Cubs star, Stoneman Douglas alum: ’Something has to change’

Chicago Cubs star Anthony Rizzo issued a broad call for action on Thursday after a deadly shooting at the South Florida high school that the MLB player attended more than a decade ago.

At a vigil Thursday night, Rizzo, an alumnus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., mourned a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 17 people on Wednesday, saying that such violence has become all too common.

“There’s a cycle to it. We get horrified that this violence is inflicted on our kids; we get angry that there’s nothing we can do and that nothing’s done about it,” he said, speaking to a crowd of mourners. “But then we ultimately get immune and move on to something else.”

{mosads}

“While I don’t have all the answers, I know that something has to change before this is visited on another community, and another community, and another community.”

The accused gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was charged on Thursday with 17 counts of premeditated murder. Cruz was himself a former student of Stoneman Douglas but had been expelled for disciplinary reasons.

The attack has prompted renewed calls for stricter gun control laws, particularly for individuals with mental illnesses.

Cruz carried out the attack with an AR-15, an assault-style rifle that has become increasingly common in mass shootings in the U.S. Cruz purchased that weapon legally about a year ago from a dealer in Coral Springs, Fla.