VP Harris visits Parkland, urges states to adopt red-flag gun laws
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday toured the still-bloody and bullet-pocked classroom building in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members in 2018, using the grim backdrop to announce a new federal resource center and to call for stricter enforcement of gun laws.
The freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had been preserved as evidence for criminal trials and is set to be demolished this summer. For now, it remains a memorial to one of the most shocking mass shootings in the history of the United States.
In remarks after taking her tour and meeting for more than an hour with family members of victims of the attack, Ms. Harris said the experience had been a compelling one.
“Let us, through the courage and the call to action of these families, find it in ourselves to consider what they’ve been through as some level of motivation and inspiration for all of us,” she said.
Ms. Harris said the attack, carried out by a former student with a history of mental health and behavior problems, should prompt officials around the country to embrace local red-flag laws. These allow courts to temporarily seize firearms and other dangerous weapons when they believe a person may be a threat to themselves or others. The Parkland shooter had purchased his gun legally.
In her remarks, Ms. Harris announced the creation of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which White House officials said would provide training and technical assistance to states as they work to implement their red-flag laws.
“Red-flag laws are simply designed to allow communities a vehicle through which they can share, and have somewhere to share it, information about the concern about the potential danger or the crying out for help of an individual,” she said.
In her brief remarks, Ms. Harris said that only 21 states had passed red-flag laws and that only six of those had accepted the Biden administration’s offer of financial resources to help implement them.
“I challenge the others: ‘Come on over. We’ve got some resources for you to help you implement the work that you have done,’ ” she said.
The visit by Ms. Harris to the school is part of the administration’s broader effort to increase gun control measures as the United States continues to suffer regular episodes of devastating gun violence, sometimes targeting young people in schools.
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the first significant federal gun control measure in decades. The law expanded the background check system for prospective gun buyers under the age of 21, gave authorities up to 10 business days to examine juvenile and mental health records and set aside millions of dollars so states can fund intervention programs.