The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killed 17 students and staff, but it also sent a pulsing shock through the rest of the school. Some of those students have begun to say that this is the last one — the last mass shooting. They are angry at Congress’ and Donald Trump’s inaction, and they are speaking out persuasively.
The president once again tryed to shift blame in this tweet:
‘Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud.’
Emma Gonzalez & students in Parkland are chanting “We call B-S-!” toward lawmaker’s responses to the mass shooting at their school. #GunReformNow pic.twitter.com/e4bT6l3RC3
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) February 17, 2018
This tragedy touched everyone in the school, which has well over 3,000 students. It affected families and the population of Parkland. More than that, it sent a wave of horror, compassion, and anger across the country, because the Republicans in Congress and in the White House will not do anything other than offer empty platitudes and point a finger elsewhere.
A 19-year-old man with emotional issues walked into a gun store and bought an AK-15, which is a semi-automatic rifle that tears people into shreds. There is nothing pretty about what it does to a human body. Certainly, it could not be used for hunting, because it would rip the game into smithereens.
“I’m done hiding, we are done hiding, America is done hiding.” Ryan Deitsch, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting, describes growing up in the era of mass shooting drills. For more: https://t.co/boUWfnAobu pic.twitter.com/16N5bRSHml
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) February 18, 2018
Emma Gonzales is one of the fortunate students who survived the shooting, and she is speaking out to Donald Trump. Kids are not stupid. They are fully aware that the president was trying to divert attention from gun control and the National Rifle Association (NRA).
She asserted that Trump’s tweets were empty:
‘I think the best way to deal with this is to ignore him. I think we can all agree that the things that President Trump tweets is nothing that will have lasting impact – unless it’s a negative lasting impact – on the people around us.’
Gonzales commented that the man in the Oval Office wanted to squirm out of his responsibility and even refused to “tweet the word ‘gun:'”
‘At this point especially, the things that he mentions when he brings up talk of the FBI, he’s trying to blame somebody. And we can’t let him do that. So, the best thing for us to do is to ignore him and to continue fighting our fight, the fight that he refuses to acknowledge. The fact that he refused to even tweet the word “gun” in any of his tweets. And yet, he insists on tweeting, and he insists on blaming the Democrats for something that he did wrong – looking back into the past instead of looking forward into the future.’
Student David Hogg who survived the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting has a message for President Trump: “We’ve seen a government shutdown. Tax reform. But nothing to save our children’s lives. Are you kidding me?… You sicken me.” (edited) pic.twitter.com/UZBXePaoSi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 18, 2018
This brave student did something none of the Republican leaders have been willing to do. She called Trump out for his terrible behavior. Then, Gonzales summed it all up in her video, when she said:
‘It’s disgraceful.’
This is the moving YouTube video of Emma Gonzales doing the president’s job for him below:
https://youtu.be/oaHa1IvK_ac
Featured Image via Getty Images/Mark Wilson.