Joaquin Oliver was one of the 17 people shot and killed by a former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day.
But last year, he was a politically active student sharing a message calling for greater restrictions on gun licensing in the US.
Now his sister, Andrea Ghersi, has shared a tweet about the eerily similar Sandy Hook shooting the 17-year-old shared two months before his death.
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“My brother [Joaquin] retweeted this two months ago and it was a ‘mentally ill individual’ with an AR-15 that took my brother from our lives. It’s time we do something #neveragain,” Ghersi wrote.
The tweet was originally written by user Ed Krassenstein. He sent it out on the fifth anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 young children and six adults. Lanza reportedly had a mental illness as well as an interest in mass shootings.
“It was five years ago today that a mentally ill man killed 20 kids and six staff at #Sandy Hook,” the tweet began.
“If you believe that mentally ill individuals should have easy access to firearms of any size, let alone guns comparable to the AR-15, then you need to realize the NRA has brainwashed you.”
The tragic irony of Joaquin sharing this message and then dying in almost identical circumstances is not lost on anyone.
Criticism of America’s National Rifle Association has been widespread in the wake of America’s latest shooting.
Yet the most recent statement from Vice President Wayne LaPierre rejected talk of gun control and upheld the NRA’s position that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”.
The irony that this was the exact same statement the NRA made five years ago was lost on him.
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You know what? As someone who has been living with a mental illness for eleven years, I’m so tired of hearing the “mentally ill” excuse. Can you imagine if someone framed cancer in this way? Imagine the narrative; “Cancer patients should not have access to guns because they are more likely to take other lives”. WTF?
I’m not saying that the shooters of these appalling massacres weren’t unstable, but as someone who is mentally ill, I resent being lumped in with such people. The one thing all these shooters have in common? GUNS.
Thank you! I have a psychotic disorder, never have I felt the urge to go out and shoot people up. Even when I have been unwell I have never ever been violent. You know what will happen if mentally ill people were banned from owning guns? Shootings would still happen. Not all violent unstable murderers have a mental illness and not all mentally ill are violent and unstable. Having grown up in Australia I don't understand Americans obsession with guns but instead of restricting only the mentally ill, why not restrict gun ownership of everyone and have each person applying go through very very very strict and thorough background checks?
I'm pretty sure that they have background checks which are supposed to stop the selling of firearms to people with mental health issues.
Regardless, there were tips about this guy and his potential for violence given to both local and federal authorities, both of whom failed to act on them.
Regarding the "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun" statement isn't particularly outrageous. I mean, what else are you going to use to stop a person with a gun who has evil intentions? Are you going to appeal to his sense of decency? Are you going to stage an intervention? Are you going to try and take him out using Judo?
There were several armed sheriff's deputies at the scene as the shooting unfolded, any one of them may have been able to stop the shooting, and save lives, if they had done their job and entered the school and engaged the shooter.
Blaming the NRA, basically a lobby group, for these appalling lapses is not only disingenuous, but it's not addressing the actual circumstances which resulted in this terrible crime being committed.