Who is David Hogg? Parkland survivor thrown out of gun control meeting following outburst

American gun control activist David Hogg was escorted out of a House Judiciary Committee meeting on gun control after he interrupted an on-going session.

Hogg is a 22-year-old political activist and one of the survivors of the February 14, 2018, mass shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He became a core member of the school's student-led gun control advocacy group, Never Again MSD, following the shooting.

The shooting began when Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student of Stoneman Douglas High, entered the school grounds carrying a semi-automatic rifle before opening fire on the faculty and students. The massacre claimed the lives of 17 people and injured another 17.

In the wake of the shooting, Hogg was recognised by authorities as a key figure in pro-gun control organisations such as March for Our Lives. In 2018, Hogg was featured on the cover of TIME's April issue alongside other gun control activists such as Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky, Alex Wind, and Jaclyn Corin.

On July 20, the House Judiciary Committee held a meeting to deliberate over gun control, which included 2021's Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act and the Assault Weapons Ban Act.

In the session, Andy Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, claimed that his state's residents should be armed in order to protect themselves from the "invasion" of the "immigrants" who posed a "threat."

To this, David Hogg stood up and confronted the lawmaker mid-session, stating:

"You’re reiterating the points of mass shooters in their manifestos.”

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David Hogg was removed from the meeting because of his disruption

David Hogg did not hesitate to weigh in on Andy Biggs' arguments and confronted the GOP Biggs for his comments, which sounded similar to the rhetoric used by gunmen in mass shootings, according to Hogg. He said:

"The shooter at my high school—antisemitic, anti-Black and racist. The shooter in El Paso described it as an invasion. Guess what? Those guns are coming from the United States of America. They aren't coming from Mexico! You are reiterating the points of a mass shooter, sir."

The officials present in the meeting tried to shut down Hogg several times, but to no avail. In the video that went viral on the internet, one of the members sitting in the crowd can also be heard hailing Hogg, shouting, "Go David!"

David Hogg eventually had to be escorted out of the meeting by a security officer keeping watch over the proceedings.

Following the incident, Hogg posted the entire video for his followers on his Twitter account. He captioned the video:

"The guns in Parkland, Buffalo, El Paso, didn't come from Mexico. They came from the US, and the shooters were inspired by racist, anti-black, anti-immigrant manifestos that rhyme with GOP talking points."

The House Judiciary Committee meeting came shortly after President Joe Biden signed the landmark gun control measure.

The bill, which was introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein and Rep. David Cicilline, aims to ban assault and semi-automatic arms.

Representative David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, is the primary sponsor of the Assault Weapons Ban Act of 2021, which would prohibit the sale, import, manufacture, and transfer of certain semi-automatic weapons.