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Off by a century: President Biden says Parkland school shooting took place in 1918 in latest gaffe

Biden claimed that 17 people were shot and killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school in 1918, instead of 2018

On Monday, July 11, President Biden made a century-related error when he claimed that the Parkland school shooting happened in 1918. The US president announced on the White House lawn, “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — 1918, 17 dead, 17 injured.” Meanwhile, the Parkland shooting took place on February 14, 2018, Valentine's Day.

The gaffe is only the latest in President Biden's long history of errors. Earlier, Biden read loud a teleprompter note reminding him to repeat what he just said. The president said, 'Repeat the line,' which prompted the world's wealthiest man, Elon Musk, to tweet, “Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real president.” Biden also referred to Kamala Harris, his vice president, as 'President Harris' at least four times during one of his earlier speeches. According to New York Times, Biden's staff members have expressed worry about Biden’s age. Employees admitted to holding their breath throughout Biden's speeches in order to see if he makes it to the end without making a mistake.

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Meanwhile, Biden's error came minutes after the father of one of the teenagers killed in the Parkland school mass shooting heckled the president before being kicked out of the White House event that was meant to celebrate the passage of the new bipartisan gun law. The gun safety legislation, which was passed in response to recent shooting rampages in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, gradually tightens the requirements for young people purchasing firearms, bars more domestic abusers from possessing guns, and aids local law enforcement in temporarily removing them from people deemed dangerous.

However, the passing of the law also follows the Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, which left 46 people injured and 7 dead. While the president was delivering his speech on the South Lawn, Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son was one of the teens killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, stood up and informed him that it wasn't enough. Oliver has organized multiple protests to call for more gun control laws, and in February he climbed a 150-foot building near the White House.

Oliver stopped Biden while he was saying, “We can make meaningful progress on dealing with gun violence” exclaiming, “We have to do more than that! I've been trying to tell you this for years.” Then Biden urged him to sit down so he could hear what he had to say, adding, ‘Let me finish my comments.’ But as members of the White House staff approached Oliver to speak with him, Biden responded, “Let him talk; let him talk.” However, staff still escorted Oliver out of the event. 

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Oliver later insisted the new laws weren't sufficient or worthy of celebration. He told Miami Herald, “There's nothing to celebrate. It's a big lie. We lie between ourselves thinking we have a solution to this when we actually don't. There was no need for this event. At all.” Oliver claimed that he got up during the event because he wanted to speak with Biden. “'It was my chance to say something to the president, and that's a chance we don't have every single day. That's pretty much what this is about,” he remarked.