Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Elise Viebeck. Tim Craig in Parkland and Philip Rucker and Ed O’Keefe in Washington contributed to this report.
When it was over, 17 people were dead. Within a day, as they continued to express their thoughts online and on-air to reporters, the survivors’ expressions of grief turned to calls for political action.
The kids who survived the rampage on Wednesday were demanding to know why the adults who run the country had not done more to prevent it.
The comments came in an outpouring that began Wednesday and have not stopped. On Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook, they remembered peers and teachers and struggled with the emotion of the moment.
The pleas for action from Parkland struck a sharp contrast with the almost nonexistent debate on Capitol Hill over preventing gun violence.
A push to restrict “bump stocks,” the device that was used to accelerate gunfire during the massacre at a music festival in Las Vegas in October, seemed like it might succeed last fall with backing from the National Rifle Association. But momentum slipped within a few weeks. At the same time, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans sought ways to loosen existing restrictions on guns.
Students in Parkland called leaders’ lack of action inexcusable, pointing specifically to the age of the alleged shooter, Nikolas Cruz, 19.
“How are we allowed to buy guns at the age of 18 or 19? That’s something we shouldn’t be able to do,” Lyliah Skinner, who survived the shooting, told CNN.
Guillermo Bogan, who is home-schooled but has friends at Douglas High, said the alleged shooter’s age shows the selfishness of the gun industry.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a vocal proponent of gun restrictions, welcomed the student voices, which he said could help energize the gun-control movement.
Speaking to CNN, Douglas High student Isabella Gomez singled out President Trump’s remark that students needing help should “turn to a teacher, a family member.”
“What could our teachers do in that situation, rather than save themselves, just as we were?” Gomez said. “I feel like he really needs to take into consideration all this gun control.”
Asked Thursday afternoon whether Trump had heard the pleas of the student survivors and their parents, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said that the president’s “heart is heavy.” He said Trump would convene a discussion on school safety, though he provided few specifics.
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), a more moderate Republican voice on gun restrictions, described several bills she has sponsored to strengthen background checks, prevent straw purchasing and to stop people on the no-fly list from purchasing firearms.
“What happened yesterday is not only so horrific a tragedy but it also has happened far too many times in this country,” she said.
On the Senate floor, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he sympathizes with people who want action but claimed that recent proposals restricting access to guns would not have prevented the tragedy.
“If someone decides that they are going to take it upon themselves to kill people . . . it is a very difficult thing to stop,” he said. “When someone is planning and premeditating an attack, they will figure out a way to evade those laws or quite frankly to comply with them in order to get around it.”
Murphy called Rubio’s comments “gun-industry pablum.”
“The idea that no laws can stop bad people from doing bad things — if that were the case, we should give up on government altogether,” Murphy said. “It’s an excuse for people who have already sold their soul to the gun lobby.”
At the vigil in Parkland, not all students were confident that policymakers can solve the problem.
“This stuff happens and we don’t know why,” said Mia Veliz, a senior at Calvary Christian Academy in nearby Fort Lauderdale. “There is nothing we can do to stop it.”
