WASHINGTON—In what has become a familiar ritual of grief, U.S. President Donald Trump planned to address Americans Thursday morning about a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school, after focusing on mental health, rather than guns, in his early comments.The president’s address comes a day after a former student opened fire at the Parkland, Florida, high school with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people and injuring 14 more. The 19-year-old was charged Thursday morning.Trump, who did not speak publicly immediately after the shooting, weighed in on Twitter early Thursday, calling the suspect “mentally disturbed” and stressing it was important to “report such instances to authorities, again and again!” He tweeted about the shooting twice on Wednesday, expressing condolences and saying he spoke with Florida’s governor.The president also issued a proclamation Thursday honouring the victims of the shooting. It says, “Our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones.”The president has dealt before with offering consolation after horrific violence. In the wake of a Las Vegas shooting in October that killed at least 58 people, Trump spoke from the White House Diplomatic Room, calling it an “act of pure evil,” and seeking to help the nation heal.In the past, he has largely focused on mental health as a cause for mass shootings, dismissing questions about gun control.After a shooting at a Texas church left 26 people dead in November, the president also said “mental health” was the problem, adding that “this isn’t a guns situation.” When he visited Las Vegas to mourn with the families of those victims, Trump called the shooter “demented” and a “very sick individual,” though he added that “we’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes by.”The 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on ...
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