South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster calls student walkouts ‘shameful’

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster blasted Wednesday’s National School Walkout as a “shameful” ploy by left-wing groups to use unwitting children to advance their gun-control agenda.

“I understand that there’s a left-wing group that is coordinating this around the country,” Mr. McMaster, a Republican, told reporters Wednesday at the State House. “It appears that these school children — these innocent school children — are being used as a tool by these left-wing [groups] to further their own agenda.

“It is not about the tragedy, it’s not about the school children or what we should all do and what these students should do,” he continued. “I imagine a lot of them intend to do is to pray and to hope for the families of those who were slain. But this is a tricky move, I believe, by a left-wing group — from the information I’ve seen — to use these children as a tool to further their own means.”

He added, “It sounds like a protest to me, it’s not a memorial, it’s certainly not a prayer service, it’s a political statement by a left-wing group and it’s shameful.”

Thousands of students across the country walked out of classes Wednesday to protest gun violence in honor of the 17 students and teachers who were fatally shot last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The walkout was organized by Youth Empower, a division of the national Women’s March, a left-wing group that has staged two national protests against President Trump.

David Hogg, a student at Stoneman Douglas who stepped onto the national stage to advocate for stricter gun-control laws, slammed Mr. McMaster for his walkout comments.

That’s fine those future voters will not reelect you and outlive you too can’t wait to see what the history textbooks our generation writes will have to say about people like you https://t.co/96wQvE1cNA *cough cough its called the first amendment.

— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) March 14, 2018