#1 Debut Episode of Youth Saving Democracy w/Felix Brody - March For Our Lives Boston Chapter

Youth Saving Democracy

Welcome to Youth Saving Democracy, a podcast dedicated to promoting, assisting and empowering youth-led grassroots organizations and the policy agendas and candidates they champion. I’m your host David Kromelow. After the 2016 election, some in the media were suggesting the imminent death of American democracy. But the young people in America had other ideas. Not only did they turn out in unprecedented numbers for the 2018 midterm elections; they have also emerged at the forefront of what is arguably the largest grassroots movement for change since the 1960’s. With gun control, climate change, social justice, and many other issues on their minds, America’s youth are reinvigorating our democracy and inspiring us all to take action ourselves. And we all have a moral obligation to help them as the movement they’ve built continues.

Our first guest on this program is Felix Brody. Felix is a junior in high school, and the lead field organizer and strategist for the March For Our Lives Boston chapter. He also was a co-founder of 50 Miles More Massachusetts, which helped organize a 50-mile march from Worcester to the headquarters of firearms manufacturer Smith and Wesson. Felix has also played a pivotal role in the fight to lower the voting age in Massachusetts from 18 to 16. We discussed these issues and several others with Felix

1. In recent weeks, you and several other Massachusetts youth activists were at the state capitol to lobby Massachusetts legislators to pass the Empower Act, which intends to allow 16 year olds to vote in local and municipal elections. While this is a great step forward, many in America (myself included) are eager to see 16 year olds be allowed to vote in ALL elections. Is this the eventual goal of the Vote16 movement and if so, what’s the plan going forward to achieve it? Will you be lobbying U.S. House Democrats to put similar language about 16 year old voting rights into what’s currently known as HR1 when the Democrats have unified control over Washington?

2. Why should 16 year olds be allowed to vote in any election?

3. As I mentioned in the intro, you, as the lead field organizer for March For Our Lives Boston helped organize a 50-mile march from Worcester to the headquarters of Smith and Wesson, the infamous gun manufacturer. I seriously have never heard of such powerful demonstrations being lead by young people since the lunch counter sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement. Describe what that experience was like, how many days it took, and whether you achieved any successes in convincing Smith and Wesson to be a voice of reason in the fight for gun control

4. This week, thanks large part to people like you, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, now under Democratic control, will be holding the first hearing on the gun violence epidemic in eight years. Front and center in that hearing will likely be HR8, the Universal Background Checks legislation that you and everybody else at March For Our Lives is fighting so hard to pass. Do you think there is anything currently not in the bill that should be in the bill? What material that isn’t in this bill should be the main part of another piece of gun control legislation?

5. In my home state of Illinois right now, is debating legislation known as the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act (HB0888). This bill is designed to require police to “conduct a search of the purchasers’ social media accounts available to the public to determine if there is any information that would disqualify the person from obtaining or require revocation of a currently valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card." The bill would also require anyone applying for a FOID to turn over a list of every social media account to their local police. When I first read this, I thought about Robert Bowers, the Tree of Life Synagogue killer. If Pennsylvania had such a law on the books, Bowers wouldn’t have been allowed to get a gun. He posted anti-Semitic fil