CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor did a sit-down interview with four students from Marjorly Stoneman Douglas High School on Thursday to discuss the shooting that took place inside the Parkland, Florida school on Wednesday.
Along with accounts of where they were when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire, the students also recalled the frustration over the loss of 14 students and three teachers as a result of the shooting.
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“We didn’t know what was happening until our parents, who we didn’t tell anything to, started texting us asking where we were, if we were okay,” sophomore Sierra Damiani said. “That’s when we realized there was an active shooter.”
“There were a lot of people that we lost,” Damiani continued. “They were wonderful people with great families. Those families do not deserve what happened to them. My mom’s best friend was waiting all night because she couldn’t find her son. He’s no longer with us, and I think that this could have been prevented. He should never have been able to get a gun.”
“I think that this could have been prevented,” Stoneman Douglas student Sierra Damiani tells @jeffglor. “He should have never been able to get a gun.” https://t.co/bXmQfIkSIV pic.twitter.com/A6jtvfEMJD
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 16, 2018
Two of the students also recall turning on the television mere hours after the shooting and seeing that the debate of gun control in the United States was the main topic of discussion. They said they believed that conversation was happening too soon.
“We shouldn’t sensationalize school shootings because that would downplay the severity of what this means to this Parkland community and the students and families of Douglas,” senior Jack Haimowitz said. “The best way is go about recovering from this is by providing support, love and attention to those who need it and then go about addressing a political agenda — because within about an hour and a half of hearing one of my best friends getting shot, I turn on the news to see people who were using this as an argument against gun control.”
Damiani agreed, though she said Cruz, who legally purchased the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting back in February 2017, should never have been able to get his hands on a gun.
“Yesterday was way too early to talk about it,” Damiani said. “I don’t think that anybody should be using this for their political agenda, but I do also think at the same time this kid should never have never been able to get his hands on a gun if he is mentally insane — ever.”
