Vice President Kamala Harris arrived to tour the site of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting Saturday afternoon, one of the last visits before the building, untouched for 6 years, is demolished this summer.
Guided by Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor, Harris will accompany victims’ families, U.S. Representative Jared Moskowitz, and members of the State Attorney’s Office as they walk through the building’s blood-stained halls, left frozen in time since the shooting that killed 17 people on Valentine’s Day in 2018.
Later, the Vice President is expected to announce a new project related to state red flag laws, according to a White House official.
Harris’ arrival joined several visits to the 1200 building by government officials in recent months:
U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami-Dade County Republican and senior member of the Florida congressional delegation, co-hosted an August congressional visit with Moskowitz, who represents Parkland.
In September, state Sen. Ben Albritton, the Republican who will become president of the Florida Senate after the 2024 election, took a two-hour tour of the site, along with state Sen. Jason Pizzo, who will become the Democratic party leader in November.
In November, Moskowitz led five more members of Congress on a tour of the site. And this past January, two federal officials visited: the U.S Secretary of Education and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director.
Each walked past open computers and notebooks, unfinished assignments on dry erase boards and laptops, boxes of candies, abandoned teddy bears and shards of glass.
Some families have said that they want government officials to tour the site in hopes that it will influence their policy decisions.
During her visit, Harris, who oversees the new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, is expected to underscore the Biden Administration’s gun safety efforts and announce the launch of the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which will train states in implementing red flag laws.
Red flag laws allow law enforcement to petition courts to remove guns from those who pose a threat to themselves or others, and seek to prevent those people from purchasing guns in the first place. Many states have red flag laws but have not used funding provided by the federal government to implement them, the White House official said. Still others have no red flag laws.
Florida has red flag laws, but recent events have underlined their shortcomings. A man who died after barricading himself in a Fort Lauderdale hotel room on Thursday and exchanged gunfire with police had a long history of domestic violence and mental health issues, records show. He had his guns confiscated under the state’s red flag law in 2022, but they were returned to him after the risk protection order expired in 2023.
Harris’ visit during an election campaign produced political reaction and counter-reaction.
Over 500 signers of a Change.org petition demanded that Harris cancel her visit, arguing it “would only serve to bring back traumatic memories for those affected by this tragedy” and could turn the “solemn site into an unwanted spectacle.”
The building “is not meant to be used as a political tool or tourist destination,” the petition said, adding that Harris could have visited previously and asserted she “obviously is choosing election year to further an agenda.”
Others disputed that version of events and said the vice presidential visit is positive, and could lead to action that helps prevent future school shootings. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was murdered at her school, wrote Saturday on social media that he had asked Harris to visit and would be among the family members of victims accompanying her.
“The blood, DNA, broken glass, course work on desks left unfinished and other remnants of the mass shooting incident will still be there,” he wrote on X. “That Vice President Harris and her team are walking through this building with us to learn the lessons of why this happened and what could have been done to prevent it, as well as what we can do in the future to prevent gun violence, and also to prevent mass carnage when gun violence happens is a big deal. This will be a hard day for all of us. However, it is done with the intention of stopping the next one.”
Max Schachter, whose son Alex was killed at the school, said he had asked many officials to attend, and is glad Harris is “taking time to come to Parkland to bear witness to what happened to my little boy. This is not a political visit. She is the Vice President of the United States and she has an obligation to come to Parkland.”
“There is no way to replicate what one sees and experiences when they walk through the site of the Parkland school shooting,” he added. “It profoundly affects people. They emerge determined to prevent another tragedy…. I couldn’t save Alex, but every time an official walks through the building lives are saved, and schools are safer.”
Also on Saturday, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla, who was governor at the time of the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre, touted his response at the time — and criticized what he said was the push by Biden and Harrris for “nationwide implementation of radical policies” on gun violence.
He cited the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Safety Act enacted in the aftermath after he said he consulted with mental health, education and law enforcement professionals and families of victims.
Scott said the law he signed avoided “unlawful infringement on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Floridians.” And he faulted what he called the “the Biden-Harris administration’s push for nationwide implementation of radical policies, like California’s red flag law,” which he said was an unacceptable infringement of constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans.
A small group of protestors also gathered outside of the school to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, pictures on social media show, holding signs reading “MSD students demand a ceasefire” and “Students here and in Gaza deserve to live.”
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