A
tragic event occurred at a high school yesterday that is all too familiar to Americans. On February 14 at 2:30pm, students heard the fire alarm go off, followed by six gunshots. In the ensuing chaos, everyone scrambled to get to the exit and away from the barrage of bullets. By the time the horrific incident was through, 17 people were killed and 14 were seriously injured.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre was revealed to be conducted by an ex-student from the school. Nikolas Cruz had been expelled from the Parkland school last year, and had made his way onto the premises with a semi-automatic weapon and multiple magazines.
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Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel has told the press that the crime was a "horrific, detestable act" and they were currently looking into the teenager's "very, very disturbing" social media accounts to understand why he committed such a horrible deed. After a huge manhunt, the police apprehended the 19-year-old shooter and brought him into custody alive.
As you can expect, this led many to campaign once again for reforms to gun laws, which have been repeatedly criticised for not being restrictive enough. With huge platforms from which to ask for these changes to US law, many celebrities have spoken out over social media, urging the government and their followers to use this tragedy as a wake-up call to prevent it from happening again.
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Ellen Degeneres wrote that "no words, no actions, no laws are enough" until the horrific epidemic of shootings in schools are ended in the United States, while
Reese Witherspoon pointed out that this is the 18th shooting in just 45 days of 2018, a statistic that will shock many.
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As if that statistic wasn't terrible enough, it may be even harder to hear that as of this year, the United States is
averaging one school shooting every 60 hours. Compared to the previous three years, these numbers are three times larger, according to data compiled by gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
Actress Julianne Moore also asked the question "what will it take to change our nation's gun laws???"
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Senator Chris Murphy said of the Florida school shooting:
"This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America, this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting."
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While for many an unlikely person to speak up in a tense situation such as this, with many debates raging over what should be done about these all-too-frequent incidents,
Kim Kardashian weighed in on the issue.
"We owe it to our children and our teachers to keep them safe while at school," she wrote. "Prayers won't do this: action will. Congress, please do your job and protect Americans from senseless gun violence"
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In the light of this shooting, his disturbing photo history on Instagram has also been revealed, which
you can see here.
