Parkland survivor tells Trump 40,000 Americans dying a year from gun violence ‘a pretty damn good’ national emergency

David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland high school shooting, has told Donald Trump that the 40,000 Americans who die each year from gun violence is a “a pretty damn good” national emergency to deal with.

As the president prepares to address the nation about the partial government shutdown and what he has termed a national crisis at the US-Mexico border, the 18-year-old student said there were genuine issues Mr Trump could be tackling. Most Democrats, and others, have accused the president of not telling the truth about the situation regarding immigration and has created the so-called crisis for political reasons.

“If we really want to start talking about the national emergency like the president likes to talk about, 40,000 Americans dying annually from gun violence is a pretty damn good one to start off with,” Mr Hogg told CNN.

The teenager, who became one of several students campaigner for gun regulations and background checks after a former classmate stormed into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, killing 17 students and staff, and injuring 17 more.

He and fellow survivor Jaclyn Corin, said on Tuesday that gun control should be considered a “nonpartisan issue” among Democrats and Republicans. “Both Democrats and Republicans die from gun violence. Bullets don’t discriminate and neither should our legislators,” said Mr Hogg.

His spoke as Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, sought to introduce a bill requiring background checks on private transactions related to gun sales. The introduction of the measure, by Democratic congressman Mike Thompson and Republican Peter King, came on the eighth anniversary of 2011 Tucson mass shooting that left six dead and nearly killed former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

Ms Giffords said she intended to return to Capitol Hill this week to support the measure.

In a statement, she said: “Thanks to the relentless efforts of advocates, courageous gun violence survivors, and the American voters who elected new leaders to Congress, I am thrilled that for the first time in decades, the United States House of Representatives will no longer sit silent as our nation reels from the growing gun violence epidemic.”

Mr Trump’s speech to the nation from the Oval Office, comes as the government shutdown enters its third week.

The president has refused to compromise with Democrats over a funding measure that would reopen the government, unless is contains at least $5bn for a border wall. He has threatened to declare a national emergency to give him the executive power to build such a wall, without backing from Congress.

“We can call a national emergency because of the security of our country, absolutely,” he said last Friday.

“We can do it. I haven’t done it. I may do it. I may do it, but we can call a national emergency and build it quickly, it’s another way of doing it.”