Donald Trump doesn’t think school shootings are a national tragedy
February 15, 2018On Valentine’s Day 2018, a 19-year-old named Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. He killed 17 adults and children and left dozens wounded and traumatized. High school students – American children – hid in closets, locked themselves in classrooms, texted their loved ones and tried to tweet out their locations for first responders. A football coach was shot as he tried to protect children. The shooter Cruz was said to be a Trump-hat wearing outcast who was suspended from the same school. His former classmates say that there was always something “off” and “creepy” about him.
This is the 18th school shooting of 2018. Even though we’re only 46 days into 2018, there have already been 29 mass shootings and 1,796 gun deaths this year. What does that matter though? As I’ve said before – as many have said before – Sandy Hook was the turning point. That was the “there’s no going back” point. After Sandy Hook, nothing was done. After Sandy Hook, the NRA and the Republican Party decided that they would always prioritize gun sales and stoking fear among gun-toting white people rather than doing anything about the corpses of children being taken out of schools.
Donald Trump didn’t speak to the nation as the tragedy unfolded or in the hours that followed, because he doesn’t think this was a national tragedy. He’s probably mad that he can’t find a way to blame this on Muslims, although we still have time for that. Hours after the tragedy unfolded, Trump tweeted this:
The NRA spent $30 million to get Trump elected and about $70 million to get Republicans elected in 2016. The FBI is currently investigating whether shady Russian “bankers” funneled money to Trump’s campaign through the NRA.
Some tweets:
Photos courtesy of Getty.