On that CNN "townhall" lynch mob; "So thanks a lot for adding to our discourse, CNN."

FL Shooting Survivor Ariana Klein: Networks Don't Want Us To Give Our Real Opinions, "Want Us To Further Their Agendas"

. . . "The whole point of the town hall meeting was to hear the kids and hear what we had to say," she said.
Her father, prefacing that he is a Republican and a gun owner, said he was approached by a CNN producer on Thursday, the day after the school shooting, and felt they "were looking for people who were willing to espouse a certain narrative." 
"The producer insinuated to me they were looking for people who were willing to espouse a certain narrative which was taking a tragedy and turning it into a policy debate and I read that as being a gun control debate," Klein said.
"Unfortunately, I think a lot of the people talking about gun control don't understand what they're talking about," he added. . . .

National Review: Gun Politics, Twitterized

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel (left) and syndicated talk-show
host Dana Loesch at CNN’s town hall meeting, February 21, 2018.

. . . "But here’s my worry: In our increasingly Twitterized nation, that relatively simple concept — “I disagree with the idea, but I understand it” — seems to be an increasingly endangered thought process. Political insults, of course, are nothing new. But just last week, New York Times columnist David Brooks earned widespread scorn and evisceration for a rather mild column suggesting that all Americans, including law-abiding gun owners, are worthy of respect. Yikes."

CNN’s Insane Anti-Gun Townhall Will Only Help The NRA
. . . "So thanks a lot for adding to our discourse, CNN. You’re now no different than SKDKnickerbocker when it comes to being a promotional vehicle for anti-gun views, and you’ve given gun owners every reason to believe reformers are coming for every gun they have. Great job, everyone."

CNN’s Shameful Town Hall  . . . "More immediately, events like the CNN town hall go a long way in convincing gun owners that gun-control advocates do have a desire to confiscate their weapons. The advocates can’t confiscate weapons right now, so they support whatever feasible incremental steps are available to inch further toward that goal. We don’t know how this plays out in the long run. In the short run, though, it does nothing to stop the next school shooting."

Colton Haab Vs. CNN  "On Wednesday night CNN took up the 2018 children’s crusade that is intended to produce gun control where previously there has only been left-wing frustration. After the event, RealClear Politics posted local television video of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Colton Haab. I wrote about it here yesterday morning." . . .
"The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple explains: it’s a CNN non-scandal."

The Yelling of the Lambs  "For all of those who are angry about the Parkland attack and those before it, and who insist that the experiences of the newly minted child-activists for rescinding the Second Amendment require us to do what they demand, ask yourselves: do I want a society where my rights are determined by the raw and manipulated emotions of my accusers?  Do I want my rights decided by what children feel?  It is self-evident to rational people that anger, especially misinformed anger, is not a basis for good policy.  However, it is all that progressives can offer." . . .  

Armed police are guarding the home of the deputy who resigned over his lack of action in the Parkland school shooting

Business Insider

. . . "Deputies from the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office are guarding the home of the school resource officer who was stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after his family requested the protection, according to multiple news reports on Thursday.

"Local Fox affiliate WSVN said it sent a reporter to the Boynton Beach, Florida, home of Broward County Sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson for an interview when the reporter was met with six deputies "standing guard outside."

"Peterson's family is believed to have asked for the protection, according to NBC affiliate WPTV reporter Andrew Lofholm.

"Peterson resigned from his post at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting at the campus in which 17 people died. He was later criticized after an internal investigation found he never entered the building where the shooting occurred.

" 'I am devastated," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said at a news conference. "Sick to my stomach. He never went in."

"Peterson, who was armed and in uniform at the time, reportedly did "nothing" and remained outside of the building for at least four minutes during the incident, according to Israel." . . .  Hat tip: Weasel Zip.

“Parkland deputy "believed he did a good job calling in the location, setting up the perimeter and calling in the description [of the suspect],”  . . .“ 'We have to act, even if that means risking our lives to save many many more lives. I would demand that from our union members,” the union official told the Post." . . . 

I'm sure pictures and info on this deputy can be found, but I want to be no part of a lynch mob along the lines of CNN's by posting them.

Let's see the Trump Dossier unravel

McCain aide took the Fifth Amendment on role in Steele dossier  "More threads are unraveling in what may be the biggest political scandal in history: the use of intelligence agencies to spy on a rival-party presidential campaign and then unseat a duly elected president.  The blowback from the Steele dossier, the multi-million-dollar operation of the Hillary campaign and the DNC, may reach all the way to Trump-haters in the GOP.

"The Steele dossier scandal's tentacles are reaching all the way to Trumpophobic John McCain, via a close associate of his.  The longtime aide to Senator McCain who flew to England to get a copy of the Steele dossier and speed it along to the FBI in 2016 has clammed up and asserted his right to avoid self-incrimination.

"Catherine Herridge reports for Fox News:" . . .

. . . David J. Kramer, who is a central player in how the unverified Trump dossier made its way to the FBI in late 2016, testified before the committee in December in a closed-door session, indicating he had information about the dossier's sources.  A subpoena was issued for mid-January, as first reported by The Washington Examiner.
The law enforcement source confirmed, however, that Kramer did not appear and has exercised his Fifth Amendment rights.

Kramer pictured here with Tim Kaine

 

The attacks on the NRA are going to backfire big-time

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "The other night, CNN promoted a debate about gun control that ended up being an ongoing attack on the NRA, the organization representing those of us who believe that school shootings are a lot more complicated than just talking about guns.

"Will it be effective, or will it backfire?

"Let me introduce you to Conor Lamb, a Democrat:

Democrat Connor Lamb is holding firm in his belief that Congress doesn't need to pass stricter gun control laws following the school shooting in Florida, insisting the best way to deter these kinds of horrific events is to enforce the laws on the books.

The stance puts Mr. Lamb in line with President Trump and the candidate's Republican rival Rick Saccone in the special congressional race here in western Pennsylvania, which is doubling as the first electoral test of post-Florida gun politics.

"Mr. Lamb is a sensible man.  He probably remembers what happened to V.P. Gore in 2000.  Back then, V.P. Gore tried to compete with Bill Bradley during the Democrat primaries over gun control.  It came back to haunt him when he ran against Governor Bush.  It was probably one of the reasons he did not carry Tennessee or Arkansas.  It did not help him in the rural areas in Ohio, either.

"This is why it would make a lot more sense for President Trump and Congress to focus on two sensible objectives: securing the schools and making sure there is background information in background checks.

"What we saw last night on CNN won't move the ball forward, but it will probably increase the NRA's intensity in 2018."

FL Shooting Survivor Colton Haab: CNN Told Me I Needed To "Stick To The Script"; Entire Town Hall Scripted

Real Clear Politics

JROTC Cadet Who Survived Shooting: CNN Producer Refused To Let Me Ask About Arming Teachers  . . . “ 'What they had actually done was wrote out a question for me,” he said.

"On a previous interview Haab did with CNN, he shared his thoughts on arming teachers and allowing those who are willing to carry on campus. Haab said he absolutely thought that CNN producers rewrote questions for his classmates who participated in the event.

“ 'It was a little piece of paper cut out. And I know for a fact that nobody cut their own paper out and wrote their own question. Especially when they were all based off the same topic. So, to me, it from right there it showed this isn’t correct. Why do they all have the same size piece of paper with a short little question on it?”

"Haab said it was because of this that he decided not to attend the event. “To me it was a total waste of my time, honestly.' ” . . .

Dana Loesch: Here’s The Real Story Of What Happened At CNN’s Garbage Town Hall

The Federalist

As Loesch and her security detail walked toward the stage, audience members shouted at her phrases like, “murderer,” “child killer,” and “burn her.” Jake Tapper, CNN’s chief washington correspondent and anchor of “The Lead,” was the event moderator.

"Dana Loesch described on The Federalist Radio Hour podcast what happened behind the scenes of Wednesday’s CNN’s televised town hall event titled, “Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action.” Loesch, representing the National Rifle Association as their national spokesperson, said she wasn’t informed until hours before of the event’s format or that students would be asking questions.

“ 'I had nothing in advance. I didn’t know how the setup was going to be. I didn’t know it was going to be in a giant arena where it was 360 all the way around. I had no clue,” she said. “But I wanted to go and represent the people that I was representing, and also because I’m a parent too…I have kids and my oldest child is just a couple of years younger than these students.”

"The audience had already filled the arena and the event had started two hours before the cameras were even turned on, Loesch said.

They had music that was playing. They had montages that they were flashing across the screen. They had a number of speakers from the school and from the community. They had the sheriff go up and speak. He mentioned special interest groups, referring to the membership of the NRA.Then they brought the politicians out…and that was the first hour. After all of this was already happening, after emotions were already running high, and after CNN put everyone together and cranked up, really trying to wind people up even more.I had no questions in advance. It was even weird the way they had us walk out because it was like entering like you were a boxer or like WWE. You were walking up to the stage and they had music playing. You had to walk in aisles with all these people screaming and you had to walk toward the stage. That’s how you entered.

. . .
Watch CNN’s Scripted Anti-Gun Town Hall Go Completely Off The Rails

. . . "The reaction of both Tapper and Nelson indicates that the scripted event went awry, as Tapper was clearly expecting an approved question for Nelson, not a premature rant aimed at a woman who had not even been brought on stage by the network yet.

"Colton Haab, one of the students who survived last week’s mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, told the media he chose not to attend the town hall, because CNN tried to give him written questions to ask at the event. Haab is a Junior ROTC enlistee who personally helped dozens of students stay safe during the shooting by moving them to a more secure classroom and setting up Kevlar screens to shield students from bullets." . . .

A familiar pattern? Russian trolls on Twitter ‘rile’ Americans on gun violence

McClatchy

"An organization that monitors Russian trolling has spotted a peculiar similarity between certain types of social media postings that went up immediately after the Oct. 1 Las Vegas festival shootings and again after last week’s shootings at a school in Parkland, Fla.

"The pattern: A day after the tragedy, the trolls tweet on all sides of the gun control debate. A day later, they push conspiracy theories.

"It’s a formula designed to stir up emotions over mass violence and gun laws, and more broadly to foment anger and exasperation over the U.S. political system.

“ 'The purpose is to stoke tensions,” said Bret Schafer of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which is financing researchers following 600 or so Twitter accounts suspected of being operated by Russian “trolls” — pro-Kremlin mouthpieces aiming to encourage discord in the United States." . . .

Armed deputy in Florida school shooting never tried to engage gunman

Washington Times  A Florida sheriff says the deputy who was on duty at a high school where 17 people were massacred waited outside the building for about four minutes without ever going in.Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel announced during a Thursday news conference that Deputy Scot Peterson resigned after being suspended without pay.Israel said he made the decision after reviewing video surveillance and interviewing witnesses, including the deputy himself. The sheriff says Peterson responded to the building where the shooting took place, took up a position outside a door and never went in.When asked what Peterson should have done, Israel said the deputy should have “went in, addressed the killer, killed the killer.”Authorities say 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz fatally shot 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14.

Everything You Need to Know About Federal Background Checks

The Trace

A step-by-step guide to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which vets anyone who attempts to buy a gun through a federally licensed firearms dealer.

      "In the United States, anybody who wants to buy a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer (FFL) is subject to a background check. Since 1998, when the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, went online, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has processed more than 273 million of them.

     "The overwhelming majority of gun background checks take just minutes to clear the would-be buyer. Only 2 percent result in a rejection because of a disqualifying record in the shopper’s personal history.

     "And then there are the people who slip through the cracks and obtain guns they should have been barred from possessing — sometimes with deadly consequences. The gunmen in the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting, Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre, and Virginia Tech rampage each had a history that banned them from owning firearms. Yet none were stopped, because of omissions and loopholes in the system.

     "It’s such cases that expose the hidden complexities of NICS, and the importance of each element functioning the way that it should.

     "Given the central role that background checks play in balancing individual Americans’ gun rights and our shared public safety, it’s worth investing a few minutes to understand how they work." . . .  Full article

The 12 Reasons Why Americans Fail Federal Gun Background Checks

"More than 2 million people have been blocked from buying a gun after failing federal background checks since 1998. But some reasons for denial are more common than others."

 . . . 8. Adjudicated Mental Health: 31,854

Disqualifying mental health records form the second-largest body of records held by the NICS Indices. Simply receiving a diagnosis of a severe mental illness like schizophrenia is not enough to bar an American from gun ownership  — a judge must legally declare a person mentally unfit to own a gun or involuntarily commit him or her to a mental institution.

An Open Letter to the Montana Legislature

Mike Adams  "Dear Montana Representatives:
     "On February 13 th , I had the opportunity to speak in Dennison Theater at the University of Montana (UM). Events leading to the speech as well as events occurring during the speech made it clear that the Montana legislature must act to restore respect for freedom of speech on its publicly funded university campuses. I write today to ask that you pass specific free speech legislation we have already adopted in my home State of North Carolina.

     "Prior to my speech, in a bizarre statement to the entire university community, UM president Seth Bodnar stated, “Ours is a university driven by the core values of inclusiveness and equal opportunity. We stand united against divisiveness, intolerance, and hate.” He continued saying, “nor do we condone speech that is hateful or targets people based on their identities.” I characterize this statement as bizarre because he seems to be referring to me as the one responsible for “divisiveness, intolerance, and hate,” and as one who “targets people based on their identities.” This statement would have been more accurate had he been describing UM’s Dean of Journalism, Larry Abramson.

     "I have written previously with direct evidence that Larry Abramson had initially succeeded in excluding me from a limited public forum at UM based upon my viewpoints. I also documented indirect evidence that he did so based on my religion. (See my previous column, “Grizzly Bigotry at the University of Montana.”). There is now credible direct evidence that Abramson made his decision based upon my religion. This matter is serious and demands a formal investigation. I am fully prepared to supply the relevant evidence to the legislature should they decide to initiate a formal inquiry.

     "Unlike Dean Larry Abramson, I have never engaged in “the targeting of people based on their identity” for the purpose of excluding them from participating in the free exchange of ideas on a university campus. Accordingly, Bodnar is completely out of line when he lectures me while refusing to address the overt religious bigotry that exists within his own administration." . . .

Amazing New Breakthrough to Reduce Mass Shootings!

On account of the Rule of Journalism that permits the word "immigrant" to be used only in sentences with the word "valedictorian," you may not have heard of some of these mass shootings at all.

Ann Coulter  "As fun as it is to ridicule the FBI for devoting massive resources to chasing down Hillary Clinton's oppo research while blowing off repeated, specific warnings about school shooter Nikolas Cruz, we've put a lot on the agency's plate.

"We're hauling in nearly 2 million manifestly unvetted Third World immigrants every year, leading to a slew of FBI "Watch Lists" with a million names apiece. In 2015, Director James Comey said that there were ISIS investigations in all 50 states -- even Idaho and Alaska! And that's just one terrorist organization.

"Maybe the FBI brass would still be a bunch of incompetent, PC nincompoops if we weren't dumping millions of psychotic and terrorist foreigners on the country.

"But even the most efficient organization would have trouble keeping track of the Nikolas Cruzes when our immigration policies require approximately one-third of the country to be constantly watching another third of the country.

"Thanks to our Second Amendment, the United States has fewer mass shootings per capita than many other developed countries, including Norway, France, Switzerland, Finland, Belgium and the Czech Republic. (And 98 percent of our mass shootings occur in "gun-free zones.")

"But imagine if we could cut our mass shootings in half?" . . .

Trump's words twisted again by liberal media analyst Toobin

President Trump suggests a few selected volunteer teachers might be armed

Only a few would be armed Mr. Trump's own words.

Jeffrey Toobin grossly misquotes the President. At least Wolf Blitzer clarifies the statement.