The survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting massacre met with legislators and spoke to huge crowds in Tallahassee, Florida on Wednesday, advocating in the state’s capitol for gun control legislation to prevent future mass shootings.
One student, Lorenzo Prado, joined other survivors in rejecting the narrative that the massacre was the fault of the alleged gunman, Nikolas Cruz, alone.
“Many would like to blame this event on the FBI’s lack of action or the Trump administration, but the simple fact is that the laws of our beloved country allowed for the deranged gunman to purchase a gun legally,” Prado said.
He eulogized Nicholas Dworet, a Stoneman Douglas senior at the time of his death who Prado described as an ever-smiling swim team mentor and who, a week before his death, had committed to attending the University of Indianapolis “so he could chase his dream of becoming an Olympian,” Prado said.
“But that is a dream he can no longer achieve because Nikolas Cruz abhorrently decided to take Nicholas Dworet’s life,” Prado said.
He continued: “But we can’t just blame Nikolas Cruz for this tragedy, because the laws of our country allowed him to purchase a weapon. Nikolas Cruz was able to purchase an assault rifle before he was able to drink beer. Nikolas Cruz was able to purchase an assault rifle, although he had clear signs of mental illness. Nikolas Cruz was able to purchase an assault rifle with clear signs of delinquency from the school. Nikolas Cruz was able to purchase an assault rifle with the intention to kill.”
Watch below:
Watch: pic.twitter.com/82wX9JN5fb
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) February 21, 2018
Trumptards: Let’s lower the drinking age!! And ban Porn!
Sorry, kid, but I’m not playing with false equivalencies and forced “unbiased-ness” when it comes to this issue. Sometimes, there ARE clear good guys and bad guys:
On February 2, 2017 the House passed H.J. Res. 40 which prevents the Social Security Administration from reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) the names of individuals with a severe, medically documented mental disability who also require a designated representative to oversee their benefits. This reporting requirement was included in 1968 gun safety legislation. This resolution makes it easier for someone with a documented mental disability to buy a gun. UPDATE: 14. The President signed H.J. Res. 40 on February 28, 2017
On March 16, 2017 the House passed H.R. 1181 which alters current law requiring the Veterans Administration to provide the names of veterans who have been classified as “mentally incompetent” and cannot handle their own financial affairs to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). H.R. 1181 requires the VA to obtain a court determination before a veteran’s name can be sent to the NICS, although the legislation does not provide funding or a framework for this new court process, which currently does not exist. The legislation is also retroactive, which means that 170,000 people already on the NICS list would be automatically removed, making it easier for them to buy a gun.
This was some of the first shit they pushed through and they did it because the NRA funneled them Russian money to secure their power on its behalf. PERIOD. It needs to stop. The NRA is, in fact, an enemy of the American people and needs to be dismantled in any way possible as soon as possible. Their power and their willingness to use it in service of the military industrial complex and a culture of gun-fetishist fearmongering ammosexual paranoid pseudomilitia freedom-fighter fantasies and white nationalist violence orgies must end…completely. Some things, some industries, some issues should NEVER be considered permissible subjects of lobbying. Ever. Enough is enough.
Meanwhile Rep. Coffman tells us that laws won’t necessarily stop the next tragedy. Dana Loesch will remind us that guns don’t kill people, only people kill people and a ban on the sale of weapons of war is the head of the slippery slope that will lead to a ban on the sale of the Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle because “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
I admire the students from Stoneman Douglas, but my admiration for them is overwhelmed by my cynicism about the people who are responsible for writing effective legislation that would put an end to these massacres.
I wish them well, but they are not a voting bloc that will have the leverage necessary to effect change. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
You know, there are times I look at today’s youth and wonder wtf? … Then I see young people like this high schooler and my faith in the endless great possibilities of the future for humanity is restored. I’ve also witnessed such young people here in my own backyard. Fortunately for all of us, they are everywhere.
Some of the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary died before they were potty trained.