Tim Allen weighed in on the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday in Parkland, Florida.
The actor took to Twitter to share his grief along with the rest of America after 17 people were killed with an AR-15 assault rifle on the afternoon of Valentine’s Day.
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“My heart is broken for the loss of life in Florida,” Allen tweeted at around 4:30 p.m., shortly after the suspect had been arrested. “My deep, deep sympathy to all those families.”
My heart is broken for the loss of life in Florida. My deep, deep sympathy to all those families.
— Tim Allen (@ofctimallen) February 15, 2018
The shooting began around dismissal at Stoneman Douglas High, sometime shortly after 2 p.m. A former student named Nikolas Cruz entered the school in a Stoneman Douglas High JROTC shirt, carrying the AR-15 and many magazines full of ammunition.
Cruz opened fire on the school while the hallways were full, taking 17 lives without warning. He injured 15 others. Many students ran from campus, while others were barricaded into classrooms under lock down protocol.
Cruz was caught outside a residence not far from the school, less than two hours after the attack began. Police arrested him with little trouble. He confessed to all of his crimes and was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.
Many criticized figures like Allen, who shared his sympathy on Twitter while continuing to support the Republican party. The issue of gun control has reached a boiling point since the Stoneman Douglas shooting, as the survivors and families of the victims have called for immediate reform of gun laws.
Cruz purchased his AR-15 in February of 2017 legally. He owned four other guns and his online persona reveals an obsession with collecting weapons, ammunition, and accessories for armed conflict. He had a fixation on murdering small animals.
Cruz was also known for racist, anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic rhetoric. Some evidence suggests that he had ties to the alt-right movement, and that these ideologies influenced his crimes on Wednesday.
A group of survivors in Parkland, Florida is organizing a rally for gun law reform on Saturday, Feb. 17. It will be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. outside of the federal courthouse on East Broward Boulevard.
In addition, many memorial services and vigils have been held throughout the area over the past three days. The Parkland community has channeled their grief into a call to action for politicians across the country.
