In guns we trust
US shooting debate heats up
Students and teachers who have been thrust into the centre of a renewed national gun debate in the United States yesterday returned for the first time to the Florida high school where 17 people were killed last month.
At the same time, President Donald Trump called for speedy and substantial changes to the nation’s gun laws, while two major retailers took steps to restrict guns sales.
In a freewheeling, televised White House session that stretched for an hour, Trump voiced his support for expanded background checks and endorsed increased school security and mental health resources, while accusing lawmakers of being too fearful of the National Rifle Association to take action.
Retail heavyweights Dick’s Sporting Goods and Walmart became the latest companies to add their weight behind corporate America’s growing rift with the gun lobby.
Dick’s said it would immediately stop selling assault-style rifles and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21. Its CEO took on the NRA by demanding tougher gun laws after the massacre in Florida.
Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, then said it would no longer sell firearms and ammunition to people younger than 21. It had stopped selling AR-15s and other semi-automatic weapons in 2015, citing weak sales.
In Parkland, Florida, students and teachers hugged and cried as they returned under heavy police guard to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High where Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been kicked out of the school for disciplinary reasons, is accused of carrying the shooting two weeks ago.
The half-day began with fourth period so that the nearly 3300 students could first be with the people they were with during the shooting.
“In the beginning, everyone was super serious, but then everyone cheered up and it started being the same vibes we had before the shooting. People started laughing and joking around,” said Kyle Kashuv, a junior who said he hugged every teacher.
On the way in, teens were guarded by hundreds of police officers. The police were accompanied by comfort animals, including dogs, horses and a donkey. A woman held a sign offering “free kisses”.
Kashuv said he was amazed by the outpouring of support from the community, including the police presence, the animals and many wellwishers. There were letters from all over the world and “banners on every single wall”, he said.
Some of the officers carried militarystyle rifles, and Superintendent Robert Runcie said the police presence would continue for the remainder of the school year. The heavy arms rattled some students.
“This is a picture of education in fear in this country. The National Rifle Association wants more people just like this, with that exact firearm, to scare more people and sell more guns,” said David Hogg, who has become a leading voice in the student movement to restrict assault weapons.
The students have put pressure on lawmakers who take donations from the NRA. The gun lobby is also feeling the heat from a growing number of businesses. Since the shooting businesses from car rental companies such as Avis, Budget and Hertz, to airlines such as United and Delta have cut ties with the NRA or stopped discount programmes for the lobby group’s members.
Dick’s chairman and CEO Ed Stack told ABC’s Good Morning America that he realised his company had to act.
“When we saw what the kids were going through and the grief of the parents and the kids who were killed in Parkland, we felt we needed to do something.”
Stack also revealed that Cruz had bought a shotgun at a Dick’s store within the past four months.
“It was not the gun, nor type of gun, he used in the shooting,” the Cruz wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “But it could have been. Clearly this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens.”
The announcements from Dick’s and Walmart drew hundreds of thousands of responses for and against the moves on the companies’ social media accounts.
Dick’s had cut off sales of assaultstyle weapons after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. But sales had resumed at its smaller chain of Field & Stream stores, which consisted of 35 outlets in 16 states as of October.
Yesterday, Stack said that would end, and he called on lawmakers to act now.
He urged them to ban assault-style firearms, bump stocks and highcapacity magazines, and to raise the minimum age to buy firearms to 21. He said universal background checks should be required, and there should be a complete database of those banned from buying firearms. He also called for the closing of the privatesale-and-gun-show loophole that enables purchasers to escape background checks.
“We support and respect the Second Amendment, and we recognise and appreciate that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens,” Stack said in his letter. “But we have to help solve the problem that’s in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that’s taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of
America — our kids.”
Walmart said it was also removing items from its website that resemble assault-style rifles, including airsoft guns and toys.
One industry analysts said that other retailers that devote a small percentage of their business to hunting will probably follow suit. While guns can be bought from sporting goods stores or department stores, they can also be purchased online, at gun shows and from small local gun stores.
The NRA has pushed back aggressively against calls for raising age limits for guns or restricting the sale of assault-style weapons. Calls to the NRA were not immediately returned.
Meanwhile, a social studies teacher at a Georgia high school barricaded himself inside a classroom yesterday and fired a handgun, sending students running outside or hunkering down in darkened gym locker rooms, authorities said.
No Dalton High School students were in the classroom when the teacher fired the weapon, and despite the chaotic lockdown and evacuation, the only injury was a student who hurt her ankle running away.
It wasn't immediately clear why the teacher, 53-year-old Jesse Randal Davidson, had the gun. Under questioning by detectives, he refused to discuss what led to the shooting.
Since last month’s shooting, Trump has suggested arming some teachers. The NRA has also suggested arming teachers, with chief executive Wayne LaPierre saying after the 2012 shooting in which 20 children and six adults were killed that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun”.