Firearms debate rages as Florida rally coincides with gun show

Parkland: Just days after 17 people were killed at a Florida high school, hundreds gathered on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale to rally for stronger gun control laws while just 40 miles away, people attended a scheduled gun show.
Robert Runcie, Broward County Superintendent, one of the many people who spoke at the rally outside the Federal Courthouse, said, "People don't need automatic rifles. We need common-sense gun laws in this country."
While Ryan Deitsch a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School said who was among those locked in a classroom closet as the shooter stalked the hallways said, "Anger comes to mind for the fact that all this happened but overall I can't be angry at law enforcement they did their job, I can't be angry at the school they did their job... All we could have done was made sure that someone like that wasn't able to get a weapon."
But over at the gun show, people said firearms shouldn't be blamed. Joe Arrington, former law enforcement officer said, "With everything that happened I don't think it's the gun's fault, I think a lot of agencies didn't do their job necessarily like they were supposed to." Another gun show attendee, Adolfo David Ginarte said, "This isn't the first time and unfortunately it's not going to be the last time."
On Wednesday, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student who was expelled, allegedly shot up the school that's located in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland. Cruz is charged with 17 counts of murder and police say he was armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and had multiple magazines of ammunition.
Cruz legally purchased the murder weapon from a licensed dealer in Coral Springs, Florida, according to authorities.
The FBI has come under intense criticism after it said on Friday that it failed to act on a warning about Cruz that was called into a tip line more than a month earlier. President Donald Trump and some lawmakers say mental illness prompted the Valentine's Day slaughter, but people at Saturday's gun control rally say they want more done to make it harder to buy a gun fueling the long-running U.S. debate over gun control.