Parkland trial a rare, curtailed look at mass shooting gore

By TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Few Americans outside law enforcement ever see the most graphic videos or photos from the nation’s worst mass shootings. In most states, such evidence is only displayed at trial and most such killers die during their attacks. They never make it to court. That makes the penalty phase in the trial over the 2018 murders of 17 at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School unusual. Images of the horrific aftermath are being shown in court, but only to jurors, and to a small group of journalists. Some people believe the public should see such images also, so they can understand the carnage AR-15s and similar guns cause. Others say that would cause emotional harm to the victims’ families and perhaps stoke future mass shootings.