Orlando Sentinel

Orlando residents gather to protest gun laws.

- By Jason Ruiter jruiter@orlandosen­tinel.com or 352-742-5927; Follow him on Twitter at @JasonRuite­r1. Staff Writer

For Patty Brigham, it’s mostly the fact that many Americans support stricter gun laws — and the little legislator­s have done about it — that is the source of both her exhaustion and her wrath.

“Yes, I’m angry; yes, I’m tired,” said the co-chair of the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, which was created in the wake of the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary that left 20 children dead.

After police say a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland walked into the school last week and opened fire, killing 17 and wounding more, Brigham stood on the dais of the First Congregati­onal Church in Winter Park Sunday night with a 150 others in the pews and shook her head.

“Enough is enough!” she said.

Residents, members of the coalition, League of Women Voters and Moms Demand Action Central Florida gathered at the church to hold a vigil for the 14 children and three adults shot and kiilled with an AR-15 assault rifle at the Parkland high school Wednesday.

They also delivered speeches from the dais, expressing anger and frustratio­n over perceived inaction by congress and state lawmakers.

“As long as we say there’s nothing we can do, there’s nothing that will happen,” Brigham said.

A poll taken a week after the October Las Vegas shooting that left 58 dead and more than 800 injured showed that 60 percent of Americans wanted stricter gun laws.

That percentage was a record high for poll-conductor Quinnipiac University.

To put the heat on lawmakers, rallies have been held in and around Florida — with the victims themselves taking the fight to the steps of the state capitol.

Florida Democratic Party chair Allison Tant said she will help send “busloads” of Marjory Stoneman Douglas students to Tallahasse­e noon Wednesday to protest the state’s gun laws, according to the Tallahasse­e Democrat.

But with or without legislatio­n, those involved in the school system are tensed after reading about the tragedies in the news.

Samuel Schubert, 15, said he’s educated himself about school shootings ever since 2012 — when the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre occurred when he was nine years old.

“I immediatel­y took an interest in it,” the freshman at Lyman High School in Longwood said. “In situations like that, every life lost is one too many.”

Schubert’s father, George, said he worries there will be more.

“If there’s is an uptick, I’ll yank him, I’ll homeschool him,” he said of his son.

In Central Florida, three teenagers have been arrested for social media threats they’ve made online since the Parkland shooting.

None of the threats turned out credible, but the comments and posts put several Orange County schools on lockdown.

Kristi Kirg, a 7th grade civics teacher in Seminole County, said every teacher in her district is required to download a “Panic Button” app on their mobile phone.

“It’ll will immediatel­y tell police when and at what school a shooting is happening,” said the Greenwood Lake Middle School teacher.

For her and other teachers, locking their classroom doors has become a routine for all teachers, she said.

After the speeches, residents poured onto the church steps, lit candles and stayed silent as the pastor chimed a bell 17 times, one for each victim.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States