Parkland father led away by police near White House as Biden commemorates anniversary
A father of a Parkland shooting victim was led away by police after scaling a crane near the White House for a dramatic protest on the deadly shooting’s anniversary Monday, while the congressman who represents the community urged President Joe Biden to use the State of the Union address to call for action on gun violence.
Biden and other Democrats commemorated the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which claimed the lives of 17 people, injured 17 more and galvanized gun control activists nationally.
“We can never bring back those we’ve lost. But we can come together to fulfill the first responsibility of our government and our democracy: to keep each other safe. For Parkland, for all those we’ve lost, and for all those left behind, it is time to uphold that solemn obligation,” Biden said.
The same morning that Biden issued his statement Manuel Oliver, whose son Joaquin Oliver was killed in the shooting, staged a dramatic protest on top of a construction crane located near the White House.
The Parkland father and gun control activist was arrested along with two other people, NBC Washington reported. Oliver was released later that day without charges, March For Our Lives spokesman Noah Lumbantobing told the Herald.
Patricia Paduay-Oliver, Joaquin’s mother, posted a photo to Twitter of the couple embracing after her husband’s release.
“Finally together again. Grateful and relieved for your safety. Through your bravery, Joaquin lives today and forever,” she said.
“I asked for a meeting with Joe Biden a month ago. Never got that meeting,” Oliver said in a video he recorded atop the crane and posted to Twitter.
After scaling the crane, Oliver, an artist, hung a banner criticizing Biden’s response to gun violence before being detained by police.. The banner, which had a picture of Joaquin’s face on it, read “45k people died from gun violence on your watch.”
The banner included a link to a website created by March For Our Lives, a student-led organization that was born in the aftermath of the tragedy.
ShockMarket.org keeps a running counter of gun deaths and injuries since Biden’s inauguration and a list of demands for action, including establishing a national office of gun violence prevention, investing in community violence intervention programs, holding the gun industry accountable and using the presidential bully pulpit to force change.
On Monday morning, the tally of gun deaths was more than 47,000.
Oliver’s protest reflects a broader sense of frustration among gun control activists with Biden and congressional Democrats over a lack of progress on gun control measures while the party controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.
David Hogg, head of March For Our Lives and a Marjory Stoneman Douglas alum, told the Miami Herald he’s been “extremely disappointed” in Biden’s response to gun violence.
“He should be doing everything he can, whatever measures he can take that will force the hand of the federal government,” he said. “Frankly, if we can land a damn man on the moon I think we can stop kids from getting shot in their schools.”
Biden praised the March For Our Lives movement in his Monday morning statement commemorating the tragedy.
“Out of the heartbreak of Parkland a new generation of Americans all across the country marched for our lives and towards a better, safer America for us all. Together, this extraordinary movement is making sure that the voices of victims and survivors and responsible gun owners are louder than the voices of gun manufacturers and the National Rifle Association,” Biden said. “My administration stands with those working to end this epidemic of gun violence.”
Biden pointed to a Department of Justice initiative designed to help cities combat gun crime and his request to Congress for additional funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He also called on Congress to pass gun control measures, such as a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Oliver’s protest and arrest did not come up at a White House briefing Monday afternoon, but White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back on the notion that Biden hasn’t prioritized combating gun violence as president.
“He’s already done more than any other president in their first year in history to advance common-sense gun violence prevention measures,” Jean-Pierre said.
She later pointed to Congress as the branch of government that has failed to address the issue to this point. “Is there more work to do? Absolutely. That’s why we’re encouraging Congress to act as well. The president wants to do everything he can from his perch,” she said.
Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., whose district includes Parkland, called on Biden to go further by using his first State of the Union speech on March 1 to press Congress to pass legislation. The prime-time speech before Congress is when presidents lay out their policy priorities each year.
“I’m glad President Biden is talking about this issue. But I beg him to use his State of the Union address to clearly explain why we need Congress to do things that can save lives and that aren’t controversial: universal background checks, safe storage requirements, banning ghost guns, and tougher gun trafficking laws,” Deutch said in a statement Monday.
“Anything we can do to spare one more community — one more family — the pain that we have experienced in Parkland and Coral Springs and South Florida is what we must do. The president may want to do more than that. But I want to get something done. We need to start saving lives and preventing more broken hearts.”
Other Florida Democrats also used the anniversary as an opportunity to call for passage of gun control legislation, including U.S. Reps. Val Demings and Charlie Crist, who are running for U.S. senator and Florida governor, respectively.
“We must work to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. Let’s come together to keep innocent people safe. From the date of the Parkland shooting until today, there have been another 2,165 mass shootings in the United States,” Demings said in a statement. “Of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, the first is life. Our children have a right to live.”
Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican who was Florida’s governor at the time of the massacre, commemorated the shooting in a Senate floor speech last week. Rather than gun control legislation, Scott focused his remarks on legislation that would steer additional federal resources toward school safety and threat assessment.
“While we can’t bring back the lives lost on that tragic day nearly four years ago, I will always work to honor them, and do everything in my power to protect our students and educators, and ensure they have a safe environment to learn and succeed,” Scott said.
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 12:37 PM.
