Parkland Shooting Kills 17 Florida Students
- Republicans remain uninterested in gun control
What do you do when a deranged and disgruntled ex-student opens fire and kills 17 of his former classmates? That’s what the families of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students in Parkland, Florida are asking themselves today following a deadly mass shooting at the school on Wednesday afternoon.
Gun Control
In a “Here We Go Again” scenario, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz had all the warning signs of a serial killer. He frequently bragged about and showed off photos of his gun collection. He also regularly “joked” about knowing the layout of the school so well that he’d know exactly where students would hide in the event of a mass shooting. So, it’s no wonder that after being expelled from Douglas for disciplinary reasons, he returned to the school to take out some pent-up anger against his fellow teens by opening fire and killing more than a dozen of them.
Now, less than 2 years after the Orlando gay club mass shooting and 5 years following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, residents of Parkland are finding themselves grieving and in need of support. However, if anyone dares to bring up the subject of guns and how it’s time for greater gun control in America, conservatives and Republicans simply don’t want to hear it.
Various GOP members of Congress and some NRA-loving Fox News analysts are already saying that it’s too early to “get political,” or “discuss anything that could have prevented this” or “acknowledge that we have the power to change gun laws but we refuse to.” They’re already crouched in defensive mode and pointing out that it’s too soon to mention that Florida gun laws are some of the most relaxed in the country and that in Florida, almost anyone can buy a gun without a license, without a firearms registration, and, in most cases, without a background check (even to purchase a semi-automatic weapon). Oh, and the supposed “Pro-Life” party is even whispering that since it’s only been 2 years since the Pulse shooting in Orlando (the deadliest U.S. shooting in modern history) the timing to bring up any discussion of gun control is all wrong and too “insensitive.”
Yeah, right!
When people are dying, it’s NEVER too soon. However, when children are dying, the need for an immediate solution is beyond urgent.
Gun Control
For several congressional Democrats, they aren’t interested in hearing more excuses and are calling the majority party out for attempting to sugar-coat the Parkland shooting.
“Republicans should pray for forgiveness, for not only their complacency and dereliction of duty, but in contrition for the men, women, and children we continue to lay to rest because of senseless gun violence and the cowardly inaction from Congress,” Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey tweeted.
“How many more moments of silence must we hold before Republicans in Congress act?” Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia said in a statement. “We are not powerless. There are measures we can and must take to make our communities safer,”
Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts took a swipe at Donald Trump following his expression of condolences to the victims’ families.
“I agree with every word @realDonaldTrump said here,” Moulton wrote on Twitter. “I invite him to get off his ass and join me in trying to do something about it.”
Sadly, the NRA controls the GOP and the GOP controls the House of Representatives, the Senate, and The White House. So, for the grieving families of Parkland who lost their children on Wednesday to yet another senseless act of gun violence, the Republican message is clear: Now is not the time to talk about gun control.
Still, the question remains: IF NOT NOW, WHEN???
Real-time 2018 US gun violence data from the Gun Violence Archive as of Feb. 14th:
• 1,821 gun deaths
• 3,131 gun injuries
• 69 children shot or killed
• 332 teenagers shot or killed
• 181 incidents of defensive gun use
• 215 unintentional shootings
• 30 mass shootings
• 11 school shootings with injury or death
DJ, thank you for this post and for the information as documented in the *Gun Violence Archive.* And most of all hank you that very moving video. I have watched Phil Mudd on CNN many times-the man is NO shrinking violet. When I saw him break down I was right there with him. I spent most of last evening venting and weeping because I am SO sick and tired of this!!! Truly, I am sick to my stomach. And it’s painful to admit that as a nation, as a society and a people THIS is who WE are. THIS is the Savage nation WE’ve become- where Evil and Violence flourishes unabated. Where children…INNOCENT men, women AND CHILDREN are slaughtered, in schools, in movie theaters, CHURCHES. While politicians sit on their sorry azzez, and DO NOTHING..as they have been instructed to do by the NRA. Oh and DJ…that poster of Uncle… Read more »