Fox
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith.
- Fox News anchor Shepard Smith had some choice words following the Parkland high school shooting.
- Smith railed against the lack of progress in preventing mass shootings.
- The Parkland shooting killed at least 17 people and is the 18th gun-related incident at or near a US school this year.
Like many news anchors following the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith appeared to be frustrated by a perceived lack of action in preventing mass shootings.
"It's astounding isn't it?," Shepard asked during his segment on Fox News on Thursday. "We are the richest, most powerful, wealthiest nation on the face of the planet. We have the best researchers, we have the best universities."
At least 17 people have died after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the 18th gun-related incident at or near a US school this year.
Authorities have charged 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, a former student of the high school, with the shooting. Cruz was reportedly armed with an AR-15 style rifle and several magazines.
"This doesn't happen anywhere else in the world," Smith continued. "We have all the resources in the world. And we can't figure out why this happens in our country and it doesn't happen everywhere else."
"Forget your political arguments, why can't we come together as a society and say 'Now we're going to study this, we're going to research this, we're going to bring our best and brightest together,'" Smith said. "Put them all in a room, give them funds and give them whatever they need to figure out why are our children killing each other more in the United States than anywhere else in the world."
Smith appeared to make a call for change by reminding viewers of past US achievements.
"We change the course of human events around this world, this nation does," Smith said. "We put a man on the moon 50 years ago, and we can't figure out why only our children are running around their schools killing each other."
"It doesn't happen everywhere else. It happens here," Smith continued. "Why can't they put the best and the brightest together to research it and figure it out and help us stop it. Failing our children."
The latest shooting marked the 30th mass shooting in 2018, according to a study by the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive. Though the government does not set requirements for what is deemed as a mass shooting, the Gun Violence Archive defined it as an incident in which at least four people, not including the shooter, are "shot and/or killed in a single event ... at the same general time and location."