Stricken by grief, students direct anger at president
PARKLAND, Fla. — Students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida focused their anger Sunday on President Trump, contending his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive.
“You’re the president. You’re supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us,” David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “How dare you.”
David was responding to Trump’s tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn’t passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI’s failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous, while bemoaning the bureau’s focus on Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
Trump was at his Florida estate Sunday but did not mention the attack in a series of tweets. After more than a day of criticism from the students, the White House said the president would hold a “listening session” with unspecified students on Wednesday and meet with state and local security officials Thursday.
Florida politicians, meanwhile, scrambled to produce legislation in response to Wednesday’s attack, which killed 17 people. Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from the school, is being held without bail in the Broward County Jail, accused of 17 counts of first-degree murder.
In a TV interview, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio embraced a Democratic bill in the Florida Legislature to let courts temporarily stop people from having guns if they are found to be a threat to themselves or others.
Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican, attended a prayer vigil a few blocks from the shooting site. He is expected to announce a legislative package with GOP leaders this week.
Emma Gonzalez, another student who survived the attack, cited Trump, Rubio and Scott by name in a warning to politicians who are supported by the National Rifle Association.
“Now is the time to get on the right side of this, because this is not something that we are going to let sweep under the carpet,” she said on “Meet the Press.”
The students’ pointed comments are the latest signs of increased pressure for gun control after the massacre. They have vowed to become the face of a movement for tighter firearm regulations and plan to visit the state capitol in Tallahassee this week to demand immediate action. They are also calling for anti-gun violence demonstrations in Washington and other cities March 24.
Organizers behind the Women’s March called for a 17-minute, nationwide walkout by teachers and students on March 14. The Network for Public Education, an advocacy organization for public schools, announced a day of walkouts and other events on school campuses April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 12 students and one teacher dead.