Donald Trump has responded to a deadly mass shooting at Florida State University with a firm statement regarding the Second Amendment.
On Thursday (April 17), a student carried out a deadly shooting at Florida State University, killing two people and injuring six others.
FSU Police confronted the suspect, 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner, who was shot and wounded after refusing to comply with officers’ commands, the Associated Press reports.
Police Chief Jason Trumbower stated the shooter targeted people near the student union building. The two deceased victims have not yet been named, though officials confirmed they were not students. The six injured individuals were taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil confirmed the alleged shooter is the stepson of Deputy Jessica Ikner, who has served with the department for more than 18 years. Authorities said he used her firearm in the attack and was taken into custody after being shot by officers.
“This is obviously a heinous crime,” Sheriff McNeil said. “We will make sure that we do everything we can to prosecute and make sure that we send a message to folks that this will never be tolerated here in Leon County, and I dare say across the state and across this nation.”
During an Oval Office press briefing, President Donald Trump was questioned about the shooting and gun legislation, resulting in him doubling down on his strong support for the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
“I’m a big advocate of the Second Amendment, I have been from the beginning,” he said. “I protected it.”
Referring to the incident, Trump added: “These things are terrible. But the gun doesn’t do the shooting, the people do – a phrase that’s used probably too often. It’s a shame. I’m just hearing about it now. I know the area very well, I know the school very well, it’s Florida.”
The president, who is 78, suggested he would speak more on the situation in the future: “I’ll have more to say about it later, about what happened.”
But as for any changes to gun legislation, Trump didn’t signal any shift: “This has been going on for a long time. I have an obligation to protect the Second Amendment, I ran on the Second Amendment among many other things, and I will always protect the Second Amendment.”
In response to Trump’s comments, social media users were divided in their responses.
One X user responded: “If guns aren’t the problem, why do countries with fewer guns have fewer mass shootings?”
Another asked: “If firearms were regulated, would similar incidents be less likely to happen?”
But others argued: “We don’t have a gun problem but we have a people problem”.
“Damn right… President Trump is protecting our second amendment.” another tweeted.
Former Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who lost her father to gun violence, also condemned the lack of federal action in response to the shooting.
“My heart is with the families in Tallahassee,” she told CNN. “What’s truly shameful here is that it’s happening under President Trump’s watch.”
“One of the first things he did was eliminate the Office of Gun Violence Prevention at the federal level. With it, went investments in community violence prevention programs and support for law enforcement,” she said.
She called the situation a moral and political crisis: “This is a national crisis. We not only have a crisis in moral failures – where we are idolizing guns – but we have a leadership crisis. And he’s speaking about the Second Amendment. People respect the right to own a gun.”
She also pointed to recent moves by Florida lawmakers, criticizing what she described as “extreme” measures pushed through the Republican-controlled House.
Meanwhile, the BBC reported that FSU’s student newspaper had previously noted the alleged shooter had taken part in a protest against Trump’s inauguration. However, the article with those quotes was reportedly taken down on Thursday.
Reid Seybold, a Florida State student, revealed to CNN that he recognized Ikner from a political club they were both part of several years ago. According to Seybold, Ikner was asked to leave the group after making others uncomfortable.
“He had continually made enough people uncomfortable where certain people had stopped coming. That’s kind of when we reached the breaking point with Phoenix, and we asked him to leave,” he said, adding that the alleged shooter’s comments went “beyond conservatism”.
“It’s been a couple of years now. I can’t give exact quotes,” he said. “He talked about the ravages of multiculturalism and communism and how it’s ruining America.”
Authorities have not yet released any motive for the attack.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded to the shooting with a statement: “Our prayers are with our FSU family, and state law enforcement is actively responding.”
