UPDATE (February 22, 2018): Josh Gad has shared a heartbreaking tribute to his friend Max Schachter, whose son Alex was tragically killed in last week's Parkland, Florida school shooting. It comes after Max shared a poem written by his son during a live TV forum on CNN:
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Frozen actor Gad has since written in honour of both Max and Alex: "Watching our family friend #maxschachter read his son Alex's poem tonight is almost too much for me to bear. Max, we are all with you. We love you. Your strength is incredible. Your son's poetry is light in this darkness. #alexschachter."
UPDATE (February 15, 2018): Josh Gad has penned a series of poignant tweets confirming that a close family friend has died after being shot in the Florida school massacre on Wednesday (February 14). He also used his statement to hit out at US leaders for refusing to enact stricter gun control.
"Last night, I received a text while I slept that our friend's son passed away from his gun shot wound," he wrote. "My grief for this family and the many others knows no bounds. I'm so sorry this happened. I'm so sorry our leaders are worthless. I'm so sorry we are bound to repeat this again.
"I think all of us know in our hearts something is terribly wrong with the weekly rate of these incidents. I will not lecture any of you on what to believe of how to respond. I will only tell you what I am going to do.
"I am going to make it my life's goal to support and vote for every single person who challenges a politician with NRA money behind them. I am going to make sure that I read and educate myself as to why certain people refuse to do anything that resembles sensible gun laws and make sure they face early retirement.
"And finally I am going to remember the 17 dead, the many injured, and the thousands of others who have senselessly lost their lives to gun violence and I am going to fight in their name so that other parents and siblings never have to expiereince (sic) such trauma. That is what I'm going to do. The question is...what are you going to do?"
ORIGINAL: Beauty and the Beast star Josh Gad has opened up about how "angry" and "sad" the recent Florida shooting has made him, revealing that someone he knows was badly hurt in the event and is now in hospital.
A gunman opened fire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at 2.30pm local time on Wednesday (February 14). So far, 17 people have been declared dead, but that number could still rise.
Gad tweeted about the shooting, writing: "I am so angry tonight. I am so sad. I'm putting my phone down because we are debating sensible gun laws again.
"A child of one of our friend's has a bullet in his chest & is critical condition because a 19 year old had access to a military weapon. Pretend it's normal. It's not."
The Frozen actor also hit out at the Senator of Florida for not stating that stricter gun control laws would have prevented the shooting from happening.
Gad isn't the only celebrity to tweet about the attack and call for action.
Reese Witherspoon wrote: "Heartbroken over the news of another school shooting. This is the 18th in 45 days of 2018. Students & teachers shouldn't have to fear for their safety.
"We must do more to prevent these senseless acts of gun violence. My heart is w/ the people in Parkland, FL. Enough is enough."
"We owe it to our children and our teachers to keep them safe while at school," wrote Kim Kardashian West. "Prayers won't do this: action will. Congress, please do your job and protect Americans from senseless gun violence."
Ellen DeGeneres added: "No words, no actions, no laws are enough until we end this epidemic of school shootings in our country," while Jimmy Kimmel said: "We send love, sympathy and prayers tonight and DEMAND that our 'leaders' do SOMETHING to stop this tomorrow. How many have to suffer before we stop looking the other way?"
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
