Jeff Sessions Just Tried to Blame Florida School Shooting on Gang Violence

Too bad Parkland, Florida, has been rated one of the country’s safest cities.

In response to Wednesday’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Attorney General Jeff Sessions implied, in a speech to a sheriff’s convention in Washington on Thursday, that cracking down on gang violence could prevent school shootings. 

“When parents once again go to sleep fearful that their kids will not be safe, even when they go to school—parents have told me in gang-infested neighborhoods that children can no longer stand at the bus stop by themselves, they take turns, parents do, of being out there every morning and afternoon,” he said. “So we’ve gotta confront the problem. There’s not doubt about it.”

The problem with the statement is that in this case, the shooter had no known gang ties (though some have reported he was linked to a white supremacist group, Republic of Florida). What’s more, Parkland was just named Florida’s safest city in 2017, according to an analysis by the Washington-based National Council for Home Safety and Security. Located just outside the Florida everglades, and about an hour out of Miami, the city is “an affluent one that’s intentionally designed to mimic a park,” according to the council’s website.

Sessions also said that “effective enforcement” of current gun laws, and “focusing on criminals and dangerous people, mentally ill people” could reduce gun violence. “It is not good if we got gun laws that say criminals can’t carry guns and they never get enforced. So we intend to enforce our laws,” he said.

In Thursday’s address, Sessions notably did not mention stronger laws aimed at preventing the shooter from obtaining the military-style rifle in the first place.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2022 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate