Easier for the media to blame the gun and the NRA.
Via Desert News:
The support of a strong family might have stopped confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz from killing 17 people at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, say the parents of a 14-year-old girl who died in the attack.
Ryan and Kelly Petty ache over the loss of their daughter, Alaina, a freshman who was scheduled to have a bracket replaced on her braces the afternoon she was shot. Her funeral drew 1,500 people on Monday. “There are no words to fill the hole we feel in our lives,” Ryan Petty told the Deseret News.
But the Pettys said they started to learn details about Cruz, 19, who confessed to the shootings in statements to police, even before they learned that Alaina had died. He is responsible for his actions, they say, but he needed love and help he didn’t get, especially after his adoptive parents died.
So while some of Alaina’s classmates advocate for new gun laws, President Donald Trump suggests arming trained teachers and others push for better mental health and law enforcement efforts, the Pettys called for help for families.
“Strong families are vital to a peaceful, functioning society,” Ryan Petty said. “When families break down, that’s where the problems begin. We need legislators and policymakers to pass legislation and create policies that strengthen families.”[…]
Ryan and Kelly Petty went to the Marriott Hotel, where parents were picking up their students. While they waited, they began to learn about the shooter Cruz, who they said had pockets of help but nobody to connect the dots for him.
“We wish and believe,” Ryan Petty said, “that if somebody had been able to put their arms around him and show him some compassion and love to the extent that would have enabled him to get some help, things may have been very different last week.”
Family might have been the key, Kelly Petty said. She hoped those seeking change will include strengthening families.
“Having a strong family is the most important thing, to have support and love and to learn right from wrong,” she said. “When children don’t have that, sometimes they end up doing really bad things. If strong families were encouraged more and fought for more, more kids could be helped and not fall by the wayside and not do things like last week.”
The Pettys did not absolve Cruz.
“We’re saddened he wasn’t able to get more help before he made a decision to take other lives,” Ryan Petty said. “We’re saddened for him. We’re sad he didn’t get a family that could help him. We’re not removing any responsibility for the choices he’s made.”