Parkland shooting survivor condemns inaction of pro-gun Republicans who ‘march for hours over a rainbow wedding cake’
(Getty)
A survivor of the Parkland high school shooting has torn into Republican politicians for responding to massacres with “thoughts and prayers” but marching over anti-LGBT positions.
Former Stoneman Douglas High School student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 on Wednesday with a legally purchased AR-15 rifle – just one of five he bought over the past year, according to CNN.
After one member of an Instagram group chat he was in expressed hatred for gay people, Cruz agreed, saying, “Shoot them in the back of head.”
(YouTube/cnn)
Cameron Kasky, a senior at the school, told CNN host Anderson Cooper – who was also on the ground in Florida after the Orlando massacre – that the time for meaningless words was over.
He said: “There’s a section of this society that will just shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers, but will march for hours when they have to bake a rainbow wedding cake.”
Kasky was referring to the case currently in the US Supreme Court of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado, who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple.
(Getty)
He continued: “Everything I’ve heard where ‘We can’t do anything’ and ‘It’s out of our hands, it’s inevitable’ – I think that’s a facade that the GOP is putting up.
“I think that’s what they want us to think. I think that after every shooting, the NRA sends them a memo saying: ‘Send your thoughts and prayers, say let’s not talk about it now, say this happens.’
“This is the only country where this kind of thing happens. I’ve been hearing things from people; they don’t have gun drills the way we do.
(Getty)
“We had to prepare extensively at Stoneman Douglas, and that shocked people. This is something that can be stopped, and this is something that will be stopped.”
The student attacked Republican representatives like anti-LGBT US Senator Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott, who he said appeared to be “the only people who don’t care”.
Rubio was targeted this week by a protest in the style of Oscar-nominated film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
(Getty)
The messages read: “Slaughtered in school,” “And still no gun control?” “How come, Marco Rubio?”
When Cooper observed that some will say that gun legislation shouldn’t be discussed just yet, Kasky was clear in his opposition.
“This is the time to talk about guns,” he said.
(Getty)
“Thoughts and prayers are appreciated… but there’s much more that can be done, much more that needs to be done, and much more that people like Marco Rubio and Rick Scott are not doing.
“And it’s scary to think that these are the people who are making our laws, when our community just took 17 bullets to the heart.
(Getty)
“And it feels like the only people who don’t care are the people making the laws,” he added.
He also paid tribute to security guards and staff at the school, including one – football coach Aaron Feis – who gave their life to save students.
Watch Cameron’s interview here:
