On the one year anniversary of a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that ended 17 lives, survivor David Hogg sat down with NPR to reflect on … David Hogg.

Hogg, then 18, was perhaps the first student to capitalize on the death of his classmates to politicize the tragedy and refocus attention on building his public persona as a champion for gun control.

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Along with bestie Emma Gonzalez, Hogg gave countless interviews – often with profane outbursts – and headlined a “March for our Lives” rally in Washington, D.C. in the wake of the shooting, which has become simply a bump in his “Road to Change.”

The “Road to Change” national tour featured Hogg and other celebrity survivors campaigning for Democrats in the run-up to the 2018 election, and it’s continued with protests and a show of force in a congressional hearing this year. There’s also a book deal, and armed security, and a bright future at Harvard for David Hogg.

It all started when a student shot and killed 17 people inside Hogg’s high school on Feb. 14, 2018.

He emerged from the horrific ordeal unscathed, then immediately began working the cameras, only stopping home to see his family before returning to campus the night of the shooting for more media attention.

“My mom did not want me to go back to school after I’d been there all day to speak to journalists,” Hogg told NPR. “But I wasn’t going to let her stop me. So I literally rode along this road right here down to our school and talked to as many journalists as I could.”

Armed with his opinions about the high-profile officer involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri and gun crime, Hogg seized the opportunity to inject his anti-gun perspective into the national debate.

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His mother thought it was a bad idea, “but also I didn’t care,” Hogg said.

“I didn’t care because I knew that I wanted to use my abilities to speak to make sure that I was able to tell the story of why these things are actually happening,” he said.

It was a golden opportunity Hogg, Gonzalez and others have leveraged to promote protests, marches and boycotts, with a particular focus on demeaning gun owners and the National Rifle Association.

Just months after the shooting, Hogg landed a book deal with his sister, Lauren, who also survived as a freshman.  While promoting the work in New York, he faced criticism for traveling with armed security, The American Mirror reports.

Over the past year, Hogg’s repeatedly called for an array of gun restrictions, on the age to buy, types of weapons, as well as increased background checks involving criminal and mental evaluations. Hogg’s anti-gun rhetoric earned him repeated appearances on television and ultimately cast a big enough national spotlight that it overshadowed his so-called friends who lost their lives last February.

NPR’s David Greene pointed out that April Schentrup, whose daughter was among the dead, continues to struggle with Hogg’s youth advocacy work detracting from the memories of lives lost.

Hogg acknowledged the situation, and seemed to think it was a good thing.

“It is tough, but I – honestly, I think it’s the fact that we have to realize that gun violence affects every part of America. You know, only focusing on Parkland is not going to solve gun violence,” Hogg said. “Focusing on every zip code is what has to solve gun violence, right? And I agree to some extent that, you know, like, this has overshadowed, like, many of the people.”