For Southwest Florida, beaches are big business. Snowbirds and spring-breakers are constantly making their way down to the panhandle from all over the world; all of them taking advantage of the white sands and blue waters Florida beaches have to offer.
One might wonder what would happen if all these seasonal visitors suddenly stopped coming. That is what Parkland senior David Hogg hopes happens. The teen recently put out a tweet urging spring-breakers to avoid Florida's beaches until legislators pass stricter gun control laws.
Let's make a deal DO NOT come to Florida for spring break unless gun legislation is passed. These politions won't listen to us so maybe the'll listen to the billion dollar tourism industry in FL. #neveragain
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) February 24, 2018
Four in Your Corner, asked local beach-goers if they felt this was an effective way to get lawmaker's attention. One person who agrees with the teen was Ron Tollefson. Tollefson is a seasonal visitor. He also used to be a teacher. His greatest fear before retiring from the profession was that something like Parkland would happen at his own school.
He believes that this call to action is exactly the push lawmaker's need to make changes to Florida's gun control laws.
"Very good idea, you gotta hit people where it hurts", he told Fox 4.
While other beach-goers admire the zeal of the teenagers who survived the shooting, they do not necessarily believe that asking spring-breakers to boycott Florida's beaches is the most practical way to go about enacting change.
Mike Schmidt, is one of those people. He is a recent college graduate from Michigan. To him, the relaxed atmosphere on Florida's beaches is much too appealing for every young person to turn away from it over such a controversial issue.
"Spring-breakers aren't gonna' stop coming because people are boycotting. They're more focused on going out and to be honest, partying."
