These Are The Questions Conservatives Should Ask of Parkland, Florida High School Students

Conservatives are well within their rights to criticize the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida who have become forceful advocates for gun control. Unfortunately, many conservatives have seen fit to exercise this right poorly.

Leslie Gibson, a Republican candidate for the Maine State House saw fit to refer to Emma Gonzalez as a "skinhead lesbian". He subsequently withdrew from the race. Following the March For Our Lives demonstrations last month, former Senator and two time GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested the students learn CPR instead of marching for "phony gun laws". A few days later, Santorum grudgingly admitted to having misspoken.

Conservative talk radio icon Laura Ingraham took aim at David Hogg mocking him on Twitter for being rejected by four colleges. After several sponsors pulled their ads from The Ingraham Angle and others threatened to follow suit, Ingraham did an about face and apologized although not directly to Hogg. She subsequently announced she would be going on a week long Easter vacation. It remains to be seen if this vacation won't be an indefinite one.

In which case, Ted Nugent might very well join Ingraham. The rock guitarist turned NRA Board Member said of the survivors in a radio interview that "they have no soul."

This has not been conservatives' finest hour.

Let me offer a different approach. Here are six firm but fair questions for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who support more gun control.

1. The March For Our Lives' Mission Statement calls for an assault weapons ban. A federal assault weapons ban was in place between 1994 and 2004. During this period, the massacre at Columbine High School took place. If a federal assault weapons ban couldn't prevent what happened at Columbine why do you think a federal assault weapons ban will prevent future mass shootings now? 

2. The mission statement also calls for "universal, comprehensive background checks". How can universal, comprehensive background checks address the issue of straw buyers?

3. A universal, comprehensive background check is only as good as the information is fed into it. Critical information concerning the shooter at Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina and the shooter at the church in Sutherland Springs,Texas were never entered into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. How would  universal, comprehensive background check system avoid such errors?

4. During your recent appearance on 60 Minutes, Cameron Kasky said he's part of the "Mass Shooting Generation". The Second Amendment was adopted in 1791. If mass shootings are a recent phenomenon how can they be blamed on a 225-year old constitutional amendment?

5. Nearly two thirds of gun deaths in the United States are as a result of suicides. Why hasn't the March For Our Lives movement addressed this critical aspect of gun violence?

6. Not all students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School want more gun control. One such student is Kyle Kashuv who recently challenged Cameron Kasky to a debate. For his part, Kasky indicated he was amenable to a debate "in the near future." When will this debate come to pass?

I hope the pro-gun control students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will accept these questions in the spirit they are intended.

I also hope conservatives will be wise enough to dispense with the name calling and ask some intelligent questions for a change.