Their voices are seemingly omnipresent in the wake of the mass shooting at their high school, but one is not. Why not? He is just as devastated, just as angry, and just as sincere in his beliefs, but you haven't heard of him.
You've probably heard of David Hogg. He's the student who said President Trump "sickened" him for tweeting about Democrat inaction on gun control.
You've probably heard of Emma Gonzalez. She's the student who "called B.S." on "politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA."
You've probably heard of Cameron Kasky, the student who said "any politician...who takes money from the NRA is responsible for events like [the shooting]."
How could you not have heard of them? They were on every major Sunday news show this weekend. They have been on CNN more often than Wolf Blitzer in the past few days. They are the voices you're told that you need to hear, need to respect, and need to follow.
So why haven't you heard of Will Pringle? Why aren't you told that his voice is one that can bring change, one that is worth listening to? Why haven't you heard his voice at all?
If you were listening closely, you might have heard him on FOX News; but what he said there is likely the reason you haven't heard from him on any other network.
"We were talking in another segment about guns possibly being allowed on campus," said FOX and Friends host Pete Hegseth as he prepared to ask Pringle and football teammate Lucas Taylor about their beloved assistant coach, Aaron Feis, who died protecting students from the gunman. "We understand Coach Feis is a gun owner. Do you believe if Coach Feis had been allowed to have his weapon on campus, it might have changed things?"
"100%," Pringle answered. "I think someone with the bravery and the heart of Coach Feis, he would have gone to the scene immediately and if he had the ability to stop the shooter, if he he had the ability to protect himself and others, he could have saved himself and he could have saved who knows how many other people. It could have been a completely different outcome if he was allowed to carry a weapon on campus."
This, of course, does not comport with the prevailing media narrative, and thus Will Pringle is not a household name like some of his classmates.
Neither is Brandon Minoff, another Stoneman Douglas student who appeared to reject a push for gun control while talking with Brian Williams on MSNBC the night of the shooting.
"If you were a lawmaker, an adult in a decision-making position," Williams asked, "how would you stop, do you think, the thing that happened today; a kid who had been thrown out comes back with a weapon and takes out whatever grievance he's been walking around with in his head?"
"Gun-wise, I don't think there's any way to prevent it," Minoff answered. "You outlaw guns and it just creates higher demand for it. I think it has to do with mental health, though. If he's been expelled three different times from three different schools, I think he should be helped out."
Not coincidentally, Minoff's voice hasn't been heard since.
We're told that in the wake of a tragedy like the one Stoneman Douglas students experienced that we need to have a national conversation about violence in schools, but how valuable is that conversation if some voices are elevated and others are effectively silenced?
And how meaningful can that conversation be if only the angriest, most hysterical voices (i.e. the ones blaming Congressmen and Senators for mass murder) can be heard?
Voices like David Hogg's, Emma Gonzalez's, and Cameron Kasky's are amplified because of their status as victims; affording them a sort of moral high ground from which to shout their calls for action. So why aren't Will Pringle's and Brandon Minoff's? They've experienced the same loss and are similarly calling for change.
Why shouldn't they be heard? Why aren't they being heard?
Sadly, it seems as though the answer is as obvious as it is simple: Because in an increasingly hysterical gun control debate, they're not saying the right things.