Florida students rally for gun control

At a rally Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., students, parents, and activists called for stricter gun control laws to prevent school shootings like the one that killed 17 high schoolers last week in South Florida. Hundreds gathered there and across the country calling for measures ranging from universal background checks to banning the AR-15 rifle used by shooter Nikolas Cruz at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Some students directed their criticism at President Donald Trump, who on Saturday tweeted Democrats should have passed gun control legislation during former President Barack Obama’s tenure. “You’re the president. You’re supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us,” said David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Stoneman Douglas, speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press. The White House said the president would hold a listening session with unspecified students Wednesday and meet Thursday with state and local security officials from Florida. James Ciaramello, a freshman in the Stoneman Douglas’ JROTC program, was heartbroken by the massacre but skeptical firearms regulations could have prevented it. “He’s just messed up,” Ciaramello said of Cruz, a former JROTC participant at the school. “I mean, tighter gun control, it’s not gonna help. There’s always a way around it.”