand you have some news you would like to make here about somethi be bringing back from Willie Browns days as mayor, i think. Iunderstand that, as well. Starting next week were going to bedoing office hours at city hall. Were meeting witsresidents of francisco. Anybody can sign up online. Thats greating. Slots. Ing in ten minute well do it once a month on friday mornings. To make sure wee hear from peo and i hear from residents. They can talk about any topic they want. The sky is the limit. I mean, its really importanto have an assessable, Transparent Office of the mayor. Lland hope this will be something where we can really invite new ideas, hear ne issues, and most importantly continue to hear from people on the ground every day. I imagine onehing youll hear a lot about is homelessness stateusing crisis and t of our streets. It seems like no matter how many thing the city does try to tackle that, theyre just not working or not working well toough. I mean, what neede done differently . What i would suggest is what were doing is actually working on the streets. We need to m simply e of it. First of all, as you think about it, op need to stop more from becoming homeless on our streets. We need to stop the hetried. s like 41 became homeless in the last few years, i think. He exactly. You think about numbers. We had about 7,000 people that were homeless in San Francisco a little over ten years ago. Todaye have about t same number. Yeah. During the same period of time, we housed or placed people back with their families 21,000 people. Wow. So more andmore people are cycling into homelessness every year in the city of San Francisco. First step to tackling the issue is stopping the tide as much as we can. We invest in different programs. Giving people subsidizes to siry in th homes. Anybody will understand, as soon as you become homeless, and are out of your house, its a idifferent set ofues for that individual or family. And were doubling our efforts around homewardbound, which is the program if we find a loved one on the other end of the line well give someone transportation money and meal money to go home. If tey person promises to house the individual. Incredibly successful program. Over le70 of the pe a year later continue to be housed. Its working. We have amall budget on it. Im going to be doubling that budget this year. We need to stop that inflow in the city of San Francisco. And then those that remain on the streets, we need to do everything we can to get them off the streets into shiltelterd housing into better lives. We have five Navigation Centers in t city of San Francisco. Two more are coming online. We have two more potentially i the hopper. So were doing more and more for the people that are on our streets today. We need to get them off the streets for themselves, first and foremost, and the residents of San Francisco. E one of the big issues that is coming up in coming months is the Police Officers union contract. Theyve suppted you, they are very Controversial Group in san francis t. Why shoul public trust that somebody who was not elected isr the rightn to oversee this longterm contract . Look, these contract negotiations come up i would be shirking the responsibility of the office of the mayor not to enter them. And, by the way, if theyre not solved certain date, we enter into arbitration and they will be awarded regardless. But the good news is, i have professionals that are taking their jobs seriously and i work on it every day and i trust them. Im not afraid to stand behind the men and women of our Police Department and the first rntponders departme theyre protecting us every day and ill support them. After President Trump was elected, the board created a ifmmittee to spally deal with federal budget cuts. I dont think theyve met yet. Your in charge of crafting the budget. Whatmpt will the fed have . At the end of the day, San Francisco, in terms of our posture as it relates to washington, d. C. , now is a unique period of time. Alf st everything coming out washington, d. C. , is against the ethos of who we are as a city. Well stay as a sanuary city. Well combat what i. C. E. Andru president is doing. We will not back down. Well continue to fill those cuts. So, obviously, its a little bit now what happens over the next few month finance seems like every day, if not every week, theres a different drama coming out of washington. Were going to react but reacty appropriatnd stick to our values of San Francisco. Mayor, thank you for comin in. Thank you for having me. This weekend, democrats convene one lst tiefore the june primary. Candidates are stumping in hopes of slanding thetate party endorsements. But there are also some clouds hanging over the party. Just this week,emocratic state nator tony mendoza resigned over Sexual Harassment allegations. Ow joining mes the politics team. Scott schafer and sacramento reporter katie orr. They join me from the convention in san diego via sky. Welcome th of you. Thank you. Katie, i want to start with you. You were in sacramento just ursday when mendoza resigned. We thought before that he might get kicked out of the senate. Tell m a little bit about what happened and how democrats there reacted. Yeah, senator mendoza had a Sexual Harassment investigation into him and it was completed nd it was found mo likely than not he hurt several women over a period of about ten years. Senators were looking to expel or suspendim. On thursday they couldnt decide which they wanted to do. In the end, theyd were spa from having to make that choice because mendoza, perhaps sensing th t decision wasnt going go his way decided he would leave on his own terms. And ultimatel resign. That must be a relief for some of them. Also, there are other investigations ongoing includin against a femwmakers. How much do you expect it will be part of the conversation thi . Weeke well, i think its an issue theyre not going to be to avoid. We know theres a safe space set up here in the convention. Theres a hotline people can call if they feel like they have been harassed. So in that regard, theyre ting to take it seriously. I think its something that well hear candidates speak aut when they address delegates this weekend. He because me too movement has been so momentum and important to people. I dont think they can really ignore it. And, scott, i know youve been talking to a lot of folks about some of the skizisms we tysaw in the national p during the 2016 election between t left wing of the partymo and th moderate. How will it play out this weekend . Especially diane fieinstein beig challenged thisweekend . We were at the last Democratic Convention in sacramento when they elected a new chair by 60 votes out of many, many hundreds and several thousand votes. And it leftery hard feelings. Nd so the new chair, eric bowman, is trying to reach out to those who didnt support him last time around. As yousaid, theyre some of the most active members of the Democratic Party are not necessarily moderate. They are, in fact, the progressive wing. The nurses. Me of the teachers groups. And theyre the ones who are giving kevin day leon, for example, aok hard over feinstein. They like his politics. What is complicated about him, senator mendo were roommates until a few months ago. So that complicates his case to women, in particular. We heard you, scott, talk about kev d andne feinstein. Well be watching that. Any other big endorsements that, you know, you think could come down thi weekend . Well, its tough. Because, you know, a candidate needs to get60 of the vote of the delegates. And in a governors race, for ou example, have four democrats who are well known. Getting to 60 , that would be a big deal. But i really dont expectat is going to happen. It matters most these endorsements down where people s arent payinuch attention. They dont know the candidates as well as they do in the governors race. Katie, saking of district races, one thing democrats are hoping for nationally is to pick up some cgressional seats. Weve seen at least seven districts that areeld by republicans in california being targeted. How much Energy Behind that this i think that is a lot of energy. People feel like they have a shot at some of the seats they ght not have in the past. I think were going to see a lot of momentum aroundr that. Af seeing already signs and teachers for some of these candidates. Candidates, for instance, challenging Tom Mcclintock near sacramento. Thats a big part of this weekend. Because theyre d,excior instance, they might be able to take over darryl issas seat os thing like that. Scott, i mean, in that race, for example, you have several strong Democratic Candidates vying and othe theres, you know, more than several. Is that a concern for party aders . How do they navigate that . I dont think the party chair wants to be seen as pushing progresfve democrats out any races. It is a real problem. Because, you know, in the top two primary system we have in california. The top twon finishers primary go on to november. And so lets say Orange County around fullerton, you have five or six democratsuing. And theyre well funded. And so the question becomes are toing to slip the vote so much that two republicans sneak in, which is, you know, finan vember. I think what you might see is if ny of the candidates get an endorsement, that the others are going to be encouraged, shall w say, to maybe run for another office at some other time to take one for the well being of the party. Because they really need to pick up one or two seats in california. Theyre going to take back the house. Reat. Ll, that is senior politics editor scott schafer. Kqed kae orr. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. You can find more of our coverage at kqed. Org newsroom. Thank you for joining us. Robert where ds the gun debate go from here . President trump is open to anges but the n. R. A. Balks at restrictions and lashes out at the aedia democrats. Im robert costa. The president s next steps en masse shootings and newve lopments in the russia probe. Ghtonit on washington week. There are no words. The families lost their chilen. We lost coaches. Rebert pdent trump says schools should do more to protect students and throws his support behind the n. R. A. s longstanding propal to arm teachers. President trump its time to make our schools a much harder target for attackers. Robert the n. R. Asues so
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