-Welcome to "The Tonight Show."
And thank you for all you've done
for the past several months.
I appreciate it.
I know a lot of people in this country appreciate it.
What is the -- what is the --
-So, this tag represents the amount of money
that Marco Rubio, our senator in Florida,
has taken from the NRA,
divided by every student in the state, which is $1.05.
What the NRA does is a lot of the time
they'll block common-sense gun laws,
like universal background checks
that 97% of the country supports.
But they'll actively lobby
to make sure that they don't happen.
-Gosh, you guys.
I got to -- You got to walk me through
how we ended up getting here.
I hate to talk about it, but February 14th --
Lauren, what do you remember about that day?
-So, I think any story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
So the beginning of that day, if I'm completely honest with you,
one of the best days of high school I've ever experienced.
I honestly have never felt that much love.
And it sounds so superficial, but everybody was just so happy.
Everybody's telling their friends they love each other.
They were just hugging, and I remember being like,
"I swear if I see another person get asked out,
I'm going to punch someone in the face."
But we practice nonviolence here.
So, yeah, I was in --
It was fourth period, 'cause we have block scheduling.
End of the day. We were about to pack up.
And I was in TV production class, just finishing notes on,
like, rule of thirds and stuff.
And we hear the fire alarm go off.
And we're all kind of confused
because we had one earlier that day.
And so we're like, "That's peculiar."
And we thought it was -- -You had a fire drill?
-Yeah, we had a fire drill earlier that day,
just a couple periods before.
So we all thought it was just like a Valentine's Day prank.
So we're all, like, laughing and stuff.
And so we packed up.
We took our time.
And then eventually
we walked down to our designated fire-drill zone.
And the first thing I really noticed was that
I looked across the bus loop and I saw kids running.
I saw kids I knew running and screaming.
And just the look in these people's eyes, my friends' eyes,
I've never seen anything like it.
It's like what they show in movies.
But no actor could ever portray that sort of trauma and terror.
And so we ran back to class.
And we ran into the tiniest room in the back of my class.
And we hid in basically
the corner of a closet in our classroom.
And we hid there for multiple hours.
But the worst part was getting texts
because the freshman building where it occurred
was across campus and we had friends in that building.
We started getting texts in a group chat that was like,
"What's that noise? I hear something happening.
Is that gunshots?"
And then it would be, "There's somebody shooting into my room.
I love you guys. Tell my parents I love them."
-Whew. Oh, my gosh.
And where was your brother? Where were you?
-It started out in my AP environmental science class.
Our door was open and we heard the first gunshot.
And I look over at my friend.
I'm like, "That sounded kind of like a gunshot."
And he looks at me.
He's like, "Yeah, it kind of did."
And so we tell our teacher.
And she goes and, you know,
closes the door, just thinking it's nothing.
And the second the door closes,
the fire alarm goes off for the second time that day.
I didn't really think anything of it at the time.
So we just got up and started leaving.
And as I started walking out, there was a bunch of people
just running in the opposite direction
as I was going to evacuate to our zone, I guess you could say.
And they were shouting like, "Don't come this way.
Don't come this way. He's over here."
And I start running with them in the opposite direction
of where I was going.
So now, I am headed towards the freshman building,
where the shooting was occurring,
not knowing where it was going on at the time.
And as I'm running down there, the janitor,
who I still haven't found,
that stopped me and like 60 other kids
and said, "Don't come this way. He's over here."
And as soon as he said that, my former culinary teacher
who I had freshman year, Ashley Kurth,
opened up her classroom door and got about 60 kids
in her classroom in a matter of about 30 seconds.
And that's where I started -- we just got in there.
And everybody's breathing heavily.
And I had a cold rush of fear race down my spine, thinking,
"Oh, my God. This isn't a drill."
And the only thing I could think to do was to calm myself down
for everybody around me
'cause my dad being a retired FBI agent, he always says,
"Whenever you're in these situations,
know where the exits are and just try to remain
calm as possible and focus on your breath."
So that's what I did.
And I started recording people, thinking, "Maybe if I die here,
hopefully if our souls are left behind on this classroom floor,
like so many others have before us,
hopefully our voices can carry on and echo through
the halls of Congress to create positive and effective change
for this country because God knows we need it."
-Wow. -But --
[ Applause ] -Holy moly.
I can't even, obviously, imagine.
So, you're videotaping.
And then eventually --
-Once I got home, the first thing I did,
working for my local newspaper,
I submitted all my footage to my editor to get it out there
as soon as possible to create change
'cause I didn't want this just to be, I hate saying this,
another mass shooting.
Because we see this again and again where people see --
we see people that are in these situations not as people
but as characters and numbers.
These are people.
Like, I want everybody that's watching to close their eyes
for a second and imagine the person that you love most.
Imagine the person that you hold closest to you
that is your shoulder to cry on,
the person that you laugh the most with and cry with.
And imagine that person is murdered.
And you go to politicians and you ask for moderate changes.
And they won't even meet with you.
Or if you do ask them for changes,
they say, "Yeah, we'll do that." And then nothing happens.
And you have to continue to see more and more people
just like your best friend, your sister or your brother
get killed again and again.
Meanwhile, America sits back and does nothing.
And that's why we wrote this book, to create that change.
We aren't doing this for money.
All of the money from the book is going to two places --
charity and taxes.
We're giving to Change the Ref, which is a foundation
started by Manuel Oliver, Joaquin Oliver's dad.
We're giving to Chicago Strong,
which is a coalition of gun violence prevention groups
in the city of Chicago that's student-led and student-run.
And we're giving to March for Our Lives
and different organizations that have to create this change.
[ Applause ]
-And that's just the thing.
The other day to start --
to kick off our Road to Change tour, we were in Chicago.
And I started -- I've started taking notes of things
that people say to me, little snippets of things
that really hit me.
And one of the things,
I was talking with a teacher
who teaches on the South Side of Chicago.
And I was having one of the most amazing conversations
I've ever had.
And one thing that he said that really struck a chord in me was
he said, "Growing up, people always, I'm sure, have told you,
have told me, it takes a village to raise a child.
But I've seen in the last couple months that's completely wrong.
It takes a child to raise a village."
-Wow.
[ Applause ] Very interesting.
I'm so impressed with you guys and what you're doing.
What can people do? They go, "What can we do?"
What can anyone that's watching, what can they do?
What should they do?
-So, I'm going to say three things.
First off, make sure you vote.
We have to get morally just leaders elected
that aren't Democrats or Republicans.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Everyone vote. -We need everybody to vote
so we don't just elect Democrats or Republicans.
Don't just vote for people because they have a D or a R
next to their name.
Make them have an A next to their name for American,
for a human being,
and not a politician that will take these things seriously
and realize the gravity of policies
that they're implementing.
And if you aren't happy with the way
people are running this country
or any of the candidates you have to choose from,
go out and run
because you're going to be that change that we need.
-Wow. [ Applause ]
-The other thing -- the other two things is one,
you guys can join our Road to Change
by texting "change" to 97779.
And the Road to Change is a bus tour that we're doing
across the country right now to just speak to people,
even the people that disagree with us,
and say, "Hey, we just want to save lives.
And we want to listen and work with everybody."
And the third thing I'm going to say
is go to communities that are affected by this.
And don't talk to them. Listen to them.
And ask them how you can help them.
If you live in Chicago, go to St. Sabina's church.
Every Friday night during the summer
over the past couple of years,
they've had a peace march at night
because that's statistically when
they have the most shootings --
at night, on Fridays during the summer in Chicago.
At St. Sabina's church, they go out and do a peace march.
And it's an amazing experience.
It's on the South Side.
But what I've realized is in these communities,
even though they have to deal with so many things,
kind of like what our community dealt with,
but for them it's a daily basis,
they are places of such strength and beauty and love.
I never even thought that there could be that much of it
in this completely, just, sadly broken world.
But through them, I know we can fix it.
And I know we will because I believe in each one of you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I'm so impressed with you.
And thank you so much for coming on the show.
The book is "Never Again."
And if you guys want to get involved,
text the word "change" to 97779.
David and Lauren Hogg, everybody.