In the wake of the Parkland shooting, there seem to be two paths for a survivor. One is to let yourself become a pawn for liberal activists and repeat their talking points like an automaton (see Stoneman Students Complain All Over the Internet About Betsy DeVos Visit and Activist David Hogg Praises Fellow Teen’s Extreme Gun Control Proposals). This leads to loads of praise from trend-following celebs. At least until they find another shiny new cause-of-the-day to tout.

The other path is for a survivor to not act like a smug jerkface and actually talk to the people who have the power to make the changes you desire. Instead of soiling your Huggies and squealing "everyone who disagrees with me is a child murderer." Survivor Kyle Kashuv is choosing the non-dirty-diaper path. Which, if you've been watching the news lately, seems to be the road less traveled.

Kyle has been in Washington DC for the past few days meeting with various lawmakers to voice his concerns about gun control laws. When meeting with the First Lady, Kyle showed her the ReachOut app, which he has been promoting in the wake of the deadly shooting at his school.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting Kyle had said that he supported Trump in the last election and considers himself a Republican. But he said the shooting made him reconsider his position on guns, saying there needs to be stronger background checks to make sure mentally unstable people like Nikolas Cruz can't purchase weapons.

'Previously I believed that everyone under the Constitution should be allowed to have guns, but I now realize that not everyone should have guns and we should have way stricter background checks and mental evaluations,' he said.

'We need to reach a middle ground and have some reform.'

Yes, I know "reconsider his position on guns" has everyone's "Shooty Sense" tingling. I'm sure most of us would probably disagree with some of his ideas, but Kyle's not calling us murderers. He's not telling us we have blood on our hands. When he looks at us, he doesn't see us killing his classmates. These are big differences.

Kyle's ideas might not necessarily be the right ones, but at least he's being civil and open to debate. As opposed to his chinless and shaven-headed peers. The ones who would rather lob every ad hominem attack they can toward their ideological opponents instead of besting them with better ideas.

If Kyle's über-lefty compatriots would follow his lead, we might be able to have a decent debate on the matter. Though, I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you.

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