Trump avoids talk of gun curbs after Florida school shooting
Islam Is Not Terrorist by virtue of Surah Al Maidah, Verses 32 [
5:32 ]. And who is the real terrorist now?
PARKLAND: President Donald Trump vowed
on Thursday (Feb 15) to make mental health a priority after a
"disturbed" teenager with a firearms obsession sowed carnage at a Florida high school, while
avoiding any mention of gun curbs to stem America's scourge of mass shootings.
Former student named Nikolas Cruz, 19,
was to appear before a magistrate later on Thursday charged with the
premeditated murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in
Parkland.
Announcing plans to travel to Florida
to meet members of the shocked community, Trump delivered a sombre televised
address in response to the 18th school shooting to hit the country this year -
a terrifying pattern that US authorities have appeared powerless to stop.
"My fellow Americans, today I
speak to a nation in grief," said Trump,
calling on his fellow citizens to "come together as one nation" and
"answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness."
But the president avoided all mention
of the politically fraught issue of gun control, vowing instead to "tackle
the difficult issue of mental health."
Trump had weighed in on the tragedy
earlier Thursday by pointing to "so many signs" the shooter was
"mentally disturbed."
"Neighbors and classmates knew he
was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and
again!" he tweeted.
But US authorities were themselves
under scrutiny as the FBI confirmed reports it was alerted last year to a
message posted on YouTube by a user with Cruz's name, in which he vowed:
"I'm going to be a professional school shooter."
In a statement, the FBI said it had
investigated, but was unable to confirm the identity of the poster.
Wednesday's harrowing shooting spree
saw terrified students hiding in closets and under desks as they texted for
help, while the gunman stalked the school with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.
Fifteen people were killed at the
school itself, and two later died in hospital. One of those killed was Aaron
Feis, a well-loved football coach in Parkland, a city of about 30,000 people
located north of Miami.
Of the people wounded in the attack,
two remained hospitalised in critical but stable condition, while six others
were on the way to a full recovery, officials told a news conference.
'FAILING OUR KIDS'
Expelled for disciplinary reasons,
Cruz was reportedly known to have firearms at home and had
talked about using them.
A teacher at the school said Cruz had
been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.
"We were told last year that he
wasn't allowed on campus with a backpack on him," math teacher Jim Gard
said in a Miami Herald interview.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel
said authorities had "begun to dissect his websites and things on social
media that he was on and some of the things... are very, very disturbing."
"If a person is predisposed to
commit such a horrific event by going to a school and shooting people ...
there's not anybody or not a lot law enforcement can do about it."
The school shootings are part of a broader epidemic of gun
violence in a country that loses 33,000 people to gun-related deaths each year.
While the latest mass shooting has reignited questions about
America's permissive gun laws, Trump - who is the first president to have
addressed the NRA gun lobby - is staunchly opposed to any additional gun
control.
Opponents of gun curbs have consistently sought to steer
public debate away from the issue, and onto the behavior and motives of people
using the weapons.
When questioned late Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott
- who described the massacre as "just pure evil" - similarly declined
to make a statement on gun control.
Since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school
shootings across the country - an average of about one a week, according to
Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.
"It is pretty clear that we're failing our kids
here," said Melissa Falkowski, a teacher who squeezed 19 students into a
closet at the Parkland high school to shield them from harm.
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