Terrorism

The Washington Post reports: Familiar back-to-school supplies such as pencils, scissors and gym socks are recast as emergency survival tools in a devastating new public service announcement from the Sandy Hook Promise, an anti-violence nonprofit founded by the parents of victims of the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012. In the PSA, “Back to School Essentials,” young students breezily show off …

CNN reports: Local TV in Fresno, California, now features two public service announcements created by the Fresno Unified School District aimed at educating students and parents on social media threats. The PSAs warn that online threats can result in a student’s suspension, expulsion or even arrest. The school district has also posted an electronic billboard at one of the local …

The Washington Post reports: Alexis Wilson was working an afternoon shift at the local Pizza Inn in McAlester, Okla., on Sunday, when she pulled a co-worker aside to boast about her new gun. The slight 18-year-old with large brown eyes clutched her iPhone and pressed play on a video of her shooting a newly purchased AK-47, according to an incident …

Talk about a win-win. Josh Israel reports at Shareblue: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned on Thursday that congressional action to stop gun violence would not stop mass murders, would demoralize the nation, and could elect Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) president. Speaking at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, Cruz was asked about background checks and discussions between the Trump administration and …

The Christian Post reports: On the eve of the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a delegation of American evangelical leaders met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss the state of religious freedom and the battle against extremism in the kingdom. The timing of the visit drew the ire of critics on social media who noted that …

Axios reports: 145 top CEOs signed a letter urging the Republican-controlled Senate to act on gun control by passing legislation already introduced by Democrats. Corporate America is taking the lead in tackling gun control. Multiple retail companies, including Walmart and CVS, are asking customers to not openly carry firearms in their stores. After a deadly shooting at an El Paso …

Reuters reports: Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded to President Trump’s push to ban flavored e-cigarettes on Wednesday by calling for the administration to take similar action on assault rifles. After Trump announced his administration would seek to prohibit the sale of all non-tobacco flavors of e-cigarettes, Sanders posted on Twitter urging the administration to ban AR-15s following …

Moments ago, at a solemn ceremony marking the collapse of the South Tower, a man paused from reading the names of victims, one of whom was his mother, to launch an attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar and Democrats, calling out “the squad” for their apparent failure to recognize that 9/11 was an assault on “our Judeo-Christian values.” This man repeated …

The New York Times reports: David Amad, a gun rights activist and the vice president of Open Carry Texas, is not especially bothered by Walmart’s recent announcement that it is “respectfully requesting” that customers not openly carry guns into its stores. Mr. Amad said many of his group’s 38,000 members had carried their guns openly into Walmart stores since the …

From a new ABC/Washington Post poll: With six in 10 worried about a mass shooting in their own community, Americans by a 17-point margin express confidence that stricter gun control laws would reduce such incidents, and even more widely endorse improved mental health monitoring and treatment to that end. Two measures, specifically, remain overwhelmingly popular: 89% in this ABC News/Washington …

The New York Times reports: President Trump said on Saturday night that he had canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban leaders and the president of Afghanistan and was calling off monthslong negotiations that had appeared to be nearing a peace agreement. “Unbeknownst to almost everyone,” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of tweets, Taliban leaders and the …

Newsweek reports: A report out by the San Antonio Express-News found that a gun owner in Texas had sent more than 100 pages of racist and violent letters to the Texas Attorney General’s office threatening to kill undocumented immigrants over the course of a year and a half, and that nothing was done to stop him or to communicate the …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: FBI agents waited more than an hour at the Winter Park home of Richard Dean Clayton’s parents before the 26-year-old entered unannounced through the back door. The agents said Clayton, who had threatened to shoot up a Walmart, was “manic” — erratic, paranoid and profane. Clayton was arrested after agents with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task …

San Francisco’s KTVU reports: The city of San Francisco has formally adopted a resolution calling the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday took the step of officially declaring the nation’s premier gun-ownership advocates a terrorist organization. District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani wrote the scathing declaration reading in part, “the National Rifle Association …

The right wing Washington Examiner reports: The National Rifle Association called Walmart’s decision to halt their handgun ammunition sales “shameful” in a statement Tuesday afternoon. The NRA’s scathing remarks come the same day the major retail chain announced they will discontinue sales of short-barrel rifle ammunition and will no longer sell handgun ammunition. “The strongest defense of freedom has always …

The New York Times reports: In response to the shooting in its El Paso store last month that killed 22 people, Walmart said Tuesday that it would stop selling certain types of ammunition that are commonly used by hunters but can also be used in military assault rifles. The nation’s largest retailer made the announcement after weeks of discussion about …

Reuters reports: A slate of new Texas laws that loosen regulations for firearms went into effect Sunday after a month in which the state experienced multiple mass shootings. The bills, which were passed during the 86th Texas legislature, ease restrictions surrounding access to guns on school grounds and churches, among other provisions. The National Rifle Association has praised the legislation …

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports: The Justice Department said Monday that it will seek the death penalty for Robert Bowers, accused of killing 11 at Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill and wounding six others last year in the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history. Within days of the Oct. 27 massacre, the U.S. attorney’s office said it had …

From the office of Australian PM Scott Morrison: Websites hosting harmful and extreme content from terrorists will be blocked by the Morrison Government in the latest measure to keep Australians safe online. The Government has accepted the recommendation of the Taskforce to Combat Terrorist and Extreme Violent Material Online to establish a clear and unambiguous content blocking framework for crisis …

The Washington Post reports: Engineers in World War I dug through the earth to build serpentine trenches borne from horrifically clear logic. If enemy soldiers ever breached it, the zigzagging pattern would prevent them from shooting in a straight line down the length of the trench — leaving only a relative few exposed to gunfire or shrapnel. That concept has …