17. 17 CHILDREN KILLED.
That's 17 kids that you grew up with, played with on the playground. Fought with, laughed with learned with. 17 friends that you may not have been the closest with, but still 17 people you knew and loved died yesterday because of one young man that was troubled. He lost both his parents, his mom just in November from complications from the Flu. Nikolas Cruz is the 19 year old who took those 17 lives.
In Parkland Florida at a local high school the fire alarm was tripped shortly before classes let out. As kids figured it was a fire drill they started to follow their procedure when shots started pouring out. Cruz used an AR-15 assault rifle to cherry pick his targets as they filed into the hallway to get outside of the building.
Cruz was also being watched by the federal watchdog due to some of his comments he posted on a youtube video "I'm going to be a professional school shooter". But nothing was done. No one went to check on him, talk to him or anything. At what point are we going to stand up and say enough is enough? WHEN are we going to do something more than send our "thoughts and prayers"? Because obviously this is not enough. We need new laws, but we also need to become a village again. We need to come together and raise our kids together, rather than letting them be raised by phones or tablets and electronics.