This is not an opinion. These are the facts.
On Wednesday, February 14th, 2017, a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida. He is Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student of the school, allegedly expelled for bringing a knife to school. He used a semiautomatic, AR-15 style rifle, and killed 17 people. The shooting lasted 6 minutes. Afterward, he discarded his gear and blended in with the escaping students. He then took a pit stop at McDonald’s.
The victims are as follows:
Alyssa Alhadeff, 14
Scott Beigel, 35
Martin Duque Anguiano, 14
Nicholas Dworet, 17
Aaron Feis, 37
Jaime Guttenberg, 14
Chris Hixon, 49
Luke Hoyer, 15
Cara Loughran, 14
Gina Montalto, 14
Joaquin Oliver, 17
Alaina Petty, 14
Meadow Pollack, 18
Helena Ramsey, 17
Alex Schachter, 14
Carmen Schentrup, 16
Peter Wang, 15
These people were known to their community as bright, talented, vibrant individuals. Some on this list lost their lives attempting to help others escape. Peter Wang was last seen holding a door open so that others could get out. Scott Beigel, a geography teacher, was killed while locking kids inside his classroom. Aaron Feis, a football coach, covered students from gunfire and later died of his wounds in the hospital. These acts of ultimate bravery take an incredible kind of person.
Prior to this massacre, there were several warning signs about the shooter. He had been known to cause disruption in classes and had been in trouble numerous times in school. He was finally expelled from the school. Someone sent a tip to the FBI about his behavior and a comment he purportedly made on YouTube about wanting to be “a professional school shooter.” This was not investigated. He had accounts on Instagram with posts of high powered weapons and threats of violence; another had images that suggested he was prone to animal cruelty. He obtained his rifle legally, as the age for purchasing them in Florida is 18.
It is suggested that Cruz is mentally ill and may have a learning disability. He is an orphan. He was known to be hostile and aggressive in his daily life. All of this would create a dangerous state of mind for someone with access to high powered assault weapons. It is not the sole catalyst for this shooting. Many factors went into play, and it will take time to determine motivation and opportunity, as it always does after an event like this.
One thing that is known for sure is that this is the eighteenth school shooting in 2018. It is considered a mass shooting also, due to the number of people killed, defined as “four or more people shot and/or killed at the same time and general location”. It is the deadliest shooting of the year so far. There have been 30 mass shootings this year, averaging to a shooting not quite every other day, if you’re counting. The Parkland shooting now ranks in the top 5 deadliest school shootings. Columbine is often referenced as the ubiquitous American school massacre; it no longer even ranks in the top ten by death toll. There have been over 200 school shootings since then, and 25 of them resulted in fatalities. It is estimated that a school shooting takes place, on average, once a week. The deadliest attack on a primary school was the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, where 20 elementary school children and 6 adults were murdered.
Since Sandy Hook, not even a full six years ago, 438 people have been shot in one of these events, and 138 of them have died. AR-15’s and similar rifles are the weapon of choice, because of their firing rate and clip capacity. They can be further modified, and inexpensively at that, to increase these qualities. They have an effective range of around 500 meters, or 1,640 feet. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 has expired.
These are the facts as they are known right now. This is the data we currently have to draw conclusions from. These events are senselessly violent and deadly, and that is not a debatable opinion.
