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Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for armed troops to be placed in schools on Parkland anniversary

The National Guard was in Washington DC in response to the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters

Graig Graziosi
Monday 15 February 2021 16:23 GMT
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Marjorie Taylor Greene harasses Parkland survivor David Hogg

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called for thousands of armed troops to be placed in schools on the anniversary of the Parkland school shooting.

The congresswoman, who was recently stripped of her committee appointments by House Democrats for controversial social media posts posted her idea for military-occupied schools on Twitter.

"@JoeBiden had 30,000 armed guards at his inauguration, he clearly believes in good guys with guns. The best way to prevent school shootings is to repeal all gun free school zones and protect our kids like he protects himself. #FixIt," she wrote.

The troop presence Ms Greene was referring to was the National Guard, which was deployed in response to the violent insurrection Donald Trump's supporters participated in two weeks before the inauguration.

Among the rioters were numerous QAnon supporters, a cult-like movement of conspiracy theorists who look forward to the trial, conviction and mass execution of Democrats and moderate Republicans. Ms Greene posted about the conspiracy, but claims she no longer holds those beliefs. She made that claim while trying to convince Democrats not to strip her of her committee appointments.

Among Ms Greene's controversial claims was support for the conspiracy theory that the Parkland school shooting was a "false flag" event mean to provide the government with an impetus for stripping people of their Second Amendment rights. The school shooting did actually happen, and left 17 people dead and another 17 wounded.

In a video shared by Ms Greene prior to her election, she can be seen following David Hogg, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, around on the street and harassing him. She asks him why he's trying to use the school shooting to strip Americans of their gun rights.

Ms Greene defended her actions in the video by claiming that Mr Hogg was 19 at the time.

Mr Hogg tweeted his feelings about the video when it resurfaced earlier in February.

“It’s so frustrating that we have people like [Ms Greene] in Congress that would rather spread conspiracies about mass shootings than confront the reality people are dying everyday from gun violence. I just want to do the work and help end gun violence,” Mr Hogg wrote.

He said he'd rather be living life as a normal young adult rather than spending his time engaged in activism, but people like Ms Greene force him to act.

“You think we want to be doing this? @mtgreenee No — I’d much rather be able to be a college student but I & others can’t & you know why? Bc corrupt politicians like you have made it so it’s on the survivors of Gun violence to end gun violence bc you can’t do your damn job,” he said.

Just before the House voted to remove her from her committees, Ms Greene claimed she understood the "fear" that the Parkland students felt on the day of the shooting, citing her own brush with school violence in 1990.

Ms Greene was a student at South Forsyth County High School in 1990 when a student took hostages at gun point.

The congresswoman was not one of the students that was taken hostage, as she was in another classroom at the time.

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