Trump slams FBI over school shooting
> President blames its preoccupation with Russia for failure to heed signs
FORT LAUDERDALE: US President Donald Trump said Saturday the FBI was so caught up in the Russia probe that it failed to heed signs which could have prevented the Parkland school shooting.
His comments came as he faces criticism from survivors of the attack over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), and after several thousand rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.
“Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable,” he tweeted.
“They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!”
US authorities have come under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs ahead of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 people were killed.
The FBI admitted Friday it received a chilling warning in January from a tipster who said the gunman Nikolas Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but that agents failed to follow up.
But the attack, the 18th school shooting this year alone, has also renewed calls for greater gun control with several survivors leading the charge. One of them, 18-year- old Emma Gonzalez delivered a fiery address to a crowd in Fort Lauderdale.
“To every politician taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!” she thundered, assailing Trump over the multimillion-dollar support his campaign received from the gun lobby. The crowd chanted in turn: “Shame on you!”
“We are going to be the last mass shooting... We are going to change the law,” she vowed – slamming the fact 19year-old Cruz was able to legally buy a semi-automatic firearm despite a history of troubling and violent behaviour.
“The question on whether or not people should be allowed to own an automatic weapon is not a political one. It is question of life or death and it needs to stop being a question of politics,” Gonzalez told AFP following her speech.
In Washington, the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA progun lobby remains formidable, while Trump himself suggested the root cause of mass shootings was a crisis of mental health – making no mention of gun control.
“If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and ... how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the NRA,” Gonzalez said in her speech.
“It doesn’t matter because I already know. Thirty million,” she said, citing the sum spent by the NRA to support Trump’s election bid. – AFP