'The violence has to stop': Florida governor vows to prevent guns from getting to people with mental illness

Florida Gov. Rick Scott says he will work to ensure that individuals with a mental illness cannot access guns. 

The Republican governor spoke at a news conference Thursday morning after the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.

"We cannot lose another child in this country to violence in a school," he told reporters. "The violence has to stop."

Scott's comments come just hours after House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said that incident should not threaten citizens' rights to own guns in a round of interviews with conservative radio shows, one day after the shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people.

"There's more questions than answers at this stage," the Republican lawmaker said in an interview Thursday with Tom Katz on Indiana radio station WIBC about the mass shooting.

"I don't think that means you then roll that conversation into taking away citizens' rights, taking away a law-abiding  citizen's rights. Obviously this conversation typically goes  there. Right now, I think we need to take a breath and collect the facts."

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vowed action in the wake of the shooting, but did not offer any specifics.

"It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening in our country," Sessions said. "We will take such action as we're able to take. We have got to reverse these trends we're seeing in these shootings."

The comments came just ahead of a national address by U.S. President Donald Trump about the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Previously, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., was the site of the deadliest high school shooting, in 1999 when two teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher, and then themselves.

The Florida shooting was also the second deadliest at a U.S. public school, behind the 2012 incident that left 20 students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., dead. The gunman also killed his mother and himself.
 
Earlier on Thursday, Trump wrote in a Twitter post: "So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behaviour.

"Neighbours and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!" 

Trump also issued a proclamation Thursday honouring victims of the shooting, tweeting: "Our Nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida."

Former Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Nikolas Cruz, 19, on Thursday was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

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