Parkland high school shooting

On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, an affluent suburb about 30 miles northwest of Fort Lauderdale. Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old former student, was dropped off at the school by an Uber driver at 2:19 p.m. and entered Building 12 carrying a rifle case and backpack concealing an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and multiple magazines. He assembled the weapon near a stairwell and began shooting in the first-floor hallway at 2:21 p.m., killing three students immediately and firing through classroom door windows to kill six more and wound thirteen others. He proceeded to the second and third floors, killing additional students and staff before dropping his rifle and fleeing the building by blending in with students evacuating. He was arrested without incident approximately one hour and twenty minutes later in the Wyndham Lakes neighborhood of nearby Coral Springs. In total, 17 people were killed—14 students and 3 faculty members—and 17 more were wounded, with the shooting lasting about six minutes and all victims shot within roughly four minutes.

The attack is described as the deadliest mass shooting at a high school in U.S. history, surpassing the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Investigations afterward documented a lengthy history of disciplinary issues, threatening behavior, and warnings to authorities about Cruz, including calls to the Broward County Sheriff's Office over the preceding decade and a January 2018 tip to an FBI hotline that was reportedly not forwarded for investigation. Sheriff Scott Israel's office faced widespread criticism for its handling of prior warnings and for the response during the shooting itself, particularly the decision of on-duty school resource officer Scot Peterson to remain outside Building 12 rather than enter, and an order by Broward Sheriff's Office captain Jan Jordan for deputies to form a perimeter rather than confront the shooter. Israel was later removed from office, and several responding officers resigned. A state commission condemned the police inaction and recommended enhanced school security measures statewide.

Cruz pleaded guilty to all charges on October 20, 2021. Following a death penalty trial that began July 18, 2022, a jury on October 13, 2022, unanimously found Cruz eligible for the death penalty but deadlocked on whether to impose it, resulting in a recommendation for life imprisonment without parole. Cruz was formally sentenced to life without parole on November 2, 2022, under a Florida law requiring courts to follow the jury's recommendation absent unanimity for death; that unanimity requirement has since been changed by subsequent legislation.

Peterson was separately charged in June 2019 with 11 counts of child neglect along with culpable negligence and perjury for his conduct during the shooting; he pleaded not guilty and was acquitted on all charges on June 29, 2023.

The shooting prompted the survivor-founded advocacy group Never Again MSD, large-scale protests including the March for Our Lives demonstrations, and the Florida Legislature's passage of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in March 2018, which raised the minimum firearm purchase age to 21 and enacted other restrictions. Civil litigation followed, including a $25 million settlement from the Broward County School District and a $125–130 million settlement from the federal government related to the FBI's handling of the pre-shooting tip.