Young heroes shield fellow students with bodies in Florida shooting

Those awesome young heroes will live in people's hearts.

The horrible high school shooting massacre in Florida killed 17 people and devastated families. But love and bravery never cease. The hero students who protected fellows with their own bodies during the crazy shooting have shown respectable bravery and noble spirits.

Mourners hold flowers during the funeral for Peter Wang at Kraeer Funeral Home in Parkland, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. Wang is one of 17 people killed by a former student during Wednesday's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald via AP)

Peter Wang's mother, Hui, cries as she is helped into a waiting car with her family after the memorial service for her 15-year-old son at Kraeer Funeral Home in Coral Springs, Fla., Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. Peter Wang is a victim in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Taimy Alvarez/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

When the savage gunman fired randomly, some hero students took the initiative to help other students escape, holding the door and guarding the doorway against gunfires. Sadly, three of them sacrificed their lives.

15-year-old Peter Wang was shot repeatedly while holding a door open to let other people escape.  Wang along with Alaina Petty and Martin Duque, all students from the school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program receive heroism medals from US Army after the selfless sacrifice. 

Alaina Petty.

 15-year-old high school soccer player Anthony Borges was trying to lock the door and remained in the doorway as the killer shot him repeatedly. Now, this teen hero was in stable condition after being shot in the back and both legs.

This image made available by the Broward County Sheriff's Office on Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, shows Sheriff Scott Israel, holding the hand of Anthony Borges, 15, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.  (Broward County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Borges's father said, “He’s my hero”, and asked people to pray for him. Broward County Sheriff visited Anthony Borges in the hospital and posted an emotional photo shaking the teen’s hand.

What's also touching but in a grieving way are funeral scenes of the deceased heroes. Thousands of people have attended to pay their respect and tribute.

Family members hold up Peter Wang's father, Kong, after the funeral services for his 15-year-old son at Kraeer Funeral Home in Coral Springs, Fla. Peter Wang is a victim in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. (Taimy Alvarez/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Peter Wang is seen in this photo near a memorial in Parkland, Fla., Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Allen Breed)

The casket of Alaina Petty, a victim of Wednesday's mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, leaves her funeral in Coral Springs, Fla., Monday, Feb. 19, 2018. Nikolas Cruz, a former student, was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder on Thursday. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Friday signed into law a suite of gun safety legislation approved by lawmakers after the deadliest mass shooting in state history, expanding background checks for private sales of weapons, bolstering the state's “yellow flag” law, criminalizing the transfer of guns to prohibited people and expanding mental health crisis care.

The governor told lawmakers during her State of the State address that doing nothing was not an option after an Army reservist with an assault rifle killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston on Oct. 25.

The bills drew opposition from Republicans who accused Democrats, who control both legislative chambers, of using the tragedy to advance proposals, some of which had been previously defeated. Mills said Friday the proposals would improve public safety while respecting the state's long traditions of gun ownership and outdoor heritage.

“This law represents important, meaningful progress, without trampling on anybody’s rights, and it will better protect public safety by implementing reasonable reforms and by significantly expanding mental health resources," Mills said.

The new law signed by the governor doesn't require universal background checks but it does require background checks for people who advertise a gun for sale on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace or elsewhere. Sellers would be required to conduct a background check utilizing commercially licensed businesses like L.L. Bean or Cabela's.

The legislation includes changes to the state's yellow flag law that allows police to assess an individual, take the person into protective custody for a mental health evaluation and hold a hearing before a judge to remove guns from someone in a psychiatric crisis.

The new law allows police to go directly to a judge for a warrant, streamlining the process. It eliminates a hurdle when a deputy was stymied by the Lewiston gunman’s refusal to answer the door for a required face-to-face meeting that’s necessary under current law. Law enforcement members have said in testimony about the shootings that the state's existing yellow flag law was cumbersome and hard to apply.

Supporters of expanded gun control laws, who have advocated for the passage of the new standards for months, described the approval of the rules as a victory. Twenty-two states now have a background check law, said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Advocates also said they're hopeful other new gun measures approved by lawmakers in Maine will soon become law.

“Today is a victory for the gun violence prevention movement and a demonstration of what Mainers can accomplish to keep our communities safe when we work together,” said Vicki Farsaci, a volunteer with the Maine chapter of Moms Demand Action.

The bill signed by the governor also strengthens legal standards for prosecution and penalties to deter other people from selling weapons to prohibited buyers, making it a felony crime. The governor's office said in a statement that the new approach “will mean that transfers of firearms to family members or trusted friends, as is common in Maine, will remain unchanged, but it will incentivize checks against the (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) for private, unadvertised sales to unknown individuals through the threat of increased risk of prosecution and prison time.”

Mills' approvals of the gun proposals came a day after a special commission she convened interviewed fellow reservists of Card who raised warnings about Card's increasingly erratic behavior. Card was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the aftermath of the mass shooting after an extensive search.

One of the fellow reservists interviewed on Thursday, Sean Hodgson, told superiors in September: “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”

Mills also proposed the creation of a new violence and injury prevention program requiring the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to serve as a clearinghouse for data from law enforcement, hospitals, schools and other sources to inform public policy decisions.

Her proposal for a network of crisis centers, meanwhile, would build upon the first such facility already in operation in Portland and a second one that’s being created in central Maine.

FILE — Gov. Janet Mills attends an event, March 11, 2022, in Augusta, Maine. Mills on Friday, April 26, 2024, signed off on a law a suite of gun safety legislation approved by lawmakers after the deadliest mass shooting in state history, expanding background checks for private sales of weapons, bolstering the state’s “yellow flag” law, criminalizing the transfer of guns to prohibited people and expanding mental health crisis care. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)