Florida high school superintendent shares calls for ‘commonsense gun laws’

The superintendent of the Florida school district where a mass shooting took place this week shared calls for “commonsense gun laws” during a vigil Thursday night.

“Those lives should not be lost in vain. Those lives are telling us that now is the time for us to do something different,” Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said at the vigil for the 17 students and faculty killed in the shooting.

“Our children are writing to us. They’re telling us, school board members, community, elected officials, now is the time for us to enact some commonsense gun laws in this country,” he said to applause from those gathered.

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The superintendent’s comments came after numerous calls by Democratic lawmakers in Washington to pass gun control measures in an effort to prevent future school shootings.

The push was met with resistance by GOP lawmakers who warned against politicizing the tragedy and questioning whether new laws would have stopped the shooter.

Several students from the South Florida high school where the shooting took place have come forward on social media to express their outrage at Congress and President Trump for their response to the shooting, in which a former student opened fire.

On Thursday morning, Trump suggested the suspected gunman was “mentally disturbed” and should have been reported to police. Trump did not mention the possibility of pursuing gun control measures following the Parkland, Fla., shooting.

“This week we saw the worst in humanity,” Runcie said. “Tomorrow we are going to see the best of humanity. We’re going to see what defines Parkland. It’s not this tragedy. It’s gonna be how we come together to recover from this tragedy.”