FSU students come to Capitol with asks following campus shooting
Florida State University students, joined by House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell, are calling for policy change following a campus shooting within walking distance of the chambers where laws are made.
A group of students gathered at the Capitol Tuesday only days after they barricaded themselves in classrooms Thursday when a shooter opened fire on campus, killing two and wounding six.
'As a leader, I carry the weight of this moment and turn it into purpose. We owe it to the victims, not just here at Florida State University, but across Florida and across our nation to make sure that this doesn't happen again,' said Andres Perez, president of the FSU chapter of Students Demand Action.
The suspected gunman, step-son of a Leon County sheriff's deputy, according to law enforcement, used her retired service weapon. Leon County Sheriff Walt McNeil said it was not surprising 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner would have access to weapons. He was involved with LCSO, including training with the department and sitting on a youth board advising the sheriff.
Madalyn Propst, president of FSU College Democrats, called on FSU to put locks on classroom doors, train professors to respond to shootings, and increase financial support for mental health intervention and advocacy. She said the shooting 'was both senseless and preventable.'
'Although it is not a political issue when a mass tragedy happens, it becomes political when it is enabled by poor policy,' Propst said in the Captiol rotunda.
'Because of a lack of proactive planning and poor policy on the hands of our legislators, there are two people who are dead who shouldn't be, six people in the hospital who shouldn't be, thousands of students who no longer feel safe on campus, and a community that is still reeling from a senseless act of violence, and no amount of thoughts and prayers is going to fix that.'
Propst called on Congress to reinstate the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, and on the Legislature to expand safe storage laws to apply to any house that someone who cannot legally handle a gun lives in.
'Shooting after shooting, we're told to wait, and all we hear are 'thoughts and prayers.' And I'm sensitive to not politicizing an issue but, year after year, we file good, common sense bills to help make our community safer and, unfortunately, they don't even get a committee hearing,' Driskell said.
A Senate bill, SB 814, allowing students to carry guns on Florida campuses, lost steam earlier this session, and eyes are on the same chamber to see if it will pick up the House-approved bill, HB 759, to lower the age to buy long guns to 18.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
'I'm disgusted with my Legislature and the people that I know some of my friends and my family voted for,' Propst said. 'The fact that they are able to sit in this place and prioritize weapons over my life, my friends' lives, and the lives of my community around me is deplorable.'
The House bill would reverse in part a 2018 package addressing school safety passed just weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. A response as quick as happened in 2018 does not seem so certain this year.
'I think the only difference [between 2018 and now] is that it seems like the governor is desensitized to this. I mean, we saw the comments from President Trump, that, to me, was such a slap in the face to these students and to everyone in this community who's been impacted by this gun violence,' Driskell.
Gov. Ron DeSantis released a video to X the day of the shooting and ordered flags flown at half-staff. President Donald Trump said, 'I will always protect the Second Amendment,' and, 'These things are terrible. But the gun doesn't do the shooting, the people do,' CBS News reported.
According to FSU, following the shooting it offered mental health assistance to more than 1,300 students Thursday through Sunday, including 604 on the day of the shooting and 520 on Sunday. The university continues to provide services through this week.
The school canceled classes on Friday and resumed classes Monday with optional attendance. The semester ends May 2.
Rep. Christine Hunchofsky, mayor of Parkland during the 2018 shooting, reflected on the FSU shooting during a media availability Monday.
'If you haven't been through something like this, it's very hard to understand the level of trauma that people who have been through this are experiencing and, if that doesn't get addressed early enough, it's something that can become debilitating in the long term. And so, it's so important to make sure that everyone has what they need,' Hunchofsky said.
Minutes after the shooting on Thursday, Hunchofsky presented HB 1403 to the House Education and Employment Committee, a bill that would address school safety measures. It passed unanimously.
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
19 minutes ago
- New York Post
Failed New Mexico GOP candidate sentenced to 80 years for organizing drive-by shootings at Democrats' homes
A wannabe Republican representative in New Mexico was sentenced to 80 years in prison for organizing shootings at Democrats' homes after he was easily crushed in an election for a state House seat. Solomon Peña, 42, originally ran for the Albuquerque-based house district in 2022, but was swiftly defeated by incumbent Democrat Miguel Garcia after securing a mere 26% of the vote. 4 Solomon Peña was sentenced to eight decades in prison for organizing targeted shootings at Democratic officials' homes. Solomon Pena/X Still, Peña asserted the election was 'rigged.' 'I didn't lose nada,' he posted on his X account on Jan. 2. The sore loser quickly formed a 'sophisticated scheme' targeting elected officials in the state, US District Court Judge Kea Riggs said during his sentencing. 4 Peña previously attempted to run for a state House seat, but was defeated. AP He was arrested in January 2023 after a tense standoff with a SWAT team and accused of hiring four men to shoot at the homes of Bernalillo County Commissioners Adriann Barboa and Debbie O'Malley and state Sens. Linda Lopez and Moe Maestas, who are all registered Democrats. Peña was found guilty in March for recruiting a man and his son to target the Democratic officials. He was additionally convicted of trying to convince fellow inmates he was in jail with while awaiting trial to kill his codefendants. As the 'ringleader' of the operation, Peña tagged along on the final drive-by to Lopez's, less than a day before he was nabbed by the SWAT team. 4 Peña was arrested in January 2023 after a standoff with SWAT officials. AP The heavily armed men opened fire on the senator's house, sending multiple bullets flying through Lopez's 10-year-old daughter's bedroom window. No injuries were reported, but Lopez testified Wednesday that her children still suffer from mental health issues spurred by the shooting, including anxiety and depression, the Source New Mexico reported. 'The shooting of our home shattered what I was trying to form for my children,' Lopez said. 4 Peña plans to appeal the conviction, his attorneys said. AP Peña's attorneys spoke on his behalf and asserted that he would be appealing the conviction. Riggs, a Trump appointee, said that Peña would have likely continued on his violent rampage if he hadn't been captured by authorities — all because of his 'ego' and inability to 'believe that [he] lost an election.' Peña, an ex-con, previously served seven years in prison for theft. He was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. Over the last year, acts of political violence have spiked countrywide. In June, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated at her home by deranged madman Vance Boelter, who dressed up as a police officer to trick the couple into opening their door. In April, an unemployed mechanic set Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's home on fire while his family was asleep inside. The arsonist later told police that he despised the governor and would've beaten him with a hammer himself if given the opportunity.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
America has PLENTY of reason to believe Adam Schiff schemed to smear Trump
Whistleblower allegations are merely allegations — but the ones newly surfacing about then-Rep. Adam Schiff's gross misconduct in the wake of the 2016 election certainly fit with what we know for certain about his abuses of power. FBI Director Kash Patel just declassified info that the Justice Department had been sitting on for years, which he apparently only saw quite recently. The source is a longtime Democratic staffer for the House Intelligence Committee who sat down for multiple interviews over the years 2017 to 2023; while some of his claims got mentioned in an inspector general report, much of it had never seen the light. Advertisement Among the bombshell claims is a (highly credible) charge that Schiff expected to become CIA director under Hillary Clinton, and so was personally furious at President Donald Trump for winning instead. The source says he was fired because he refused to take part in Schiff's systemic, selective leaking of classified info to smear Trump. A number of intel-world insiders definitely were leaking to The Washington Post, New York Times and others to feed anti-Trump hysteria, starting before Trump even took office. Advertisement Plus, Schiff time and again publicly claimed to have seen info that proved Trump wrongdoing in Russiagate — info that plainly never existed, since the exhaustive Mueller investigation couldn't find a shred of such evidence. Such antics won Schiff a (Republican-driven) House censure in 2023, but he's paid no real price and maybe never will. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Indeed, his anti-Trump leadership made him a minor Democratic star, such that he moved up to the Senate last year. Advertisement Maybe ongoing investigations (lots of whistleblowers are popping up now) will prove he conspired illegally against Trump; maybe some kind of 'truth and reconciliation' commission will eventually at least bare the full facts behind the Russiagate scam. At the very least, Americans have a lot to keep in mind the next time Adam Schiff and his party again pretend to have the moral high ground.
Axios
an hour ago
- Axios
Dems fear "vicious" primary
House Democrats are looking on in agony as Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) appear destined to duke it out for a single congressional district. "They are going to be vicious," one senior House Democrat told Axios, speaking on the condition of anonymity to offer candid thoughts on a sensitive internal battle. Why it matters: It would pit a 36-year-old rising progressive star against a well-liked, 78-year-old stalwart of the left at a time when age is already one of Democrats' biggest headaches. "Most of us are TRYING to stay out," a senior House progressive wrote in a text to Axios. Zoom in: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is unlikely to pick sides in this member vs. member race, sources told Axios. A Democratic leadership aide said there's a zero percent chance Jeffries weighs in. State of play: Casar and Doggett would share a single Austin-based district under the new congressional map that Republican state legislators are proposing. Doggett, who has been repeatedly targeted by Republicans in redistricting during his more than 30 years in Congress, currently represents much of Austin and its suburbs. Casar, a former Austin city councilman first elected to Congress in 2022, represents parts of southern and eastern Austin in a district that snakes down to San Antonio. Under the new map, the Austin portions of Casar's district would be merged with Doggett's. Both lawmakers are angling to run in the new 37th district, which would be heavily Democratic and centered in Austin. Doggett wrote Sunday that "over 2/3 of my current constituents will remain in the Trump configured CD37" and that his "seniority is an asset, not a liability." He urged Casar to "not abandon his reconfigured CD35, in which he is the only incumbent," noting it would be majority Hispanic and arguing that Casar could "use his organizing skills and populist message to win over the disaffected, particularly disaffected Hispanic voters." Casar's chief of staff Stephanie Trinh wrote yesterday that Doggett sent out his email "without discussing it with Greg or his team" and said it contained "incorrect information." The bottom line: Casar is ruling out a run in the new 35th district, a San Antonio-area seat that voted for Trump by 10 percentage points and contains just a tenth of his current constituency.
