U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the Parkland, Florida, high school on Saturday where a gunman killed 17 people in 2018. During her visit, she will push states to strengthen laws that can take away firearms from high-risk individuals.
Harris is anticipated to visit the blood-stained classroom where the 2018 Parkland High School shooting took place. Accompanying her will be some family members of the victims who are advocating for tougher gun control legislation and increased school security, reported AP.
According to Reuters, Harris will push for the passage of 'Red Flag' laws in 29 states that do not currently have them and urge the 15 states that do to begin utilizing the federal funding that is available.
Red flag laws give court the authority to grant "extreme risk protection orders," which take away a person's firearms if they are thought to be dangerous or a threat to others. 21 states and the District of Columbia have red flag laws, including Florida, which passed one in the wake of the Parkland shooting.
Harris is going to declare the opening of a new resource center that will offer technical support and training to state and local governments, law enforcement, and medical professionals who use the laws.
Since law enforcement returned ownership of the building to the school district last summer, a number of members of Congress, primarily Democrats, have visited the school, including Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who toured it in January.
The shooting on February 14, 2018, left 14 students and three staff members dead and 17 injured. Former student Nikolas Cruz, then 19, fired about 140 shots from his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle during his six-minute attack. Cruz was given a life sentence in lieu of the death penalty, which infuriated the families of the victims. Animal torture was just one of Cruz's many strange and unsettling habits. His alleged plans to carry out a mass shooting were reported to the FBI and local law enforcement in the weeks preceding the shooting, but nothing was done about it. In the 17 months between turning 18 and the massacre, he lawfully bought 10 guns.
The Parkland massacre scene was kept intact as evidence in Cruz's 2022 sentencing trial. However, the building's demolition is scheduled for this summer by the Broward County school district, despite the protests of some victims' families who wish to display it for official inspection.
In his 2024 reelection campaign, President Joe Biden has made gun violence a major platform item, and he has appointed former prosecutor Kamala Harris to lead the campaign. To meet with those whose families perished in mass shootings, both have traversed the entire nation.
