Grieving mother of Florida school shooting victim begs Trump to act on gun violence

published 16 February 2018

During a heart-wrenching interview on Thursday, the distraught mother of a girl killed in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida begged President Trump to "do something" to combat gun violence in the United States, saying, "It's not fair to our families that our children go to school and have to get killed."

Lori Alhadeff spoke to HLN's Mike Galanos shortly after she spent two hours making funeral arrangements for her daughter, 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the 17 victims killed Wednesday. In tears, Alhadeff asked: "How do we allow a gunman to come into our children's school? How do they get through security? What security is there? There's no metal detectors. The gunman, a crazy person, just walks right into the school, knocks down the window of my child's door, and starts shooting, shooting her and killing her."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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