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Before He Got Swatted, David Hogg Was Shocked His Address Was Publicly Available

Parkland school shooting survivor wasn't home at the time, but found his own address online months before the incident.
Screenshot via Local 10 News live feed

The Florida home of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student David Hogg was “swatted” on Tuesday morning, according to local news outlets.

A call came in to the Broward Sheriff's Office Tuesday, claiming a hostage situation at the home. But when fire and rescue arrived at the home, they found nothing. Hogg and his family weren’t home at the time of the raid. They were in Washington, D.C., to accept the RFK Human Rights award.

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Hogg and his teenage peers have become strident activists for the gun control movement, following the Parkland school shooting which left 17 of their classmates dead. Hogg specifically has been labeled by alt-right and conspiracy theorists as a crisis actor and Hitler reincarnate.

Swatting is a dangerous prank where a harasser calls a fake emergency—a bomb threat or hostage situation, for example—to authorities, who then raid the targets’ home. Swatting is harrowing for the victim and can turn deadly.

As part of an exclusive interview with VICE in March, Hogg searched for his own full name on VoterRecords.com, and found his home address publicly accessible online. He seemed startled by this, and repeats “What the fuck?” in reaction to how easy it is to find his name, age, address, and party affiliations online.

During that interview, Hogg addressed the danger associated with being such a public figure, and hated by so many people who believe he’s part of a conspiracy theory.

“I think the threats against us are something that any sensible person would take into concern,” he said. “During the Civil Rights movement there were many people going after them—white supremacists, conservative Americans that wanted to keep things the same way, keep things segregated, plain old American pie—but it’s not. America’s not an apple pie… Are there threats against us? Yes. Are we going to stop? No.”

Update: Hogg spoke to Politico in response to the swatting attempt. "It's an attempt to distract from what we're trying to do, which is save children's lives," he said.