On Wednesday, a high school in Parkland, Florida, became the latest front in the ongoing epidemic of gun violence in the United States. A gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 people and wounding many more.
The nation has reeled at the fact that, yet again, American children have been proven to be desperately vulnerable to mass casualty incidents. The Parkland shooting, even if its among the highest profile incidents because of the number of casualties, is not the first of its kind. There have been numerous school shootings already this year, and in total, the Gun Violence Archive estimates that well over 300 Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 have been injured or killed in gun violence incidents since January 1.
Even in the face of these grim facts, the president and his party members have declined to support any meaningful gun control legislation. Instead, in the aftermath of the shooting, the president has stuck to the line that it’s mental illness that’s at fault.
Students of the school that experienced the shooting on Wednesday are not impressed.
The president, on Thursday, ventured dangerously close to directly blaming Parkland community members for the tragedy, indicating on Twitter that he thinks they should have reported the shooter’s documented past erratic behavior sooner.
He wrote:
‘So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!’
In response to this, student Morgan Williams echoed the feelings of many of her fellow Parkland students and replied:
‘Unless you are going to do something about gun control so no one else experiences what my school has, shut the fuck up.’
The president has made no indication he’s interested in advancing any common sense gun control measures in the aftermath of the shooting, instead focusing, as mentioned, on the issue of mental illness.
Complicating matters is the fact that on Thursday, it emerged that the shooter was a documented member of a local white supremacist organization. Trump has at least as poor of a record on white supremacy in the U.S. as he does on addressing gun violence, having infamously asserted in the aftermath of white supremacist fueled violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, that responsibility rested with “both sides.”
Only after being relentlessly pressed did he offer any specific condemnation of white supremacy, so it’s not as though we can expect him to rush in front of the nation and condemn white supremacy following Thursday’s revelation.
The aforementioned Williams retweeted similar messages from her fellow students who feel, apparently, similarly when it comes to the Republicans currently beating the anti-gun control drum.
For instance, in response to a post from conservative icon Tomi Lahren, a social media user identified only as “kyra” wrote:
‘A gun has killed 17 of my fellow classmates. A gun has traumatized my friends. My entire school, traumatized from this tragedy. This could have been prevented. Please stfu tomi’
Check out Twitter’s response to all of this below.
Featured Image via Win McNamee/Getty Images
