Firearms debate rages as Florida rally coincides with gun show

MIAMI (Reuters) - Student survivors of a mass shooting that killed 17 people at a Florida high school called for gun restrictions on Saturday during an angry and sombre rally, but attendees at a nearby gun show said firearms could not be blamed for the massacre.

Wednesday’s shooting in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland fuelled the long-running US debate between supporters of tougher controls on firearms and advocates for gun rights, which are protected by the US Constitution’s Second Amendment.

Both sides of the dispute were on display on Saturday.

Many at a rally in Fort Lauderdale that was organized to demand tougher gun laws rejected comments by US President Donald Trump and others that mental illness was the main factor behind the slaughter at Margory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“We need to pay attention to the fact that this isn’t just a mental health issue,” Emma Gonzalez, an 18-yearold student at the school, told hundreds demonstrators gathered on the steps of a federal building. The shooter “wouldn’t have harmed that many students with a knife!” she yelled, shedding tears as the crowd cheered her on.

Gonzalez criticized Trump for overturning a measure implemented by former President Barack Obama that required extra scrutiny of some gun buyers with a history of mental illness. She also condemned the National Rifle Association, which opposes laws that it says violate gun owners’ rights.

“Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have ever been done to prevent this, we call BS” Gonzalez said.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student who was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has been charged with 17 counts of murder. Police said he was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and had multiple magazines of ammunition.