Florida & Guns

What has changed since Parkland?

by Constantine Waltz & Alizee Chaudey

Two of the deadliest shootings in the United States’s history have happened here in Florida within the past five years. Since the tragedy that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where former student and gunman Nikolas Cruz shot and killed seventeen innocent victims in February of 2018, Florida has passed new gun laws and regulations in an effort to protect its children. However, while some concerned citizens, including the families that have been directly impacted by gun violence, have been fighting for gun law reformations; Others seem to be pushing back.

Since Parkland, Florida has implemented three major changes to its gun legislations. Indeed before the tragedy one could purchase a gun before one could purchase a drink, today the minimum age to purchase a firearm has been raised from 18 to 21 years-old. There is now a mandatory three day waiting period when purchasing a gun- meaning one cannot impulsively decide to walk into a store and leave with a fire arm anymore. Additionally, an Extreme Risk Protection law was passed, meaning that if a person is deemed unsafe to themselves or others they can be restricted from buying a gun for up to a year — This was appropriately named the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School public safety act.

But while the security measures in Florida schools have significantly increased since the Parkland shooting, one question remains: how can you prevent these shootings from happening, prior to the point of needing to stop an individual from acting? More attention needs to be paid to preventative mental health measures to help prevent at risk students from committing violent acts. The lack of school counselors and other support services in Florida public schools make it difficult to monitor and intervene when students are at risk. In the case of Nikolas Cruz, many of his former classmates have stated that they experienced him engage in risky and questionable behavior, but very little was done to intervene.

Since the shooting at Columbine in 1999, school shootings have become a big problem in the United States. Let's look at some of the shocking statistics on how prevalent they really are.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/14/us/florida-high-school-shooting/index.html

https://www.pilotonline.com/news/article_b3ee844c-5677-5d64-aba1-2208c34e32ec.html

https://www.security.org/blog/a-timeline-of-school-shootings-since-columbine/