Flags To Be Lowered To Half-Staff For Parkland, Florida, Shooting Victims
President Donald J. Trump has issued a proclamation ordering American flags to be lowered to honor those killed on February 14 in the country's latest mass shooting incident. Seventeen people were killed on Wednesday afternoon, inside and just outsideÃÂ Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. The shooter has been apprehended and charged with 17 counts of murder.
President Trump's February 15 proclamation:
"Our Nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the terrible act of violence perpetrated on February 14, 2018, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, February 19, 2018. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
"IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second."
In accordance with that proclamation, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy on Thursday also announced that US and state flags in Connecticut will fly at half-staff, beginning immediately until sunset on Monday, February 19.
"Accordingly, since no flag should fly higher than the US flag," the governor's statement continued, "all other flags - including state, municipal, corporate, or otherwise - should also be lowered during this same duration of time."