Kamala Harris Visits Parkland and Urges States to Adopt Red-Flag Gun Laws

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. At the site of the 2018 school shooting in Florida, the vice president announced federal help for states to limit weapon access for people deemed to be threats. Video transcript […]

Kamala Harris Visits Parkland and Urges States to Adopt Red-Flag Gun Laws

Kamala Harris Visits Parkland and Urges States to Adopt Red-Flag Gun Laws thumbnail

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

At the site of the 2018 school shooting in Florida, the vice president announced federal help for states to limit weapon access for people deemed to be threats.

Video

transcript

transcript

Kamala Harris Announces Resource Center to Help With Red-Flag Laws

Vice President Kamala Harris stood beside the parents of children killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and announced a new federal resource center to help states implement their red-flag laws.

Today I am launching the national resource center for red-flag laws. And this national resource center will be a place where we will, through that, provide for training for local leaders on how to use red-flag laws and keep communities safe. Thank you to the leaders of this community, starting with these families. This school is soon going to be torn down, but the memory of it will never be erased. And let us, through the courage and the call to action of these families, find it in ourselves to consider what they’ve been through as some level of motivation and inspiration for all of us to do more.

Video player loading

Vice President Kamala Harris stood beside the parents of children killed in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and announced a new federal resource center to help states implement their red-flag laws.CreditCredit…Drew Angerer/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Michael D. Shear

Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday toured the still-bloody and bullet-pocked classroom building in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members in 2018, using the grim backdrop to announce a new federal resource center and to call for stricter enforcement of gun laws.

The freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had been preserved as evidence for criminal trials and is set to be demolished this summer. For now, it remains a memorial to one of the most shocking mass shootings in the history of the United States.

In remarks after taking her tour and meeting for more than an hour with family members of victims of the attack, Ms. Harris said the experience had been a compelling one.

“Let us, through the courage and the call to action of these families, find it in ourselves to consider what they’ve been through as some level of motivation and inspiration for all of us,” she said.

“This school is soon going to be torn down,” the vice president added. “But the memory of it will never be erased.”

Ms. Harris said the attack, carried out by a former student with a history of mental health and behavior problems, should prompt officials around the country to embrace local red-flag laws. These allow courts to temporarily seize firearms and other dangerous weapons when they believe a person may be a threat to themselves or others. The Parkland shooter had purchased his gun legally.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.