One of the survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., said Sunday that the recent shooting at a Waffle House in Tennessee shows the need to ban semi-automatic guns.
Authorities say a man, nude except for a green jacket and armed with an AR-15, opened fire on the restaurant’s patrons early Sunday morning, killing four and injuring four others before James Shaw Jr. wrestled away the gun. Emma Gonzalez, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where a gunman killed 17 in February, responded to the Tennessee shooting by calling for gun control.
"Removing the assault and semi-automatic weapons from our Civilian society, instituting thorough background checks and mandatory waiting periods (and raising the buying age and banning the production of high-capacity magazines) are the ways to stop shootings in America," Gonzalez tweeted.
Tens of millions of semi-automatic guns are in circulation in the U.S. and they constitute about half of of guns produced since 1986. Removing them from "civilian society" would require the confiscation of tens of millions of handguns, hunting rifles, and other weapons in common use.
Gonzalez also made the point that the heroics of Shaw, who was not armed, show law-abiding citizens do not need guns to stop shootings. She said the fact he wasn't armed invalidates the self-defense "sales pitch" from gun companies such as Smith and Wesson.
"The local police say a man at the scene wrestled his gun away - looks like you don’t need to arm a teacher (or a resource officer) to stop a shooting," she said. "There goes the sales pitch for @SmithWessonCorp."
(4/4) Removing the assault and semi-automatic weapons from our Civilian society, instituting thorough background checks and mandatory waiting periods (and raising the buying age and banning the production of high-capacity magazines) are the ways to stop shootings in America.
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) April 22, 2018
Gonzalez cautioned against making the shooting about anything besides gun control, which she considers the only way to prevent violence. Without citing any evidence, she accused the NRA of seeking to drive up gun sales in the aftermath of the attack.
"He was white and he used an AR-15," Gonzalez also wrote. "The @NRA is about to say this man had mental health issues, so that the rest of us will get scared of anyone with poor mental health and buy a gun in preemptive defense so that gun sales increase."
"Shootings don’t just happen in schools, they happen everywhere in America, and now one has happened in Waffle House," she said. "You can donate all the shooting shelters to schools that you want, but at the end of the day, we can’t build our world out of Kevlar - someone is making Mad Money off that."
(2/4) they happen everywhere in America, and now one has happened in Waffle House. You can donate all the shooting shelters to schools that you want, but at the end of the day, we can’t build our world out of Kevlar - someone is making Mad Money off that.
— Emma González (@Emma4Change) April 22, 2018