Tag Archives: Gun Safety

‘I am forever haunted:’ Parkland mourns a year after shooting

Cheryl Rothenberg embraces her daughters Emma and Sophia as they view a memorial on the one year anniversary of the shooting which claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, U.S., February 14, 2019. Sophia is a student at the school and Emma is a recent graduate. REUTERS/Joe Skipper

By Zachary Fagenson

PARKLAND, Fla. (Reuters) – One year after the Valentine’s Day massacre inside a Florida school, students and families leading a nationwide push for school and gun safety paused on Thursday to mark the anniversary of the deadliest U.S. high school shooting.

School buses brought only a handful of students to a shortened class day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a former student with an assault gun killed 17 people on Feb. 14, 2018.

A moment of silence and community service activities took place at local schools, with the city of Parkland set to host an evening vigil at a park where a similar event the day after the shooting showcased angry grief and spurred calls for action.

Leaders of March for Our Lives, a national student movement formed in the aftermath of the Parkland tragedy to fight gun violence, said on Twitter that they were “going dark” for four days.

“During that time, if past trends continue, around 400 people in the U.S. will likely be shot to death,” they said.

From Washington to Florida’s state capital Tallahassee, elected leaders from both parties vowed to keep working to prevent another catastrophe. Republican President Donald Trump said on Twitter that the anniversary was a time to “recommit to ensuring the safety of all Americans, especially our nation’s children.”

Gun violence represents an epidemic that claimed the lives of nearly 40,000 Americans in 2017. Of those deaths, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in December that 60 percent were self-inflicted.

“Why have we not been able to stop this from happening?” asked Jared Moskowitz, a former Democratic state legislator from the Parkland area, now heading the Florida Division of Emergency Management. He spoke alongside a 35-foot memorial to the shooting victims erected at a public arts display in Coral Springs, near Parkland.

A former student, Nikolas Cruz, is accused of opening fire with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle inside a freshman classroom building. He has offered to plead guilty if prosecutors do not seek the death penalty, but no such agreement has been reached.

Many families of the dead and many student activists prefer not to mention his name.

Students who did not want to attend school on Thursday were excused. Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie noted that many struggle with post-traumatic stress.

“For some it is almost as if the incident occurred yesterday. It’s raw and fresh for people,” he told reporters outside the high school, which was guarded by police officers.

For parent Fred Guttenberg, the year since the shooting already has seen his first Father’s Day, birthday and other emotional milestones without his 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, who was killed in a school hallway.

On the one-year mark of Jaime’s death, he was going to visit her at the cemetery. In a social media post, he noted that one year ago he had sent two children to school – and only one came home.

“I am forever haunted by my memory of that morning, rushing my kids out the door rather than getting one last minute. Did I say I love you?” he said on Twitter.

(Additional reporting and writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)

California Man Offers Free Gun Safety Classes to Church Personnel

A Northern California man is reportedly offering free gun safety classes to religious leaders.

Geof Peabody, who owns a gun range in Placerville, near Sacramento, told CBS News that he’s provided the training to some 500 ministers and church security teams over the past eight years.

“Safe and saved,” Peabody told CBS News. “We can accomplish both with the right training.”

Sacramento television station KOVR also covered Peabody’s story, reporting that the owner saw “a dramatic increase” in interest in recent months. Peabody told KOVR a recent class attracted nine different churches, who collectively sent about 25 students to learn introductory training.

The classes cover more than firing weapons. Peabody told KOVR he also teaches his clients certain defense techniques, which can be used to stop someone else from shooting.

The news comes at a time when America is feeling particularly jittery.

A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll, conducted in the wake of the San Bernardino mass shootings, found that 47 percent of Americans believe they or someone in their family will be the victim of a terrorist attack. And data available on Google’s website indicates that more Americans have performed searches for concealed carry permits, which allow people to carry hidden handguns in public, this month than they have at any other point in the past 11 years.

CBS News reported Peabody’s graduates can carry concealed weapons, and many of them bring their guns to church. In addition to San Bernardino, another incident is undoubtedly fresh in the minds of some of the church personnel who receive training from Peabody. Nine people were killed when a gunman opened fire at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, back in June.

But there is conflicting evidence on whether concealed carry permits actually curb gun violence, particularly in chaotic active-shooter situations like those in San Bernardino and Charleston, as well as conflicting ideologies about whether firearms belong in church under any circumstance.