A teenage girl who survived the massacre at a Florida school by hiding in a closet for two hours on Wednesday has hit back at a conservative commentator's statement that the tragedy was not about guns.

Carly Novell, 17, was responding to Tomi Lahren on Twitter after the Fox News pundit dismissed calls for greater gun control after a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 assault rifle.

"Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda? My goodness. This isn't about a gun it's about another lunatic," tweeted Lahren, who was among a number of right-wing media figures to say it was too soon to discuss gun control laws.

Miss Novell shared the tweet, saying: "I was hiding in a closet for 2 hours. It was about guns. You weren't there, you don't know how it felt. Guns give these disgusting people the ability to kill other human beings. This IS about guns and this is about all the people who had their life abruptly ended because of guns."