Florida school shooting survivors demand tougher gun laws
(CNN)In an emotional rally Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, politicians and Marjory Stoneman Douglas students called for a ban on weapons like the one used to kill 17 people at the Florida high school, and urged voters to kick out lawmakers who oppose the move or who take money from the National Rifle Association.
In a fiery speech, senior Emma Gonzalez demanded national lawmakers do something to prevent mass school shootings.
"We certainly do not understand why it should be harder to make plans with friends on weekends than to buy an automatic or semiautomatic weapon," Gonzalez, who huddled in an auditorium during Wednesday's shooting, said at the rally outside a federal courthouse.
Gonzalez, whose palpable anger burst out in her words, demanded that laws change because she said they have not, while guns have changed.
"Maybe the adults have got used to saying, 'It is what it is,'" she said. "But if us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead."
She addressed politicians, saying to those who take campaign donations from the NRA: "Shame on you."
Hundreds of people gathered began to chant, "Shame on you! Shame on you!"
As she ended her remarks, she shouted her disagreement with what she hears from the other side of the gun laws debate.
"Politicians who sit in their gilded house and senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS!" she said.
"They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS," she cried with the crowd screaming along with the final word.
Latest developments
• JetBlue Airways is offering free flights to family members of the shooting victims traveling to Parkland. The airline will also provide free ground transportation via ride-hailing platform Lyft.
• The defense team says NIkolas Cruz will plead guilty if prosecutors don't seek the death penalty, but the state attorney won't rule that out.
• The school district has proposed tearing down the building where the shooting happened, Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky said.
• President Donald Trump and the first lady visited wounded patients at a Florida hospital.
• Three shooting victims remain in hospitals. Broward Health North in Pompano Beach has two patients in fair condition, and Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale has one patient in fair condition, according to a statement from hospital officials.
• Math teacher Jim Gard says an administrator sent an email in late 2016, asking to be notified if Cruz came on campus with a backpack. The administrator gave no explanation for the email, Gard said.
News Courtesy: www.cnn.com
