what do we want? >> change. tonight on kqed news room, students have taken up the call for gun control. saying adults haven't done enough. meanwhile, gun control advocates are singling out politicians for their ties to the nra. san francisco mayorn what he wants to accomplish before voters pick a new mayor in june. plus, the challenges facing the california democratic party as they conven this weekend. hello and welcome to kqed news room. i'm filling in this week. we begin with student activism. the mass shooting at marjorie stoneman douglas high school in florida revised a heated debate ove only this time, young people are leading the charge. their message to adults?

you haven't done enough totop gun violence. high school students across the country are staging demonstrations, rallies, and walk outs calling for lawmakers to take stronger action or face consequences at theth polls fall. joining me now to talk about what bay area youth are doingt ar high school students. lily conovall and maxwell stern. thank you for being there. nk you for having us. >> lily, i want to start with you. what was your reacon when you heard about parkland? >> i was devastated to see that we're stillg deal with mass shootings in this country. it made me scared for my own safety as ast high school ent, and, really, just absolutely devastated, as i said. >> maxwell, do you feel the same way? i mean, do you feel safe in you school? >> i feel safe in my school, but i think perhaps it is a false sense of safety because a shooting like that can happen anywhere.en and we've st happen anywhere. so i do feel safe in my school now, but the problem is i don't know if i'll feel safe tomorrow

or the d after that unless anything changes. >> do you have to train at school for tyeses of incidents? is this something you've, you pe know, enced when you're going to school? >> yeah. we'vewn had lock drills before. we haven't had the shooting drill yet buks there are t of it next month. we've had a lot of lockdown drills. teachers lock your doors and students under the dress. ns we'll omething hap knock on the door. >> one thing that the.brought up is the idea g arm teachers. i'm curious, lily, would you feel comfortable? >> absolutely not. school is about and any weapons there could be a hazard to the students. and i also feel like it's just putting a band aid on the larger issue we have. an issue with gun violence in general. armening more people doesn't seem like a good way to help aid >> ell, i mean, what do you maat. think you and your peers are talking aut when we talk about change? what do you want to go out and

sort of push politiians to do? >> well, i thinkd i bl ha to sa issue. because it is affecti all of us. i mean, we're the after columbine generation. it has normalized. >> it has. maxwell talked about stronger background checks and other sorts of legislative fixes. we have strong gun laws in california how do yo want to focus your energy moving forward? i know you're 16. v you cante yet. you can get out there and talk about this. >> to me,l it's about r unifying as students and being ble to really come together for

what we want collectively. i think that's going to take a lot of discussion. it's going to take a lot of work. because there are bigger picture things we canutsk for there's little things that can make the world of a difference. >> so i kyow thatknow, we've seen some push back from the nra and other folks. do you guys feel like adults are listening well enough? and or is it patron nicing when they say you're young and d wn' knt you're talking about. >> it's frustrating to hear that. i don't think they recognize that, i mean, i'm going to be able to vote in a couple ofas yearwill my peers and a lot of their constituent finance they don't represent values and belief, then we'll see change in the voting polls. i think that'something that the adults in, you know, congress need to and i think, you know, that's really important that they understand tha >> yea so one thing, you know, we knt is t the nra does have a lot of power. as we said,ou will be voting in a couple of years. but are your peers feeling --

when you're having conversations, lily, will your peers. dohink they're feeling more motivated in the last few weeks than before? >> iabsolutely. hink there's something different about this time. i think it has a lot to do with the leadership from thstudents from parkland who have taken the stand and have been bol i think we're seeing there's blood on the hands of the politicians who are out there and have taken money from the nra and are continuing to protect the right to bear arms that are assault style rifles. think that's just n okay. >> i mean, it seems like this might be a tipping point, but we've had las vegas happenjust five months ago. you know, you talked about columbine. we saw sandy hook. do think it's because, maxwell, it happened at a high schoold you know, these students do have more of a voice. theyeth understand how to work social media and other platforms. >> i think so. i think it also has to do with the fact we lived s throughndy hook, columbine.

all of us livedrerough the pulse nightclub shooting and other shootings. for it to happen, it's sfr frustrating and we're tired of the policians sending thoughts and prayers. it's time for them to do something about it. it's become a poinere does the safety of our children become more freedimportant than freedom to own a gun. >> i would echo maxwell's point saying we're high schoolers. we're made for we see throughout history how youth and especially high school made llege students have such huge impacts in our country. and i think we're seeing that here. d i would also saythat, yeah, we've grown up with these mass shootings. this affected our lives. we've never lived in a world where it's not been a part of our daily lives and our fears. and i thin that's really important to know when we're talking about high schoolers versus elementary schoolers or versus adults. because high schoolers have been so directly affected at this point. >> what is next? what do are you doing this weekend and the coming months

before you can actually get toe polls to make change? >> well, we're definitely organizing walk outs and protests and make sure that the lliticians in office know that youth arestening and youth care about the issues. i think that, also, educating ur peers about gun control and gun violence in our country can really make a bigi impact. ow i'm helping to organize a walk out at my school. there's a march for lives in oakland andan francisco and across the bay area in a couple of weeks. and putting the word out there that carnage has to stop and the vicious cycle of service needs to end now. >> lily, i know you're helping organize some of the protests, too. why a walk out? what message does that send? a >> i think walk out sends a strong message to our politicians and, also, to our community is that it needs to end n we'll keep walking out until we see some gun control happen. >>great. thank you both for coming in. >> thank you. >> thank you. the parkland, florida shooting is spurring new efforts from gun control advocates.

one strategy to single out individual politicians likete ts evision ad criticizing florida governor rick scott for his record on guns. governor scott has an a-plus rating from the nra's political victory fund and considering a run for the.s. senate. the ad was supported by giffords run by gab by giffords. joining me now is giffords' executive director. we heard rick sco would support raising the age to 21 for me of the gun purchases. i'm curious reaction and these minute shifts could hurt the efforts to attack those typ of republican politicians that have historically have been supportive of thens >> that's a response primarily to the grassroots energy that is coming from the students in

parklano and all a the country. you see it here in california and across the bay area. >> and so do you think, i mean, this is a good thing for folks who want more on the sid of g safety? could it potentially make it a little more muddled when we're going into the 2018 midterm elections? it's a great thing. i mean, have to be careful to not be too you have to be loo at the sort whole truths around politiciano likernor rick scott. like you said, he's been an a-plus rated governor o state f the florida by the nra. florida itself has been a laboratory for the most dangerous that the nra and the rest of the gun lobbying can possibly dream up. rick scott had an opportunity to protect kids'in communitie florida. not only did he do nothing, he used his opportunity, his tenure as governor in florida, one of the largest, most important states in the country, to turn t his state int nra's own

private laboratory for policy. >> so what is the strategy here it? is it astate-by-state approach. do you think there's hope to changean hearts minds in congress? >> it's both. i want to go back to 1994. when win, you know, years into bill clinton's term he lost his majority in the house and thenra was credited for driving a lot of those defeats and brief republican gains. >> right. >> that defeat really hindered the strengthn of the violence prevention movement for decades and generations to come. t scared the bejesus out of politicians from coast to coast. >> rights, democrats, too. >> right. demoreats andblicans. and lead to this, you know, collective giving up that occurred that persisted all the way into til012 in the sandy hook shooting. it's been five years since then we've been building a grassroot

army infrastructure to fight back against the nra and elect, you know, committed politicians across the country. though, kids are doin it's important. >> does it feel different? >> it feels different. it's for a lot ofs. re it's, one, it's kids. like we were discussing wi, i'm dad. i've been a dad for 15 months. i've been working on gun violence prevention for five years. it feels as a father.e today most americans are parents or kids and i think that's driving the light of chang second, there's a additive effect. it's, you know, the third of the top ten worst mass shootings in this country taking place within a period of five months. and yet you s this collective inaction from politicians owned by the nra,e nra spent $50 million to elect these people in 2016. and, you know, this inaction and collective paralys they're getting what they paid for. >> part of the nra's power comes from how big of a group they are. i want to know what you're doing to get gun ownerson board with

some of these safety measures. i think it has to be part of the conversation for your side. >> you look at gabby giffords and mark kelly. gabby is is former republican gun owner herself. captain mark kel to being an astronaut he's a combat veteran. >> >>right. ou know he was, you know, i think 42 combat missions in the desert storm. ey are both gun owners. they live in a state like arizona. they're gun owners. and they can speak. >> they're still gun owners. >> they are. absolutely. and, you know, are able to, you know, speak to the rest of the country and explain why we need to change things so kids don't keep on dying. so c ourmmunities don't experience this awful toll of gun violence day after day. it's not just mass shootings that hurt this country that leave families and communies devastated. >> right. >> they can show their own personal experience that you can protect kids, protect communities, pass laws that keep s,ns out of the wrong ha

keep weapons of war off the a streets whio protecting our basic rights as guaranteed by the second amendment. >> quickly, we only f have a seconds left. what are the specifics? what do you want to see done besides, obviously, changing the make up of congress? >> we're going district by district. re going to elect the congress that can actually go in there and do somethin >> are we talking about assault rifles ban? >> all of the above. we need to get weapons of war off our streets. make sure that every single purchase of th gun is scrutinized by, you know, comprehensive and strong bakground check. need to get the cdc and other publu health instons in this country off the sidelines. they've been prohibited from doing basic resear into the problem of and solutions to gun violence prevention. that ought to change. we can save lives from car accidents. any number of things. we need the same collective national effort that starts here in 2018 and is driven by the

sort of moral certainty of these kids. >> right. >> and, you know, that's what we need right now. >> thank you for coming in. >> my pleasure. nco to san franc politics. last month the san francisco board of supervisors appointed mark ferrell asmayor. ousting board of supervisor president who served as acting mayor following the sudden death of the mayor in december. in june, san francisco voters will elect a new mayor. until then farrell will face a number of challenges including rising homelessness. joining me now is san fncisco mayor marc ferrell. thank you for coming in. >> thank you for having me. >> you were o the board several years prior to this. what is it like going from supervisor to mayor that suddenly? and what do you think you canh accompl the mayor's office that you couldn't do as supervisor? >> look,eing theayor of san francisco, obviously, is a wholly different proposition than being a member of the board of supervisors. but a few things. i'm lucky to be born andaised

san francisco. and serving as a member of the board of supervisor for sevenea , on top of that, gave a great background to assuming this job. and really running our government for the next half year. as you think about the challenges that we face as a city, it's noet se it's public safety, homelessness, and in addition to that, in the mayor's office i'll be putting together our city's budget for the upcoming two years. and i serve as budget chair for four years on the board ofvi suprs. again, i have that background, you know, hopefully allow me to do a good job over the next half year. >> i know that your appointment came of something as a surprise to a lot of people. and you wer backed baoup on the board that a lot of ways you sparred with in the past years. more liberal wing of an already liberal board of democrats. why doou you think political foes wanted you in room 200? >> it's not about one person in the job. it was the fact that at tinis pointime, we had one person oerving as the mayor as, a

district superv someone running mayoral campaign. i think from many people's perspective that was too much to be vested into one person. we wanted somebody over the next jolf year that was able to be dedicated to the of being mayor for the residents of san francisco. that's why i allowed myself have my name put in the ring. that's where we are today. >> i understand you have some news you would like to make here about something you're going to be bringing back from willie ys brown's as mayor, i think. w i understand that, as well. starting next weere going to be doing office hours at city hall. s e're meeting with reside san francisco. anybody can sign up online. >> that's greating. >> meeting in ten minute slots. we'll do it once a month on friday mornings. to ma sure we hearfrom people and i hear from residents. they can talk about any topic they want. the sky is the limit. i mean, it's really important to have anssessable, transparent office of the mayor. and hopefully this will be something where wean real invite new ideas, hear new

issues, and most importantly continue to hear from people on the ground every iy. >> igine one thing you'll hear a lot about is homelessness and housingrisis and the state of our streets. it seems like no matter how many things the coes to try to tackle that, they're just not working or not working well enough. i mean, what needs to be done differently? >> what i would suggest i d wha we'ng is actually working on the streets. we need to simply do more of it. first of all, as you think abou it, we need op more people from becoming homeless on our streets. we need to stop the . tri >> there's like 41% became homeless in the last few years, i think. >>u exactly. hink about the numbers. we had about 7,000 people that were homeless in san francisco a little over ten years ago. today we have about the same number. >> yeah. >> during the same period of time, we housed or placed people back with their fam2ies 000 people. >> wow. >> so more and more people are cycling into homelessness every year in the cy of san francisco. first step to tackling the issue is stopping the tide as much as we can. we invest in different programs.

idizes to staysu in their homes. anybody will understand, as soon as you become homeless, and are out of your house, it's a different set of issues for that individual or family. d we're doubling our efforts around homeward bound, which is the program if weedind a l one on the other end of the line, we'll give someone transportation money and meal money to go home.on if they per promises to house the individual. incredibly successful program. ov 70%of the people a year later continue to be housed. it's working. we h bve a smalldget on it. i'm going to be doubling that budget this year. we need to stop that inflow in the city of san francisco. and then tho that remain on the streets, we need to do everything we can to get them off the streets into shiltelterd housing into better lives. we have five navigation centers in the city of san francisco. two more are coming online. we have t po moretentially in the hopper. so we're doing more and more for the people that are on our we need to get them off the streets for themselves, first residents t, and the of san francisco. >> one of the big issues that is

coming up in the coming months of the policecer's union contract. they've supported you, they are very controversial group in san why should the public trust that somebody who was not elected is the right person to oversee this long-term contract? >> look, these ntract negotiations come up i would be shirking the responsibility of ot to fice of the mayor enter them. and, by the way, if they're not solved bay certain date, we bienter into aation and they will be awarded regardless. but the good news is, i have professionals that are taking their jobs seriously and i work on itvery day and i trust them. i'm not afraid to stand behind the men and women of our police department and the first responders departments. they're protecting us every day and i'll support them. >> after presint trump was elected, the board created a committee to specifically deal with federal budgetts gedon't think they've met yet.

your in chf crafting the budget. what impact will the fed have? >> at the end of the day, san francisco, in ter of our posture as it relates to washington, d.c., now is a uniq period of time. almost everything coming out of washington, d.c., is against the ethos of who we are as a city. we'll stay as a sanctuary city. we'll combat what president trump is doing. we will not back down. we'll continue to fill those ts. so, obviously, it's a little bit of wait and see now what happens over the next few month financee seems like day, if not every week, there's a different drama coming outwef washington. e going to react but react appropriately and stick to our values of san francisco. >> mayor, thank you for coming in. >> thank you for having me. this weekend, democrats convene one last time before the june primary. candidates are stumping in hopes of landin the state partys.

endorseme but there are also some clouds hanging over the party. just this week,c democraate senator tony mendoza resigned over sexual harassment allegations. joining me now is the politics team. scott schafer and sacramento reporter katie orr. they join me from the convention in san diego via skype. welcome to both of you. >> thank you. >> katie, i want start with you. you were in sacramento just thursday when mendoza resigned. we thought before that he might get kicked out of the senate. tell me a little bit about what happened and how democrats there reacted. >> yeah, senator mendoza had a sexual harassment investigati into him a it was completed and it was found more likely than not he hurt several women over a period of about ten years. senators were looking to expel orsuend him.

on thursday they couldn't decide which they wanted to do. in t end, they were spared from having to make that choice because mendoza, perhaps sensing the decision wasn't going to go his way decided he l wouldave on his own terms. and ultimately resign. >> that m st be a relief for some of them. also, there are other investigations ongoing including ainst a female lawmakers. how much do you expect it will be part of the conversation this weekend? >> well, i think it's an issue they're not going to be to avoid. we know there's a safe space set up hre in theonvention. there's a hotline people can call if they feel like they have been hassed. so in that regard, they're trying to take it seriously. i think it'shomething we'll hear candidates speak about when they address delegates this because the me too movement been so momentum and important to people. . don't think they can really ignore >> and, scott, i know you've

been talking to a t of folks about some of the skizisms we saw in the national party during th 2016 election between the left wing of the party t a more moderate. how will it play out this weekend? especially diane fieinstein beig cheelenged this nd? >> we were at the last democratic convention in sacramento whentthey el a new chair by 60 votes out of many, many hundreds a several thousand votes. and it left very hard feelings. an so the new chair, eric bowman, is trying to reach out to those who didn't support him last time around. ias you they're some of the most active members of the democrat party are not necessarily moderate. they are, in fact, the progressive wing. the nurses some of the teachers groups. and they're the ones who are giving kevin day leon, for example, a hard look over feinstein. they like his politics. what is complicated abouthim,

senator mendoza were roommates until a few months ago. so thatolicates his case to women, in particular. >> we heard you, scott, talk about kevin and diane feinstein. we'll be watching that. any other big ent,rsements t you know, you think could come down this weekend? >> well, it's tough. because, you know, a candidate needs to get 60% of the vote of the delegates. and in a governor's r example, you have four democrats to are wl known. getting to 60%,t would be a big deal. but i really don't expect that is going to it matters most these endorsents down where peopl aren't paying as much attention. they don't know the candidates as well as they do in the governor's race. >> katie,f speaking district races, one thing democrats are hoping for nationally is to pick up someal congressi seats.

we've seen at least seven stricts that are held b republicans in california being targeted. how much energbehind that this weekend? >> i think that is a lot of ergy. people feel like they have a shot at me of the seats they might not have in the past. i think we're going to see a lot of momentumt. around t after seeing already signs andt chers for some of these candidates. candidates, for instance, challenging tom mcclintock near sacramento. that's a big part this weekend. because they're excited, for instance, they might be able to take over darryl issa's seat or something like that. >> scott, i mean, in that race, for exame, you have several strong democratic candidates vying and others there's, you know, more than several. is that a concern for party leaders? how do they navigate that? i don't think the party chair wants to be seen as pushing progressive democrats out of any races. >> it i a real problem.

because, you know, in the top two primary system we haven california. the top two finishers in primary go on to november. andt so say orange county around fullerton, you have five or six mocrats running. and they're well funded. and so the question becomes are they going to slip the vote so much that two republicans sneak in, which is, you know, finals in november. i think what yout mi see is if any of the candidates get an endorsement, that the others are going to be encouraged, shall we say, to maybe run for another office at some other time to ke one for the well being of the party. because they really need to pick up one or two seats in california. they're going to take back the hou. >> great. well, that is senior politics editor scott schafer. kqed katie orr. yhank you so much. >> thank . >> thank you. you can find more of our coverage at kqed.org/newsroom.

thank you for joining us.

robert: where does the gun debate go from here? president trump is open tout changeshe n.r.a. balks at restrictions and lashes out at the media and democrats. i'm robert costa. the president's next steps en masse shootings and new developments in the russia probe. tonight on "washington week." >> there are no words. these families lost their children. we lost coaches. robert: president trump says schools should do more to protect students and throws his support behind the n.r.a.'s long-standing proposal to arm teachers. presidentrump: it's time to make our schools m ah harder targetor attackers. robert: the n.r.a. asues so --