Wissahickon Superintendent: Ban Rapid-Fire Assault Weapons Now

AMBLER, PA — The Superintendent of the Wissahickon School District didn't mince his words in his response to the horrific violence on Wednesday at a high school in Broward County, Florida.

"I believe it is time for all of us, public school leaders included, to have the courage to call for a ban on rapid-fire assault weapons," James A. Crisfield said in a letter to the school community on Thursday. "Enough is enough."

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland killed 17 people and injured at least 14 other people who were hospitalized late Wednesday night, according to a Patch report. The shooting happened after a fire alarm was pulled, prompting students and staff at the school to evacuate. The accused gunman is a former student at the school.

Crisfield's comments came as he reinforced the importance of safety protocols at Wissahickon. But he said that more needed to be done in order to keep children safe.

"We need to stop framing this as a rollback of constitutional rights, and we need to stop framing it as some sort of partisan political issue," he continued. "Instead, we need to start framing this as protecting kids. Period. We need to be done with the fallacious, slippery-slope argument that a ban on these people-killing weapons will be a ban on all guns. No, it will not. I don’t have any patience when it comes to partisan politics, especially in the realm of education, and how this can fall prey to Democrat vs. Republican posturing is beyond me. We need to act now to protect students now."

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the gunman was armed with an AR-15 rifle with multiple magazines.

In his letter, Crisfield also laid out the ongoing measures the district was taking, including active shooter drills, created controlled access points, daily police presence, and a mental health support program.

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