What to Know
- Chopper 6 was over the scene at South Broward High School, where the students could be seen holding various signs.
- Several of the signs pointed their criticism at President Donald Trump and one of Florida’s U.S. Senators, Marco Rubio.
Ahead of a proposed large-scale student walkout nationwide, students protested outside a Broward County high school Friday, seeking an end to the gun violence that led to 17 deaths this week at a school just miles away.
Chopper 6 was over the scene at South Broward High School, where the students could be seen holding various signs urging politicians at every level to do something on the hotly debated issue of gun control.
Several of the signs pointed their criticism at President Donald Trump and one of Florida’s U.S. Senators, Marco Rubio – who has come under fire from some after Wednesday’s deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
The protests come as a Twitter page, named Student Walkout Against Gun Violence, is calling for a nationwide walkout to be held next week.
The page said it would release the date and time of the walkout on Monday. The page, which appears to have been established on Thursday, has more than 2,300 Twitter followers as of Friday evening.
An image circulating on social media calls for students in Broward County to walkout at noon on Wednesday.
"We do this for the 17 people who will never be able to say their last 'I love you' to their families," the circulated image reads.
An October 2017 story in the New York Times says that Rubio has accepted over $3.3 million in campaign money the National Rifle Association donated to both his campaign and organizations working on behalf of Rubio.
Local
Rubio said on Thursday it was legitimate for Congress to debate how to respond to the shooting that killed 17 people and injured nine more, but said lawmakers must acknowledge their power is limited.
“If someone has decided, ‘I’m going to commit this crime,’ they will find a way to get the gun to do it,” Rubio said Thursday on the Senate floor.
“I think it’s also wrong to say that there is nothing we can do,” Rubio added. “This is hard, but we need to do it.”
A total of 17 people were killed in Wednesday’s shooting – including 49-year-old Chris Hixon, who served as the athletic director at several schools, including South Broward, before moving to Douglas.
