WASHINGTON The reaction to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, followed a familiar arc: GOP leaders offered thoughts and prayers. The media profiled fallen victims. Democrats urged action on the same gun safety bills theyve been pushing for years. Republicans said none of their ideas would work.

But then the script veered off course.

Teenage survivors, angry and emotional, got in front of cameras and demanded changes to the countrys gun laws. They denounced the National Rifle Association and lawmakers who take its money as the cause of inaction. They amassed tens of thousands of followers on social media. Instead of news coverage dropping off , it actually stayed on the teens as they pushed for reforms in a primetime televised town hall meeting and a listening session with President Donald Trump at the White House.

By the end of that meeting, Trump promised action on gun background checks and called for banning bump stocks, which are attachments that enable a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster.