Survivor's family targeted after he refuses to be silenced by smears

Right-wing media didn’t wait long to start spreading ugly conspiracy theories about Marjory Stoneman Douglas High shooting survivor David Hogg. Now his family is receiving death threats.

Hogg’s mother, Rebecca Boldrick, told the Washington Post her family is receiving anonymous threats online after her son became an overnight advocate for gun control.

“I’m under so much stress. I’m angry and exhausted,” she said. “Angry, exhausted and extremely proud.”

The smears about Hogg started at far-right outlets like Gateway Pundit, and later spread through viral YouTube videos and Russian bots. Conspiracy theorists claim Hogg is not a real student, but a “crisis actor” trying to distract people from the FBI’s failure to investigate the shooter.

Hogg brushed them the lies. “The only time you’re ever doing anything that matters is when people try to stop you,” he said.

Hogg is one of several teenage shooting survivors at the forefront of the post-Parkland youth activism to stop gun violence.

“What we really need is action,” Hogg told national reporters last week, powerfully shaming GOP politicians who “pray” for shooting victims but nothing else. “We’re children. You guys are the adults.”

Hogg also made the news for refusing to attend Trump’s “listening session” on gun violence Wednesday. Trump ignored calls from students like Hogg for more gun control. Instead, he proposed arming school faculty, something he repeated in an unhinged Twitter rant Thursday morning.

Despite the toxic threats and pushback, as well as attempts by some local officials to curb school protests, the activism of Hogg and his fellow students seems to be turning the tide.

The newest polling shows an astonishing 97 percent of Republican voters want to expand some gun laws.

Hogg will not be silenced. There will be no turning back for the Parkland students, and no respite until elected lawmakers do their job.