Seething Parkland legislator: ‘You know what is going to happen after this? Nothing.’
Moskowitz, a 1999 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said his 4-year-old goes to school in Parkland, the high school is blocks from his home, and he represented the district first as a city commissioner and now as a legislator.



“My colleagues will do nothing.”

“We’ve seen this show before,’’ he said Thursday. “Now it’s in my hometown. While my 4-year-old son was learning to write his name in preschool, his teacher’s daughter was killed in the shooting. We live in the most powerful country in the world and we have failed our children.

“You know what is going to happen after this? Nothing,” he said. “Politicians need to look these parents in the face and say: We will do nothing.”

“If someone from another country had done this, if the shooter had used the word ‘ISIS,’ this country would not hesitate to put laws in place to prevent it,” he said. “But if it’s a local student, who buys an AR-15 on the street, we do nothing.”

“This kid walked into a Broward gun shop and bought an assault weapon,” he said. “He was prepared to pick off students like it’s a video game. The FBI had warnings. The school district knew it. But if he had said ‘ISIS,’ if he had been from a foreign country, the government would move heaven and earth to go after him.”

“We set up a system in which we have gerrymandered the districts so it’s all about the primary and we’ve elected extreme candidates — on both sides,” he said. “I know these Republicans. They are not the people you see in TV. They are sensible — but they are held hostage to the issue. Elected officials are more worried about losing their seat than saving children.”

“We need the stronger background checks to include people who have mental health issues and people who are telling others they want to hurt people,” he said. “If someone is telling everyone they want to hurt people, if they broadcast it on social media, can’t we at least agree to change the law to prevent them from being able to buy a gun? If we can’t agree on that, we can’t agree on anything.”

But, Moskowitz added, “it’s not a lack of resources. It’s a lack of action and leadership.”