Following Saugus High School shooting, #MassacreMitch is trending on Twitter - Courier Journal

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Raw video shows officers and rescuers responding as well as students being evacuated after a school shooting in Santa Clarita. Wochit, Wochit

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is back under the microscope after a shooting Thursday at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, left at least two dead and at least two injured, with "#MassacreMitch" trending on Twitter.

The shooting took place shortly before 8 a.m. local time Thursday at the 2,500-student school about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. 

A local hospital said a female patient died and that it was treating three males, two with critical injuries and one in good condition.

The exact number of other injured students and staff was not immediately clear. The suspect, a student at Saugus High School, was taken into custody and was being treated at a hospital, according to Los Angeles County authorities.

The Twitterverse was quick to point fingers yet again at McConnell following the latest school shooting.

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"Dear Parents, please go home today and hug your children and tell them you love them. When you do this, imagine that this is the last time you will ever see them alive again," tweeted Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018. "Then demand @senatemajldr opens the Senate so that we can give your children a chance to live."

Shannon Watts, president of pro-gun control group Moms Demand Action, retweeted McConnell's statement from early August in which the Kentucky Republican said "Senate Republicans are prepared to do our part" to address a string of mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

Also: How McConnell has fought gun control despite a mass shooting in his hometown 30 years ago

Background: 1 dead, multiple people injured in Santa Clarita school shooting

Previously: Despite back-to-back mass shootings, McConnell unlikely to accept gun control legislation

"It's been over three months since @senatemajldr’s last hollow promise to act in the wake of a shooting tragedy. His inaction comes with a body count," Watts tweeted Thursday. "But I promise, that just like in Virginia, there will be hell to pay at the ballot box in 2020."

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who is vying to become the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nominee, took to MSNBC following the shooting and said "Mitch McConnell needs to convene the Senate."

"We don't need to take everyone's guns, but there has been a failure of the Congress to act," Harris said. "It is pathetic. This is outrageous."

As Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., was making the case on the Senate floor Thursday for a vote on gun control legislation passed earlier this year by the House, he was reportedly handed a note about the California school shooting.

"How can we turn the other way, how can we refuse to see that shooting in real time, demanding our attention, requiring our action?" Blumenthal asked. "We are complicit if we fail to act. It is not just a political responsibility, it is a moral imperative."

Moments earlier, Blumenthal's fellow Democrat from Connecticut, Sen. Chris Murphy, had called on GOP senators to allow a vote on a universal background checks bill.

Murphy's motion to pass the legislation was blocked by Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., who said her colleagues needed time to study and debate the bill.

The drama in the Senate coinciding with news of the Santa Clarita school shooting prompted mentions of #MassacreMitch to jump up on Twitter.

At one point Thursday afternoon, over 14,000 tweets included the #MassacreMitch hashtag, according to Twitter.

Other prominent politicians also chimed in and mentioned McConnell, including Sen. Bernie Sanders.

"It is truly outrageous that at the very same time the Santa Clarita school shooting was happening, Senate Republicans—led by Mitch McConnell—refused to pass gun safety legislation," the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate tweeted. "Congress and Trump must finally have the courage to stand up to the NRA. Enough is enough!"

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer tweeted Thursday afternoon that McConnell should call for a Senate vote on two gun control bills related to background checks.

"Leaders should never choose guns over kids. We keep seeing tragedies in our schools, stores, churches and homes," Fischer tweeted. "...How much more heartbreak must our families and country endure?"

The White House said Thursday that President Donald Trump was monitoring the events in Santa Clarita.

After the El Paso and Dayton shootings took place within 24 hours of each other in August, McConnell said he would not allow a floor vote on any gun legislation until Trump indicated what he would support.

McConnell has not yet commented or released a statement on the Saugus High School shooting.

This story may be updated.

More: There have already been at least 30 shooting attacks at schools resulting in death or injury in 2019

USA Today contributed reporting.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com or 502-582-7030. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.

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