During President Donald Trump’s listening session with survivors and relatives of the Florida school shooting victims, the father of a killed student told Trump that he was pissed and the White House has to do something to prevent tragedies like this from happening again.
“We as a country failed our children. This shouldn’t happen,” Andrew Pollack said to Trump at the White House. “It stops here with this administration and me,” he added. “It should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it. I’m pissed. Because my daughter, I’m not going to see again. She’s not here. … It’s enough. Let’s get together, work with the president and fix the schools.”
Pollack then mentioned how the country reacted quickly to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
“I’m very angry that this happened because it keeps happening. 9/11 happened once and they fixed everything. How many schools, how many children have to get shot?” he said. “I can’t get on a plane with a bottle of water but some animal can come into a school and shoot our children.”
Pollack is the father of Meadow Pollack, who was killed last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The shooter Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15 rifle. The shooting resulted in the deaths of 17 people and more than a dozen others were injured.
“We have to come together as a country, not different parties, and figure out how we protect the schools. It’s simple. It’s not difficult. We protect airports, we protect concerts, stadiums, embassies, the Department of Education that I walked in today that has a security guard in the elevator. How do you think that makes me feel?” Pollack continued.
According to The Hill, Pollack was photographed wearing a “Trump 2020” campaign shirt during his initial search for his daughter last week.
Meanwhile, the shooting has reignited the nationwide debate on gun control. Students across the country staged walkouts on Wednesday to demand action on gun laws from lawmakers.
The Hill also reported that the White House listening session on Wednesday was attended by Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as well. Trump opened the session vowing to get tough on background checks.
“We’re going to be very strong on background checks,” the president said. “It’s not going to be talk like it has been in the past. It’s been going on too long. Too many instances and we’re going to get it done.”
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