Seo Yoon Yang, a senior at Signal Mountain High School, raises a sign during an anti-gun violence demostration. Photo contributed by Lucy Steigenga.Seo Yoon “Yoonie” Yang, 18, a senior at Signal Mountain High School, has a challenging job.
She’s an anti-gun-violence activist, which means pushing for stricter gun laws in a deep-red state where Second Amendment rights are held dear.
To friends she is Yoonie, a fun nickname for a formidable young woman who has been toughened by years of face-to-face debates with people who often don’t share her views.
Yang said she learned a long time ago that talking face to face doesn’t mean seeing eye to eye.
“People want to argue with me even before they get a chance to listen,” she said in a recent interview. “There is a misperception that gun-violence prevention and gun safety are a direct attack against gun owners and the Second Amendment.”