'We need to dig out of this hole': Students plead with Trump and Congress to do something after Florida school shooting

Some students who survived Wednesday's school shooting in Florida are calling on Congress to act on gun control.
The shooting left 17 dead and more than a dozen injured.
President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to the families of the victims on Wednesday, and some students reacted in anger.

Some students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are calling on Congress to do more to curb mass shootings after the school became a crime scene Wednesday when a 19-year-old man shot and killed 17 people. Over a dozen more were injured.

"We need to dig out of this hole … there is something seriously wrong here," David Hogg, a Stoneman Douglas student, said on CNN Thursday. "Some of our policymakers and some people need to look in the mirror and take some action because ideas are great, but without action, ideas stay ideas and children die."

Another student, whose Twitter account Business Insider was not able to independently verify, recalled the terrifying experience.

"I cannot stop hearing the sound of the gun as [the shooter] walked down my hallway," wrote Morgan Williams, who said she's a student at Stoneman Douglas. "I cannot unsee my classmates who were shot get carried out by police. I cannot unsee the bodies on the floor. Please keep in mind the horror of what we’ve gone through today."

Police identified Nikolas Cruz, an ex-student who was expelled from Stoneman Douglas, as the suspect in the shooting, which took place in Parkland, Florida, about an hour north of Miami. Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is planning to visit Florida to meet with families and local officials, although he didn't specify when. Earlier on Twitter, Trump offered his thoughts to the Parkland community.

"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting," Trump said in a tweet. "No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."

Some students reacted in anger to Trump's message:

An epidemic of mass slaughter

Gun control remains a hot-button political issue around the country.

Although mass shootings tend to elicit increased support from lawmakers, that support usually dies out in the subsequent weeks and months.

Amid Wednesday's shooting, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut went to the Senate floor to lambaste fellow lawmakers for not doing more to prevent mass shootings.

"This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America," Murphy said. "This epidemic of mass slaughter — this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction."

So far this year, there have been 18 gun-related incidents at schools in the US. The Parkland shooting was the deadliest school shooting since 20 children were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.

'We need to dig out of this hole': Students plead with Trump and Congress to do something after Florida school shooting

An epidemic of mass slaughter

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