Parkland massacre riveted us in anguish, but we don’t act

A year ago this week, 14 students and three educators were massacred in the hallways of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland by an armed former student who came on a rampage of revenge. In the wake of his evil act was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2012. The tragedy rocked the upscale community of Parkland, South Florida and the nation and sparked a movement lead by the surviving students who turned their shock and grief into outrage and action that launched an national political movement — anti-gun and pro get-out-the-youth vote. You would think things would have vastly changed for the better. That the number of young people killed by gun violence would have dropped. That Americans, young and old, would have put lay down their weapons. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Island Packet Not at all. In an unprecedented collaboration, the Miami Herald and other McClatchy newspapers across the country and The Trace, a nonprofit online news organization that covers firearms issues, tabulated just how many more children and teens fell after Parkland. The outlets, with the help of student reporters, diligently tracked gun deaths among youths 18 and under in the year since that horrific day in Parkland. This week, online and in Sunday newspapers including the Kansas City Star, the Sacramento Bee and the News & Observer of North Carolina, all are publishing their findings in unison, a rare media practice. But the message is just too important. Sadly, when it comes to preventing youth gun deaths, the needle has barely moved. What the media outlets found was troubling — and, sadly, the same old thing: After a mass shooting tragedy like Parkland, there’s a lot of hoopla for gun control, for background

Read more from our friends at the NRA...