US President Joe Biden
The rest of America, including President Joe Biden, has joined a community in the southern state of Florida in remembering the 17 lives lost three years ago in the Parkland school shooting massacre.
On Valentine’s Day in 2018, Nikolas Cruz, a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School opened fire on campus with a semi-automatic rifle.
When the shooting was over, fourteen students and three staff members were dead, and seventeen others were injured.
President Biden used the occasion of the third anniversary of the massacre to call on the US Congress to strengthen gun laws, including requiring background checks on all gun sales and banning assault weapons.
“In seconds, the lives of dozens of families, and the life of an American community, were changed forever,” Mr. Biden said in a statement released on Sunday.
There was no time to wait, the president said, adding: “We owe it to all those we’ve lost and to all those left behind to grieve to make a change. The time to act is now.”
On Sunday, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida ordered flags be lowered to half staff from sunrise to sunset across the state to honor those who perished on the fateful day, February 14, 2018.
The suspect, Mr. Cruz, now twenty-two, is still awaiting trial.
AP