Florida shooting survivor slams Republicans who “march for hours” over LGBTQ issues but ignore gun problem
Cameron Kasky criticized those who complain about having to "bake a rainbow wedding cake" but won't try to protect students from being killed
“There’s a section of this society that will just shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers, but will march for hours when they have to bake a rainbow wedding cake.”
—Cameron Kasky, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and survivor of the Feb. 14 shooting that left 17 dead, speaking with Anderson Cooper on CNN. Former student Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 rifle — legally obtained — to attack the school.
Kasky slammed pro-gun conservatives who take issue over bakers being asked to make cakes for same-sex weddings, but refuse to push for change to prevent more mass shootings from occurring.
“Everything I’ve heard where ‘We can’t do anything’ and ‘It’s out of our hands, it’s inevitable’ — I think that’s a facade that the GOP is putting up,” Kasky continued. “I think that’s what they want us to think. I think that after every shooting, the NRA sends them a memo saying: ‘Send your thoughts and prayers, say let’s not talk about it now, say this happens.’”
Kasky noted that America “is the only country where this kind of thing happens,” saying he’d heard from other students that “they don’t have gun drills the way we do.”
“We had to prepare extensively at Stoneman Douglas, and that shocked people,” he added. “This is something that can be stopped, and this is something that will be stopped.”
Kasky called out Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Marco Rubio, both Republicans, saying they seemed to be “the only people who don’t care.” Cooper noted that some argue it’s not the time to discuss gun legislation, a common refrain among many in the wake of a mass shooting, but Kasky swatted the argument away.
“This is the time to talk about guns,” he said. “Thoughts and prayers are appreciated…but there’s much more that can be done, much more that needs to be done, and much more that people like Marco Rubio and Rick Scott are not doing. And it’s scary to think that these are the people who are making our laws, when our community just took 17 bullets to the heart.”
He added: “It feels like the only people who don’t care are the people making the laws.”
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