After Latest Mass Shooting In Parkland, Florida, Renewed Calls For Gun Legislation [VIDEO]

Nineteen-year-old domestic terrorist Nikolas Cruz, a member of a “white supremacist paramilitary protfascist organization,” is accused of killing 17 and injuring dozens more after opening fire at a south Florida public high school Wednesday afternoon.

“President Trump, please do something! Do something. Action! We need it now! These kids need safety now,” Lori Alhadeff screamed into a microphone as tears rolled down her face.

Alhadeff’s 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, was one of 17 killed by Cruz after he arrived at Marjory Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, equipped with an AR-15 rifle, the weapon responsible for six of the 10 deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. to take place this decade.

The AR-15 rifle was previously illegal from 1994-2004, which saw a period of decline in mass shootings. The weapon has since been used in mass shooting in Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, San Bernardino, Orlando, Aurora and now Parkland.

“How do we allow a gunman to come into our children’s school? How do they get through security? What security is there?” she yelled. “The gunman — a crazy person — just walks right into the school, knocks down the window of my child’s door and starts shooting. Shooting her! And killing her!”

Cruz was arrested by Officer Michael Leonard, who said “he looked like a typical high school student,” and confessed that he “began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on school grounds,” according to a police report released Thursday.

Cruz is now charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder after Wednesday’s attack. His court- appointed defense lawyer, Broward County Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill, called the suspect “a broken human being,” adding that he was “mournful, remorseful” and “fully aware of what is going on.”

Jordan Jereb, a captain of the Tallahassee a hate group, the Republic of Florida, confirmed to The Daily Beast that Cruz had trained with the group as was first reported by the Anti-Defamation League. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that the claim is “not confirmed at this time.”

Yet Jereb seemed sure Cruz, who he said everybody just called “Nick,” had trained with the organization.

“This is a difficult subject,” he said. “I’ve been taking calls all day on it. I’m many things, but I’m not a liar. I can’t lie. He was part of our organization. He wasn’t particularly active in it, but at some point he came to Tallahassee with I believe the Clearwater RoF. I know he didn’t live in Clearwater, but I think that was the company he clicked up with.”

“I’ve been in the same room as the guy but I don’t know the guy,” Jereb said. “I don’t know precisely what he believes. I know he knew full well he was joining a white separatist paramilitary proto-facist organization. I know he knew that much.”

As the country mourns, many politician are renewing calls for sensible gun legislation to be passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. The contentious debate over Second Amendment rights has become an increasingly polarizing and partisan issue as many Republicans are hesitant to pass any legislation for fear of a backlash from their base.

Even as the country mourns the deaths of the 17 newest victims lost to the sweeping wave of gun violence plaguing our nation, Republicans still seem unwilling to restart the debate on Capital Hill.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), who has received $3.3 million in campaign contributions from the NRA since October 2017, still remains uncertain that restrictions on firearms would have prevented the mass shooting in his home state.

“I understand. I really do. You read in the newspaper that they used a certain kind of gun and therefore let’s make it harder to get those kinds of guns,” he said.

“The struggle up to this point has been that most of the proposals that have been offered would not have prevented, not just yesterday’s tragedy, but any of those in recent history,” Rubio added. “Just because these proposals would not have prevented these does not mean that we therefore raise our hands and say, ‘Therefore, there’s nothing we can do.'”

President Trump in a tweet this morning announced that he would be making a visit to Florida today to meet with “some of the bravest people on earth,” he said. Trump noted that he was “working with Congress on many fronts” but failed to specify if that meant enacting greater restrictions on firearms.

Article by Eric Silverman