This book was enraging, and this might be a long review, so if that isn't what you are interested in....skip now. If you just want to know what I thought about the book, I will say that it was a lot different than Columbine. The focus of this book was about the activism and issues that the March For Our Lives and other Parkland students faced in the aftermath. In fact, the perpetrator's name was never mentioned in this book, which is a huge digression from a lot of true crime books. I would absolutely encourage you to read this, if for no other reason that to open your eyes to how adults in this country behave. Dave Cullen did a great job on this book. For those who want to know my real opinion, I will do my best to focus my real speaking points, so hang on with me.

The issue of school safety is one that has been discussed a million times, yet seems to not be getting any better. Administration spotted Cruz walking towards the building, knowing he was behaving oddly and was no longer a student there, yet did not follow, stop, or initiate lockdown. You would think after having MULTIPLE incidents of this nature since the 1999 Columbine kickoff, school systems would make more efforts to secure campuses. Unfortunately, we live in a time where we have to have bulletproof glass everywhere, lockdown drills, automatically locking doors, security cameras, and metal detectors...yet schools are often not equipped with some of these things. Legislators are cowardly and ignorant on the issue of gun control, so they should, at the very least, make an effort to overhaul and secure all schools in the country.

The failure of administrators to stop Cruz before he entered the school is one issue, but the failure of administrators to issue lockdown protocol until AFTER one saw a body and heard gunfire is atrocious. They apparently had some debate about who had the authority to do so. Who cares? If there was no reason for it, deal with that later, but issue the lockdown. At this point in our society, we need to focus on the "better safe than sorry" and make some effort to save kids. We also should not have resource officers and security guards who will stand in hallways and outside buildings doing absolutely nothing while children are slaughtered inside. The officer at the school in this case said he didn't know where the shooting was coming from. Alright...but he still made no effort to find out or attempt to do his job. It was a small scale travesty that is galling in light of a larger instance of this travesty that recently occurred. (Uvalde is a shining example of that cowardice and nonsense.)

Cruz had issues his entire life. He was adopted by the Cruz family at a young age, and had behavioral problems that were documented since PRESCHOOL. Some of those reports included threats made against other students. He was banned by the school system from wearing a backpack on the campus due to the threats. A mental facility did not feel that he needed to be committed and claimed he had a lot risk for harming himself or other people, though he had been making documented threats and videoed himself on social media cutting himself. He also had been making statements about buying a gun. He made multiple posts on social media with various weapons and in support of President Trump and his hate speak. Authorities received nearly 100 calls regarding Cruz, for various incidents at home or reporting that he was dangerous and making threats in the time period before the shooting..... yet none of that was investigated or anything done about it. Police always say IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING (which you should) but what is one meant to do when they do not take MULTIPLE CALLS seriously?? We have GOT to start listening to people and taking them seriously. There needs to be a sweeping reform in the way that police are policing and mental health services are servicing. Things like this (and other murders and domestic assaults) could be prevented if so. This kid was CLEARLY an issue from the outset, and should have been stopped before this happened. I can see why so many students and parents were enraged when they found out about this. (In fact, several students said that they could imagine him being a school shooter. I had one of those in my school, and I am honestly shocked he hasn't yet been picked up for murder, because he was disturbed.)

Gun control is such an obnoxious issue. People (especially Southerners and certainly Republicans) throw little baby fits and scream YoU cAnT tAkE mY GuNs.... Sit down and shut up Billy Bob and Jenny Lynn. Nobody is saying that you cannot own a handgun for protection or a hunting rifle for hunting, or even a competitive shooting rifle. We are saying there should be mandatory background checks, waiting periods, insurance, registration, and laws about people with documented violent crimes and mental health issues buying weapons. There should be mandatory training and licensing. We are saying that there should be an age limit for purchasing weapons, and it probably doesn't need to be 18 or lower. Obviously, this will not stop criminals from buying weapons, or stealing them, but it is a start. Private sells with no checks would help tremendously. Also, a handgun can kill you just as dead as an assault rifle. Guns themselves are not the problem- the lax laws and ignorant, irresponsible people that have them ARE. Another issue with this topic is generational. People, especially the ones in the South, just listen to whatever their parents say. They did not grow up and go to school in the world in which we live now. Their thinking is self serving and out of date. Young people need to educate themselves and VOTE.

The MFOL kids were heckled and followed around on their speaking tours by gun-toting morons. Any time the issue of gun control is raised, the cry babies get out and wave their pew pews and scream and spit and make themselves look like absolute jackasses. These kids were HIGH SCHOOL kids. What does that say to them about their experiences and feelings and their motivation to make the school system safer for themselves and other kids? It says that adults do not give a s**t about them. It says that them amassing stupid assault rifles and truckloads of ammunition is way more important that being responsible gun owners. It says that kids are not important. (They do not care about women and they do not care about kids, and maybe when something happens directly to someone they love, they will start to care.) Grown people were sending these kids DEATH THREATS to their homes and on social media.... Grown adults were sending kids death threats. Say that several times until it sinks in how disgusting adults in the United States are. Gun control is a political issue, but it should be a common sense issue. These kids were trying to reach out to all political parties, but one side refused to talk to them very much. Guess which side that was. (I hate political parties, don't mistake me.) Stuff like this is exactly why the rest of the world thinks the way they do about Americans, and especially why Southern people are viewed in the way that they are, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why people are too obtuse to see that. I will say again, GROWN ADULTS WERE SENDING DEATH THREATS TO KIDS THAT JUST WENT THROUGH A SCHOOL SHOOTING IN WHICH THEIR PEERS WERE MURDERED. If you are the kind of person who would do this, you are trash, and you really need to take stock of yourself and make some changes and some amends.

This will be my last speaking point before my conclusion. As disgusting as it was for Cruz and his threats and behavior to be overlooked by people who could have stopped him, as disgusting as it was for administration and the police officer at the school to have failed to act the way they should have, as disgusting as it was for the kids to be treated the way they were my the media/politicians/adults, it is equally disgusting to have the conspiracy theorists open their trash mouths on this situation. People listen to trash like Alex Jones and whoever else about how Sandy Hook was a hoax and blah blah blah. The same thing happened here. People were talking about how one of the students was a crisis actor. This was a crisis, and not a single one of theses kids were acting. They discount and discredit the facts, evidence, and experiences of people to try to make people believe that they are safe and things like this didn't happen and that it is a tactic used by one political party to take the "rights" and guns away from another. PEOPLE DIED. KIDS DIED. KIDS GO THROUGH THIS EVERY SINGLE DAY ACROSS THIS COUNTRY. If you are supporting people who believe in this nonsense, share this nonsense, or support these podcasts and hateful, ignorant people, please stop and think about the harm you are doing. We need to be calling people like this out. We need to stop letting people get away with running off at the mouth. Just because you have the RIGHT to say what you want, does not mean that you cannot be held accountable and have CONSEQUENCES for that you say. These are human beings. These are kids. They are not conspiracy theories. Stop letting people get away with this vitriol.