Florida School Shooting: Parkland student survivors confront President Trump, lawmakers; call for stricter gun laws

As they prepare to fight a long battle for stricter gun control laws, students of Florida high school where 17 people were killed in a mass shooting a week ago on Wednesday night confronted lawmakers and the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA).

At a town hall program hosted and televised by CNN on Wednesday night, survivors of the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, demanded change in gun laws from Washington and the powerful gun lobby. 

The attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and educators were slain on February 14 in the second-deadliest shooting at a US public school, has revived the long-running US debate over gun rights.

Investigators said the assault was carried out by 19-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student Nikolas Cruz, who purchased an AR-15 nearly a year ago.

Students galvanized by the deadly mass shooting confronted Senator Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson Rep. Ted Deutch at the townhall about whether they would support banning certain assault-style rifles and refuse to take money from the NRA.

"We would like to know why do we have to be the ones to do this? Why do we have to speak out to the (state) Capitol? Why do we have to march on Washington, just to save innocent lives?" asked senior Ryan Deitsch. 

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime  was killed at Stoneman Douglas, told Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida that his comments and those of the president's in the past week had been "pathetically weak."

"Sen. Rubio, I want to like you. Here's the problem. ... Your comments this week and those of our President have been pathetically weak," he said.  "Look at me and tell me guns were the factor in the hunting of our kids in the school this week."

Rubio, in reply, said, "I'm saying that the problems we are facing here today cannot be solved by gun laws alone."

He said he would support a law that would prevent 18-year-olds from buying a rifle as well as a ban on "bump stocks," an accessory that enables a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute.

Cameron Kasky, a junior at the school, asked Rubio to turn down campaign contributions from the

NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch said the organization feels the system for buying firearms is flawed school shooter should never have been able to get a firearm of any kind.

"I'm not just fighting for my kids. I'm fighting for you. And I'm fighting for you," she told the students. 

Some in the crowd yelled at Loesch: "You're a murderer." 

Student Emma Gonzalez asked Loesch what the NRA's position was on bump stocks.

When Loesch replied that the NRA is waiting on the Justice Department to make a ruling on bump stocks, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said he knew she was standing up for the NRA.

"But you just told this group you were standing up for them," he said. "You're not standing up for them until you say I want less weapons."

Before the event, Israel told the crowd: "My generation, we did not get it done. You will get it done."

Students prepare for a long battle

The unprecedented lobbying effort by groups of teenagers and parents at the White House and at the Florida statehouse in Tallahassee played out as fellow students staged classroom walkouts and rallies in cities across the country.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, in an emotional hour-long meeting with students who survived the Florida shooting and a parent whose child did not, said arming teachers and other school staff could help prevent future mass shootings, voicing support for an idea backed by the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby.

The Republican president, who has championed gun rights and was endorsed by the NRA during the 2016 campaign, said he would move quickly to tighten background checks for gun buyers and would consider raising the age for buying certain types of guns.

Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee said they would consider raising the age limit to 21, the same standard for handguns and alcohol, although the state Senate on Wednesday opted not to take up a gun control measure.

The US Constitution protects the right of Americans to bear arms, a measure fiercely defended by Republicans. But Trump has come under pressure to act.

During the televised White House "listening session" with students, parents and people affected by other US school shootings, Trump spoke at length about how armed teachers and security guards could frighten off potential shooters and prevent more deaths.

"If you had a teacher ... who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly," he said while acknowledging that the proposal was controversial. Some of the meeting participants indicated support. Others were opposed.

Mark Barden, whose son was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, said his wife, Jackie, a teacher, "will tell you that school teachers have more than enough responsibilities right now than to have to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life."

‘Weapon of war’

After the Sandy Hook shooting, a task force backed by the NRA recommended more armed guards and teachers in schools.

Trump listened intently to ideas from about 40 people, including those from six students who survived the Florida shooting.

"I don't understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war," said Sam Zeif, 18, sobbing after he described texting his family members during the attack. "Let's never let this happen again, please, please."

Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow Pollack, 18, was killed, shouted: "It should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it.  And I'm pissed, because my daughter - I'm not going to see again."

Trump sat in the middle of a semi-circle in the White House State Dining Room. Photographers captured images of his handwritten note card with questions like "What would you most want me to know about your experience?" and "I hear you."

Before Trump's meeting, students across the United States walked out of classes in sympathy protests, including hundreds of teens from the Washington suburbs who gathered in front of the White House.

"I came out here because I don't feel safe in my school," said Allyson Zadravec, 15, of Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. "I want to make sure that everyone who can do something about it hears that I don't feel safe in my school."

In the Florida state capital, Tallahassee, students demanded that lawmakers restrict sales of assault rifles. Some wore T-shirts and carried signs reading: "We call B.S.," one of the slogans of the movement started by the survivors.

Trump also said he was open to looking at age limits, among other measures, and lamented the closure of many mental institutions to help assess violent people.

"There's no ... middle ground of having that institution where you had trained people that could handle it and do something about it," Trump said.

Trump on Tuesday directed the Justice Department to work on a regulation that would effectively ban such devices.

Last October, a retired real estate investor and high-stakes gambler used multiple assault rifles equipped with bump stocks to kill 58 people at a Las Vegas outdoor concert, the deadliest attack by a single gunman in US history. Bump stocks have not played a prominent role in other recent US mass shootings.

The NRA opposes an outright ban on bump stocks but has said it would be open to restrictions on them.

(With Reuters inputs)