Students plan gun control march in Washington DC

PARKLAND:Stunned by the deadliest high school shooting in US history, students mobilised across the country on Sunday to organise rallies and a national walkout in support of stronger gun laws, challenging politicians they say have failed to protect them.

Magaly Newcomb, right, comforts her daughter Haley Newcomb, 14, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, at a makeshift memorial outside the school in Parkland, Florida, on Sunday. AP/PTI

Parkland, February 19

Stunned by the deadliest high school shooting in US history, students mobilised across the country on Sunday to organise rallies and a national walkout in support of stronger gun laws, challenging politicians they say have failed to protect them.

Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a former student is accused of murdering 17 persons on Wednesday using an assault-style rifle, joined others on social media to plan the events, including a Washington march.

“I felt like it was our time to take a stand,” said Lane Murdock, 15, of Connecticut. “We’re the ones in these schools, we’re the ones who are having shooters come into our classrooms and our spaces.”

Murdock, who lives 32 km from Sandy Hook Elementary School where 20 children and six adults were shot to death five years ago, drew more than 50,000 signatures on an online petition on Sunday calling on students to walk out of their high schools on April 20.

Instead of going to classes, she urged her fellow students to stage protests on the 19th anniversary of an earlier mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Students from the Florida high school are planning a “March for Our Lives” in Washington on March 24 to call attention to school safety and ask lawmakers to enact gun control. They also plan to rally for gun control, mental health issues and school safety on Wednesday in Tallahassee, the state capital. The students were expected to meet with a lawmaker who is seeking to ban the sale of assault-style weapons like the AR-15 allegedly used in the school shooting. — Reuters

Trump backs efforts to bolster FBI gun checks

Donald Trump on Monday offered support for efforts to strengthen the FBI gun background check system as he visited his Florida golf course, 40 miles from last week’s school shooting
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump is serious about the Bill to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers
The bipartisan background check legislation would be aimed at ensuring that federal agencies and states accurately report relevant criminal information to the FBI
Trump has been a strong supporter of gun rights. Last year, he signed a resolution blocking an Obama-era rule on gun control