Columbine parent: ‘I hear a different tone from politicians’ after Florida shooting

The parent of a victim from the Columbine school shooting says that he hears “a different tone from politicians” after last week’s mass shooting at a Florida high school. 

Darrell Scott was among a small group of parents and students affected by school shootings who took part in a listening session with President Trump at the White House on Wednesday. He said he is hopeful for legislative action in the wake of the Florida shooting. 

“I feel something different with this last tragedy,” he said, according to The Denver Post. “I hear a different tone from politicians.” 

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Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed last week, as well as attendees affected by other past tragedies, shared their thoughts and concerns on gun violence with Trump at the meeting, including debating possible solutions to prevent future attacks. 

Scott, whose daughter was killed in the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in 1999, voiced concerns for the lack of safeguards preventing strangers from entering schools. 

The confessed gunman in the Florida high school shooting is a 19-year-old who had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons.

Trump has received criticism for probing attendees at the meeting on their thoughts of arming teachers in classrooms to potentially deter or take down active shooters, but Scott did not share his thoughts on the matter. 

“I have my own personal opinions but I don’t share them publicly because [the issues are] so volatile,” he said, according to the Post.

Trump tweeted early Thursday clarifying that he did not suggest arming teachers at the meeting, but said that unarmed schools would be a “magnet for bad people” and that “highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches” could prevent such events.