When the White House decided to mark the fifth anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting with a video of President Joe Biden demanding more gun control, it was attempting to profit from the pain of families.
But the father of one of the girls killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting on February 14, 2018, wasn’t going to let the political opportunism go unnoticed.
Ryan Petty didn’t hold back in his scathing Twitter response to Biden’s statement.
“Don’t use my daughter’s death to advance your political agenda,” Petty wrote, the words virtually dripping with scorn.
“Because of your politicized FBI, failed Obama era school discipline policies and a Sheriff that cared more about his image in the community than enforcing the law, a maniac was allowed to attack a school. Try learning what really happened.”
Don’t use my daughter’s death to advance your political agenda. Because of your politicized FBI, failed Obama era school discipline policies and a Sheriff that cared more about his image in the community than enforcing the law, a maniac was allowed to attack a school. Try… https://t.co/T0apFlLEnM
— Ryan Petty (@rpetty) February 14, 2023
It’s almost become a tradition for Biden to use the Parkland shootings to advance his agenda — and for Petty to respond. But if Democrats want to continue down this road, they’ll have to choke on the facts.
There were numerous and well-documented flaws surrounding the Parkland shooting, which killed 14 students and three school staffers.
Nikolas Cruz, the shooter, could and should have been enrolled in an alternative high school for special needs students long before the shooting, but he was not.
The Broward County School District’s student discipline policies, which stem from Barack Obama’s White House recommendations, place an emphasis on avoiding involving law enforcement for criminal behavior in order to avoid the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
Scott Israel, the Broward County sheriff at the time of the Parkland shooting, had actually boasted about it during his re-election campaign in 2016.
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, it was this approach that helped Cruz stay in school despite his behavioral issues, though the Broward School District initially denied it.
Even warnings sent to the FBI, which could have potentially prevented the shooting, were ignored. As the New York Post reported last year, the Justice Department did not admit fault, instead agreeing to pay $127.5 million to victims’ families. (That sounds like 127 million admissions of guilt to normal people, but normal people aren’t Justice Department lawyers.)
And the Broward County Sheriff’s Office’s response on the day of the shooting was a disaster, marked by cowardice displayed by the deputy assigned to the campus and delays in confronting the killer by more deputies.
For rational Americans, this appears to be an argument that the Broward School District is run by politically correct administrators who are more concerned with statistics that make their schools look good than with actual student safety.
It appears to be more evidence that the FBI is incompetent when it is not corrupted by politics.
It appears that the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, at least under its then-sheriff, was a law enforcement failure.
But such conclusions are too obvious for Democrats. The lesson they want the American people to take away from Parkland is that they must continue to violate the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment.
Ryan Petty was not convinced. And he had a lot of help on social media:
I’m so sorry this man is doing this to your little girl and your family. There are no words. How bad your family must miss her with every waking breath. I will pray God continues to be your guiding light and beacon of hope for every second of sorrow.
— gypsy_love (@gypsy_lovell) February 15, 2023
I’m sorry he is using her death that way, to insist on an ‘assault weapons’ ban yet again.
— Rebecca Downs🇺🇸🟦🇮🇱 (@RebeccaRoseGold) February 15, 2023
https://twitter.com/tbfan55/status/1625703403656544256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1625703403656544256%7Ctwgr%5E0b853198846c9cba789bedf877866275e206540c%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.westernjournal.com%2Fdad-lost-child-shooting-unleashes-biden-seeing-video-dont-use-daughters-death-advance-political-agenda%2F
I wish these vulnerable children were actually protected. The deputy that was on scene (that was somehow special enough to be able to carry while other adults were not) was unfortunately a coward.
— Glass Half Wrong (@GlassHalfWrong) February 15, 2023
Of course, there were plenty of liberals who felt compelled to jump on Petty’s Twitter thread and lecture him about how gun control is the most important issue.
There will always be leftists who believe that violating the right to keep and bear arms will protect Americans from “gun violence,” despite the fact that statistics surrounding “gun-free zones” and the blood-stained streets of Democrat-run cities demonstrate that this is absurd.
To Democrats, however, any act of violence is just another reason to push for gun control. Even the anniversary of a tragic act of violence is an opportunity for Biden to score political points.
Logic, the Constitution, and even basic fairness and morality aren’t as important to them as the desire for power over their fellow citizens.
Fortunately for the rest of the country, people like Ryan Petty are fighting back.