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After Parkland, Students Launch Historic Youth-Led Movement to End Mass Shootings

HeadlineFeb 19, 2018

In Florida, as funerals continue for the 17 people killed in at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida, on Wednesday, survivors of the school shooting have launched an unprecedented youth-led movement to demand gun control. On Friday, students at the South Broward High School in Florida walked out of class to protest the massacre, which was carried out by a 19-year-old white former student named Nikolas Cruz, who had a history of violent and abusive behavior against women.

On Friday, the FBI admitted it had failed to investigate Cruz, even after someone close to him called the agency’s tip line in January to warn them “about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.” At a rally on Saturday, survivors of the school shooting demanded politicians stop accepting money from the National Rifle Association. Nikolas Cruz reportedly trained in a youth shooting club that was funded by the NRA.

This is Emma González, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, speaking at Saturday’s rally.

Emma González: “If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened, and maintains telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association. It doesn’t matter, because I already know: $30 million! And divided by the number of gunshot victims in the United States in the one-and-one-half months in 2018 alone, that comes out to being $5,800. Is that how much these people are worth to you, Trump? … To every politician who is taking donations from the NRA, shame on you.”

We’ll hear more of Emma González’s speech after headlines.

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