Pupils beg adults: please do something about guns
PARKLAND: South Florida children are fed up — with the adults.
After a mass shooting left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland, many area pupils — instead of withdrawing into the solitude of grief — have taken the spotlight in anger and frustration.
They are too young to vote, but in national TV interviews, in viral posts on social media and at protests outside schools, the pupils have chosen to make a noisy message clear to the politicians who represent them: They want stronger gun control.
‘‘Stop apologising. Get to work. Pass legislation that actually saves children’s lives,’’ Douglas junior David Hogg (17) said on Saturday as he stood outside his school by police tape and proguncontrol signs reading: ‘‘Make school safe’’ and ‘‘Kids don’t need guns.’’
Tragedy has come to them and the children of South Florida have lost all confidence in the ability of adults to protect them.
President Donald Trump made a grim weekend trip to Fort Lauderdale, meeting victims privately and cheering the heroics of first responders.
But the president extended few public words of consolation to those in deep mourning, nor did he address the debate over gun violence.
The suspect in the high school shooting would plead guilty if the death penalty was taken off the table, the public defender’s office said on Saturday. Nikolas Cruz (19) has admitted he was behind the the 17 killings. It was also revealed on Saturday Cruz was investigated by police and state officials in 2016 after slashing his arm in a social media video and saying he wanted to buy a gun. Authorities had determined he was receiving sufficient support, newspapers said yesterday. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will not tell the US what to do about its gun deaths but says former PM John Howard did well with gun controls in the 1990s.