“President Trump, please do something! Do something. Action! We need it now! These kids need safety now!”
This is how a grieving mother, who lost her daughter in Wednesday’s school shooting incident in Parkland, Florida reacted.
In his address to the nation, President Donald Trump made no mention of the scourge of gun violence plaguing America and instead blamed mental health issues.
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Mr. Trump did not mention the word “gun” or “firearm” even once.
With tears rolling down her face, Lori Alhadeff screamed into a microphone and begged the President to address the nation’s deadly gun epidemic.
Ms. Alhadeff’s 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, was one of 17 people killed during the school shooting.
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Security issues
“How do we allow a gunman to come into our children’s school? How do they get through security? What security is there?” she yelled. “The gunman — a crazy person — just walks right into the school, knocks down the window of my child’s door and starts shooting. Shooting her! And killing her!”
She also spoke about the nightmare of burying a child.
“I just spent the last two hours putting [together] the burial arrangements for my daughter’s funeral, who’s 14!” she said.
Ms. Alhadeff challenged the President to put a stop to the terror and heartbreak.
“President Trump, you say what can you do? You can stop the guns from getting into these children’s hands,” she said. “What can you do? You can do a lot! This is not fair to our families and our children [to] go to school and have to get killed!”
In his address, Mr. Trump said that a school filled with innocent children and caring teachers became the scene of terrible violence, hatred and evil.
Mr. Trump said no that child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school.
No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them good-bye in the morning.
‘Top priority’
“We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health,” he said.
“Making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority. It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference,” he added.