"He's very very sorry, and it won't happen again....."

[brooklynite]

Link to tweet

[riversedge]

1. No, you will not be allowed guns in prison, so you will not be allowed to let it happen again but

I am sure, given our cowards in Congress, it WILL happen again.

[Cha]

12. Well said, rivers.

[SoCalMusicLover]

2. Scratch EVERY SINGLE WORD Except The Last Four

"A Broken Human Being."

He was, and is. Although I think you could remove the word "human" as well.

"A Broken Being" That's what he will forever be.

[skylucy]

3. I understand and support that every person charged with a crime

is provided a defense attorney, but I saw Cruz's attorney speak to the press this morning and she should have just kept her mouth shut.

[Codeine]

9. Shes attempting to mount a defense

against the indefensible. That’s her job, so she’s going to have to say goofy shit in his defense knowing that’s it’s all futile and she’s going to lose. At this point all she has is his mental state and his relative youth, so she’s going to work with that. Her avenues are limited, and mostly absurd.

If she doesn’t do those things it can put his inevitable conviction in jeopardy.

[Motley13]

4. he is a tragic individual, I have no clue how he could have done this

something went wrong in his reasoning, but plenty of people have it worse & they don't murder 17
innocents

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. So much tragedy. We're so terrible at helping broken people.

[B2G]

6. 'An orphaned19 year old'

WTF LA Times.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Couldn't care less

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. Franklin Graham will now minister to him and he'll find God and accept Jesus.

"Oh, well that's okay, then. You are forgiven. Go and sin no more."

[Egnever]

10. I am sure he is.

and I do feel sorry for him this kid had it rough. Parents killed then foster parents dead I can't even begin to imagine what this kid went through.

I get the anger at him but we failed him as a society.

My bet he was fucked up for a long time and no one helped him. I would be willing to bet his issues started when his birth parents died and he got little to no help with that till the day he shot up his old high school.

What he did is horrific but people don't just walk around doing that for fun. Something snaps. This kid went through things in his life that would damage all of us in the same situation.

He should pay for what he did but on some level it is all of our fault.

[B2G]

11. He was adopted at birth.

He was never in foster care.

[Egnever]

14. Fair enough

but he was adopted which can bring issues all of it's own and his adoptive father died when he was 5 which could change the whole dynamic in the household as well as cause him to have behavioral issues.

I am not saying he is a saint I am saying this kid had a rough life and from the sounds of it had issues with abandonment. He was apparently stalking an ex when he was kicked from school and then his mom died. He apparently posted plenty of warnings on social media. The school was aware of him the kids were aware of him. Even the police and FBI were aware of him and no one stepped in.

https://heavy.com/news/2018/02/nicolas-nikolas-nick-cruz-florida-school-shooter-gunman-instagram/

He was being treated for mental health issues then stopped going to treatment.

All I am saying is we could have done better and possibly avoided this. Hell if we just stopped people undergoing treatment for mental illness from buying assault weapons we could have probably avoided this. If we had he would just be another troubled teen and not a mass murderer.

Yep I find what he did disgusting but I also see a whole lot of room for us as a society to step in and avoid this.

[B2G]

15. I was adopted.

Not buying it unless I see more evidence.

[Egnever]

16. Well since you were

I guess all adoptions work out just peachy then.


There's plenty of evidence already that he was having issues with behavior and mental illness. I am not saying adoption caused it but I am saying there were a lot of cards stacked against this kid from the get go. It doesn't excuse it but it also doesn't mean I have to pretend he is the devil without some sort of attempt to understand what drove him to this point. All that does is make me feel better it does nothing to try to address the next unstable person that does something like this.

[B2G]

17. I never said that.

The bottom line is we don't know yet. Hopefully we will.

[Egnever]

18. I agree we don't know yet

Until we do I am going to hold off on condemning him as pure evil that should be dragged through the streets behind a pickup.

What I do know about him and what has been reported so far paints a picture of a pretty troubled kid living in very unstable circumstances. There is no excuse for what he did but there can be understanding for how he got there.

I am really glad he didn't kill himself so some of these questions can possibly be answered.

[Downtown Hound]

13. My parents divorced when I was 11

My father died when I was 19, and my mother got breast cancer the same week. She died 14 years later. Never once did I even consider anything even remotely like this.

Past tragedy does not excuse vile and cruel actions like this. This kid DESERVES to be broken and suffer for the rest of his life.