Shame on you!' student tells Trump at Florida anti-gun rally
Islam Is Not Terrorist by virtue of Surah Al Maidah, Verses 32 [
5:32 ]. And who is the real terrorist now?
FORT LAUDERDALE: A student
survivor of the Parkland school shooting called
out US President Donald Trump on Saturday (Feb 17) over his ties to the
powerful National Rifle Association, in a poignant address to an anti-gun rally
in Florida.
"To every politician
taking donations from the NRA, shame on you!" said Emma Gonzalez,
assailing Trump over the multi-million-dollar support his campaign received
from the gun lobby - and prompting the crowd to chant in turn: "Shame
on you!"
Wednesday's massacre,
which claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has fueled
urgent calls for an end to the national deadlock over gun control - with a
string of shooting survivors rallying behind the cause.
The gunman, 19-year-old
Nikolas Cruz, was able to legally buy an assault rifle despite a history of
troubling and violent behavior.
In Washington, however,
the political response has made clear that the powerful NRA pro-gun 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 National Rifle Association," said
Gonzalez.
"It doesn't matter
because I already know. Thirty million," she told the rally attended by
fellow students, parents and local officials, citing the sum spent by the NRA
to support Trump's election bid and defeat Hillary Clinton.
Dividing that sum by the
number of shooting victims in the United States so far this year, Gonzalez asked:
"Is that how much these people are worth to you, Trump?"
The young woman's powerful
address immediately went viral, with her name a top trending topic on Twitter.
The US leader also tweeted
a day after the massacre that that neighbours and fellow students had failed to
flag Cruz to the authorities.
"We did,"
Gonzalez said, her shaking with emotion. "Time and time again. Since he
was in middle school. It was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear that he
was the shooter."
US authorities have come
under mounting scrutiny for failing to act on a series of warning signs.
The FBI admitted on Friday
it received a chilling warning in
January from a tipster who said Cruz could be planning a mass shooting, but
that agents failed to follow up.
Cruz was also known to
local police after his mother repeatedly called them over his violent
outbursts, while records obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel show
welfare services investigated Cruz after he cut his arms and said he wanted to
buy a gun.
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