Kamala Harris to visit Parkland high school next week

Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to South Florida next week to visit Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to continue to raise awareness about gun safety policies.

On March 23, Harris will visit the Parkland high school to talk about the efforts that she and President Joe Biden have pushed forward to combat gun violence and what they hope to achieve on that front if they are re-elected. She will also be using the visit to meet with the families of the victims of the mass shooting that took place at the school in 2018.

The shooting resulted in the death of 14 students and three faculty members, and left 17 others injured. Last February marked the six-year anniversary of the shooting as families gathered at the school to remember the lives of the victims.

With the aim to prevent similar tragedies from occurring, the Biden administration pushed forward the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, which strengthened background checks for gun buyers under the age of 21 and provided funds for mental health services and school safety programming. Biden also created the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, an initiative launched last September with Harris as its leader.

The building where the shooting occurred is set to be demolished this summer, as it has been mainly preserved for legal proceedings and visits by politicians over the past few years. In January, U.S Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona met with Parkland families and toured the building, and in August 2023 a group of U.S representatives also went inside.