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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Richard Luscombe in Parkland, Florida

Voices of the dead: shooting victims plead for gun reform with AI-voice messages

People kneel next to a portrait
Family members visit a portrait of Joaquin Oliver, right, who was killed in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on 14 February 2023, on the five-year anniversary of the shooting in Parkland, Florida. Photograph: Rebecca Blackwell/AP

Six years ago today, Joaquin Oliver was killed in a hallway outside his Florida classroom, one of 17 students and staff murdered in the worst high school shooting in the US. On Wednesday, lawmakers in Washington DC will hear his voice, recreated by artificial intelligence, in phone calls demanding to know why they’ve done nothing to tackle the plague of gun violence.

“It’s been six years and you’ve done nothing. Not a thing to stop all the shootings that have happened since,” the message from Oliver, who was 17 when he died in the 2018 Valentine’s Day’s tragedy at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, says.

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