Editorial: Florida, again, is scene of a campus shooting and it's devastating

The Miami Herald Editorial Board, The Miami Herald on Apr 19, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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“Active shooter on campus.” Those chilling words again. This time, the attack happened on the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee, just miles from the state Capitol where lawmakers are in meetings for their annual session.

Multiple people were injured, and two people have died, according to police. The suspected shooter is believed to be a current FSU student and the son of a Leon County sheriff deputy who had access to guns. That’s the initial, terrifying report.

A video shared with the Miami Herald by an FSU student, filmed from behind bushes, appeared to show part of the noontime attack: an armed person calmly taking three shots as people fled screaming. Reports began trickling out of students seeking shelter in a freight elevator, in a student union bowling alley. Later, there was video of students walking with hands up, as police cleared rooms and areas of campus. By now, these scenes look horribly, terribly familiar.

Here we are again, in the state where Parkland happened, where Pulse nightclub happened. Where lawmakers continue to try to weaken gun control laws, even the ones passed after the Parkland school shooting by Republican lawmakers. Perhaps they have forgotten: Seventeen people died in the 2018 Parkland massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. Forty-nine people died in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

Fred Guttenberg, who lived a parent’s worst nightmare when his daughter Jamie died in the Parkland mass shooting, said in a post on X that some Parkland survivors were in the FSU student union today, a horrifying situation. “As a father, all I ever wanted after the Parkland shooting was to help our children be safe. Sadly, because of the many people who refuse to do the right things about reducing gun violence, I am not surprised by what happened today,” he wrote.

“America,” he wrote, “is broken.”

The politicians began chiming in, of course, as the details began to come out. There were immediate calls to reform gun laws. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offered his thoughts on X: “Our prayers are with our FSU family and state law enforcement is actively responding.” President Donald Trump said this, from the Oval Office: “It’s horrible that things like this take place.”

It certainly is.

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