On Thursday, April 17, a 20-year-old boy, a student, walked around FSU’s sunny campus, firing a handgun. Two dead; six injured.
The response from our elected leaders? The usual: “Thoughts and prayers.”
The governor of the State of Florida said he was “praying,” adding, “We are all Seminoles today.”
First Lady Casey DeSantis: “Praying.”
Sen. Rick Scott: Also “praying.”
The president of the United States called the attack “terrible, a shame,” then blew off any suggestion of gun control reform, saying he’s a “big advocate of the Second Amendment.”
Maybe he missed the praying memo.
I teach at FSU; and that Thursday afternoon, I was locked down in my office.
It was frightening, yes; it was also horribly familiar. This is America: Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Uvalde, Nashville, Parkland.
The Tallahassee Democrat reported that several survivors of the 2018 Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shooting were on campus that day.
Robbie Alhadeff’s sister Alyssa died at MSD: “Something has to change,” he said.
Graduate student Stephanie Horowitz saw people running and knew instantly what was happening.
Jason Leavy was a freshman at MSD when Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people. He knew, too, and started barricading his classroom door.
“It’s the least surprising thing in the world, honestly,” he said.
Every one of those kids has been through multiple active shooter drills. Many faculty have, too.
We are supposed to shove desks against our doors, turn off the lights, “harden” our schools and churches and college campuses and act as though we’re grateful when politicians express their insincere and frankly insulting “sympathy.”
Nobody wants their feeble prayers and, as for their thoughts, if the violence-loving reactionaries in charge of this state were actually capable of thoughts they’d realize things do not have to be this way.
Priorities
From the state Capitol to the U.S. Capitol, politicians shrug: Guns matter more than people; children, high school students, college students — they don’t give the big money to political campaigns.
The Second Amendment trumps all the others.
We’re supposed to accept there’s nothing anyone can do: This is just the way things are.
As The Onion’s evergreen mass shooting headline goes, “‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.”
But the kids ain’t all right; the kids are scared — and furious.
Florida State University students marched to the Capitol on April 23, 2025, less than a week after a gunman opened fire on their campus, calling for legislation on guns and school safety. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
Last Tuesday, a group of FSU students braved the morally noxious fumes of the Capitol to demand sensible gun control, red flag laws, firearm storage legislation — commonsense stuff like that.
Madalyn Probst, president of the FSU College Democrats, said, “The fact that they are able to sit in this place and prioritize weapons over my life, my friends’ lives, and the lives of my community around me is deplorable.”
Problem is, the grown folks in charge don’t care.
“The fact that they are able to sit in this place and prioritize weapons over my life, my friends’ lives, and the lives of my community around me is deplorable.”
– Madalyn Probst, FSU College Democrats
The Florida House has approved a bill allowing 18-year-olds to buy guns, repealing a law they passed after the murders at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School.
We don’t let them drink, but hell, they can get themselves a nice Taurus 9mm semi-automatic handgun — just like the one used to kill three and wound five at Michigan State University in 2023.
Here at FSU, you can still see the mountains of flowers and teddy bears where the wounded and dead fell. Yet the governor — who has the emotional intelligence of a poison dart frog —continues to push what he calls “Second Amendment Summer.”
If you’re buying a gun or ammo between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, you don’t have to pay sales tax.
Because we want more people packing heat.
‘Protecting’ children
The FSU atrocity was Florida’s sixth mass shooting and the 27th school shooting in the nation.
This year. So far.
The grown folks in charge are obsessed with “protecting” children from fluoride and potentially life-saving vaccines.
No letting them near books like “And Tango Makes Three,” lest they want to become gay.
No letting them discover trans people and queer people are real and deserving of dignity.
They can’t stand the thought of high schoolers reading Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” or “The 1619 Project,” lest they learn about the horrors of slavery.
They are terrified college students might study sociology, delve into political theories suggesting organizational models for the state that don’t insist our version of rapacious capitalism is the best, or encounter books that challenge religious or cultural orthodoxies.
As for sex, they don’t even want to think about it — unless, of course, the teenaged daughter gets pregnant or the teenaged son gets an STD.
They insist on shielding kids from a slew of normal human realities, but not gun violence.
It’s OK for young people to grow up knowing how to barricade themselves inside a classroom or learn strategies for evading a mass shooter but not appreciate poetry or play a musical instrument or master a foreign language.
It’s OK for them to live scared of that loner kid or that angry-looking guy or some person they can’t see, someone who wants to spill as much blood as possible.
The freedom to get a gun any time for any reason is more important.
So, we have Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Columbine, Uvalde, Nashville, Parkland, and now FSU.
United Against Hate
One of my students reminded me there was supposed to be a “United Against Hate” symposium in honor of Maura Binkley on April 17.
Maura Binkley was the student shot and killed at a yoga studio in 2018 along with another woman.
The symposium was to promote campus safety, but it had to be canceled.
The FSU building where it should have taken place was a crime scene.
Maura Binkley was murdered by a guy who hated women.
The young man who allegedly walked around campus shooting his classmates hates people of color — he’s a Trump supporter and a white supremacist.
He told a fellow student Black people were ruining his neighborhood.
The United States government manufactures hatred against anyone who’s not a white Christian, embracing violence against its citizens.
Nowhere is safe.
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Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Left-Leaning
This content shows a clear left-leaning bias through its critique of political leaders and policies, particularly those related to gun control and Second Amendment rights. The author condemns the “thoughts and prayers” response from politicians and advocates for stricter gun control measures. The piece also expresses frustration with the prioritization of guns over human lives, while highlighting the inadequacies of current political leadership in addressing mass shootings. Additionally, there is a strong criticism of conservative positions on issues like education, gender, and race. The tone and arguments presented are indicative of progressive viewpoints on these matters.
www.clickorlando.com – Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press – 2025-04-30 16:28:00
SUMMARY: Senate Democrats are forcing a vote on blocking global tariffs announced by Donald Trump earlier in April. After market turmoil, Trump suspended the tariffs for 90 days. Senate Democrats aim to challenge the policy and force Republicans to take a stance. While 47 Senate Democrats are expected to support the resolution, Republicans are hesitant, with some opposing it to avoid rebuking Trump. Despite concerns over the economic impact, Republicans are wary of crossing the president. Democrats argue the tariffs harm the economy and increase recession risks, pushing the resolution as a way to reassert congressional power.
SUMMARY: South Florida’s weather for Wednesday, April 30, 2025, features breezy conditions, with highs in the low 80s and an east breeze of 10-18 mph, gusting to 25 mph. There’s a risk of rip currents, extended through Friday, making swimming dangerous. While the day remains mostly dry with a mix of sun and clouds, isolated showers are possible. By Friday, rain chances increase, with isolated showers. The weekend brings higher chances of afternoon thunderstorms, especially on Sunday, along with rising temperatures. A 20% chance of rain is expected on Saturday, and 40% on Sunday.
NEXT Weather meteorologist Lissette Gonzalez says Wednesday afternoon will be seasonable and breezy with wind gust up to 20 mph.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Steve Wilson | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-30 11:33:00
(The Center Square) – The Florida Legislature passed its farm bill this week that officials say could be the most expansive farm-related measure in the state’s history.
Senate Bill 700 was passed 88-27 in the House of Representatives on Tuesday and is now headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis for a likely signature. The Senate passed the 111-page measure 27-9 on April 16.
SB700, which was sponsored by Sen. Keith Truenow, R-Tavares, would protect farmers from environmental, social, and governance-related bias from lenders, ban the addition of medicine such as fluoride from being added to the water supply, bolster the disaster recovery loan program for farmers and preventing the mislabeling of plant-based products as milk, meat, poultry or eggs.
The fluoride additive ban would not remove any chemical required for water purification.
During debate, Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, mentioned a legal challenge to the state’s law on laboratory-grown meat and possible legal challenges to the labeling part of the legislation.
“Consumers aren’t confused, but if anything, the expansion of alternative meat, alternative protein products is based on demand and companies wouldn’t do it there wasn’t demand for it,” Eskamani said. “The changes in this bill, the goal is to hinder that demand by creating confusion.
“And so to trust the free market means to allow companies to advertise themselves and appeal to consumers based on quality and I think I can speak for some members that some of these alternative products aren’t very good. To insert ourselves between the consumer and the product by forcing them to not to use specific language is a step too far. It restricts free speech and it’s just unnecessary.”
Two amendments she tried to add on the bill to eliminate the labeling and fluoride components died on voice votes.
Under SB700, local governments would be banned from zoning changes that would make it impossible for agricultural facilities to be placed on school property for 4-H and Future Farmers of America.
The bill would also prohibit local governments from banning housing for legally verified farm workers on farms. It would also create a requirement for legal worker eligibility to prevent noncitizens from working on farms.
The bill even stretches to Second Amendment issues, as it will streamline the state’s concealed carry permit process.
The measure would also forbid drones on state hunting lands or private shooting ranges for the purpose of harassment.
Charitable organizations would be prohibited from receiving foreign contributions from “countries of concern” such as Iran, Venezuela, China, Cuba, North Korea and Syria.
“This legislation is a blueprint for protecting Floridians and our freedoms,” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson in a release. “We are banning medicine – including fluoride – from Florida’s public water systems. We are keeping foreign countries of concern out of Florida’s charitable organizations.
“We are ensuring honesty in food labeling – milk comes from a cow, not an almond. We are upholding Second Amendment rights and cracking down on drone harassment of hunters.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
The content presents a description of the Florida Legislature’s farm bill (SB700), emphasizing provisions that align with conservative political values, such as the protection of farmers from ESG-related bias, the restriction on certain food labeling, and measures around the Second Amendment and foreign contributions to charitable organizations. The tone of the article highlights actions that may appeal to right-leaning audiences, especially those supportive of agricultural, conservative, and pro-Second Amendment policies. While the article reports on the legislative process and includes a variety of perspectives, including a Democratic representative’s opposition, the framing and tone lean toward presenting the bill’s provisions positively, suggesting a preference for conservative positions. The article provides factual details but could be perceived as highlighting the bill’s conservative aspects more than its potential drawbacks or opposing views.
