Bria Smith, a teenager from Milwaukee concerned about kids of color who are being shot “every day,” as she puts it, is also featured. Among the most powerful scenes are ones in which the young activists engage, face to face, with gun rights protesters who show up at March for Our Lives events. Hogg is nothing like he’s “depicted on television,” one of the protesters tells him, almost admiringly. But change is incremental in this film (except as manifested in the burnout experienced by some of its subjects). “Us Kids” makes clear that gun reform, like growing up, will take time, patience and one other thing that may be the hardest of all to make happen: participation in democracy by more young people.

Source: Washington Post May 13, 2021 14:03 UTC