Florida Shooting Survivors Face Down The NRA And Politicians, Vow To Keep Fighting
“Our kids have started a revolution,” one teacher says at emotional town hall.
A panel of students and teachers who survived the shooting at a Florida high school last week, along with many parents of victims, voiced their frustrations and anger, along with their hopes for gun law reforms, during a town hall hosted by CNN on Wednesday night.
More than 7,000 people gathered at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, to listen to many of those affected by the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, which left 17 people dead. The tragedy, the 17th school shooting so far in 2018, has prompted a wave of activism in recent days and an outpouring of anger directed at lawmakers who have refused to pass gun control legislation.
Such frustrations were on full display Wednesday as several people asked Florida Sens. Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D) what they plan to do now. Ryan Deitsch, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, asked Rubio about Congress’ failure to rein in gun access and why its the students themselves who “have to march on Washington just to save innocent lives.”
“You’re right,” the senator replied. “What you’ve lived through, and what you live through, is not supposed to be a part of your high school experience.”
In a heated exchange, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jamie, was killed last week, demanded Rubio tell him that he would “work with us to do something about guns.”
“Sen. Rubio, my daughter, running down the hallway at Marjory Douglas, was shot with an assault weapon, the weapon of choice,” Guttenberg said. “It is too easy to get. It is a weapon of war. The fact that you can stand here and can’t say that, I’m sorry.”
Ashley Kurth, a teacher who sheltered nearly 70 students during the attack, addressed President Donald Trump’s suggestion earlier that day that educators in schools be armed to help prevent more shooting deaths.
