Hours before the shooting at a Florida high school, the NRA shared a tweet that promoted guns as a Valentine’s Day gift.
The post was shared from the Kimber Firearms account and featured a photo of two guns laying on top of a pink heart.
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“Give your significant other something they’ll appreciate this Valentine’s Day,” a caption on the tweet read.
The NRA has since since deleted the retweet, but not before it was captured by a screenshot.
Earlier this morning, @NRA re-tweeted a tweet from a gun maker encouraging people to buy their loved ones guns for #ValentinesDay
Since the #schoolshooting in Florida they’ve deleted that tweet and have gone silent.
Thankfully, I took a screenshot. pic.twitter.com/cC4A835n0a
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 14, 2018
Following the Florida high school shooting on Wednesday afternoon, authorities eventually released the identity of the shooter as Nikolaus Cruz.
Cruz is reportedly a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, according to the Miami Herald. According to posts on a since-deleted Instagram purportedly belonging to Cruz, he has a penchant for knives and guns.
Per reports prior to Cruz being identified, the shooter was described to CNN news affiliate, WSVN, as wearing a black hat, a maroon or burgundy colored shirt and black pants. He was last seen on the west side of a three-story building on campus.
The father of a student at the high school said the suspect pulled a fire alarm and opened fire as students left their classrooms and went into the hallway, WKBN reports.
A student at the school told Fox 6, “We all thought it was a fire drill because we had one previously today. And we thought it was, so no one was that nervous, but then word started going around that it was shots and not just, like, something else, everyone just started running towards the canal.”
Not long after law enforcement arrived on scene, the Broward county school board begin tweeting information about the shooting.
“Today, close to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s dismissal, students and staff heard what sounded like gunfire. The school immediately went on lockdown but is now dismissing students. We are receiving reports of possible multiple injuries. Law enforcement is on site,” they explained in their first tweet.
“Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is now dismissing students. We are receiving reports of possible multiple injuries. Law enforcement and the District’s Special Investigative Unit are currently on site. The District will provide updates as more information becomes available,” a subsequent tweet read.
