It’s been two days since the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the calls for more gun control have been coming fast and furious ever since.
But, is more gun control really the answer? Is the solution to school shootings like this really that simple? Florida Senator Marco Rubio says it's complicated.
“Whatever it is we do has to prevent it,” Rubio said. “If there’s something out that that we can do, whether it’s a law or program or both, of course we are going to be open to that. But it has to work.”
Erich Pratt with Gun Owners of America tells KTRH there's a question those calling for gun control can't answer.
“They can’t even articulate any nexus to show how any of the things they are proposing would actually have stopped this shooting or any of the others,” Pratt explained.
And even universal background checks, Pratt says, are flawed.
“The Sandy Hook shooter could not have passed a background check. So what did he do? He killed his first victim, stole her weapons, and then went to a gun free zone to perpetrate his crime,” Pratt stated.
Pratt would like to see more good guys with guns at school, and says that solution has worked in countries like Israel.
But that’s only one part of the story here. The other part is all about mental illness.
There were many warning signals sent by Nikolas Cruz that there was something wrong. He joked about becoming a school shooter on social media. Kids in Parkland would joke that Cruz was capable of doing exactly what he did.
So what kind of help was available to people like Cruz? Psychologist Wendy Rice says it's not as simple as asking that. Cruz himself needed to address his issues.
“If somebody doesn’t want to go to counseling, it’s very difficult to force somebody unless we are sure they are dangerous to themselves or others,” Rice told KTRH News.
And even if Cruz did look for help, there is always the possibility that it would not have been the solution for him.
“There are definitely people who have anti-social personalities. There are people who don’t value other people’s lives,” she stated.
And even though the kids in Parkland seemed to know he was capable of this, no one really said anything. Unlike the grandmother in Washington that recently called police on her grandson after finding plans he made to shoot up his high school.