Terrorism

Courthouse News reports: Offering no mention of the Florida school shooting, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas complained Tuesday about the growing stack of Second Amendment cases that are denied high court review. “The right to keep and bear arms is apparently this court’s constitutional orphan,” Thomas wrote. “And the lower courts seem to have gotten the message.” Thomas penned the …

The New York Times reports: One hour after news broke about the school shooting in Florida last week, Twitter accounts suspected of having links to Russia released hundreds of posts taking up the gun control debate.  “This is pretty typical for them, to hop on breaking news like this,” said Jonathon Morgan, chief executive of New Knowledge, a company that …

The New York Daily News reports: Just 45 miles from where the mournful families broken by the latest school shooting laid their loved ones to rest, the President of the United States slipped on a white polo shirt, put a matching white cap on his head and set out for the golf course. The President arrived at the Trump International …

The NRA is a “presenting sponsor” of CPAC 2018. One week after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz went on a killing rampage at his former high school in Parkland, Florida with his legally purchased AR-15 rifle, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre will speak at the American Conservative Union’s CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference). Other speakers …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump supports laws to strengthen the background check system for gun purchases in the wake of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting that killed 17, the White House announced on Monday. “The President spoke to Senator [John] Cornyn on Friday about the bi-partisan bill he and Sen. [Chris] Murphy introduced to improve Federal Compliance with Criminal …

The Independent reports: John Oliver‘s return to screens with the new season of Last Week Tonight began on a sombre note, addressing the “heartbreaking events” that took place in Parkland, Florida, last Wednesday.  “These events are now so familiar,” Oliver commented. “We basically automatically know how each side will play out.” “But this time felt slightly different,” he continued. “Because …

Mediaite reports: Student survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting announced a “March for Our Lives” this morning calling for lawmakers to take substantive action on guns. Emma Gonzalez, the student who gave an impassioned speech yesterday, told CNN’s Dana Bash, “We’re going to be facing this with trepidation and determination, and we have an incredible support system …

But no mention of gun control, of course. The Hill reports: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) is calling for students and parents to be more vigilant about potential threats made on social media in the wake of the Florida high school shooting, saying it’s better to report something that’s later deemed not credible than not report it at all. …

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports: Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused of killing 17 students and teachers in Parkland, Florida, would plead guilty if prosecutors agree not to seek the death penalty, his lawyers say. Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said guilt is not an issue in the case of Cruz. “There is no way anyone can minimize the tragedy of what …

CNN reports: In a private Instagram group chat, confessed school shooter Nikolas Cruz repeatedly espoused racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic views and displayed an obsession with violence and guns.  CNN, investigating comments the shooter may have left on a now-deleted YouTube channel, was added to the private Instagram group by one of the active members in it. The responding group members, …

From the organizers of the Women’s March: Women’s March Youth EMPOWER is calling for students, teachers, school administrators, parents and allies to take part in a #NationalSchoolWalkout for 17 minutes at 10am across every time zone on March 14, 2018 to protest Congress’ inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our …

The Kansas City Star reports: A Leavenworth Republican looking to replace U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins in Kansas’ second congressional district is giving away an AR-15 rifle for his campaign — and he has no plans to stop it despite social media pushback in light of Wednesday’s Florida mass school shooting. Tyler Tannahill, a Marine veteran, on Tuesday posted on his …

The Associated Press reports: The troubled teen authorities say killed 17 people at a Florida high school excelled in an air-rifle marksmanship program supported by a grant from the National Rifle Association Foundation, part of a multimillion-dollar effort by the gun group to support youth shooting clubs. Nikolas Cruz, 19, was wearing a maroon shirt with the logo from the …

CNN reports: “Slaughtered in school” “And still no gun control?” “How come, Marco Rubio?” That’s the message scrawled across three mobile billboards seen Friday near Sen. Marco Rubio’s office in Doral, Florida. The moving missive aims to call out Rubio just days after a gunman with what police say was an AR-15-style rifle stormed a high school in Parkland, Florida, …

Via press release from the FBI: On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting. Under …

The New York Daily News reports: Authorities across the country are responding to “copycat threats” as schools remain on high alert one day after a gunman fatally shot 17 people at a Florida high school. A Broome High School student in South Carolina was arrested after he shared a Snapchat photo of himself holding what appears to be an assault …

Politico reports: Looking to seize on activist outrage in the wake of the Florida school shooting, Everytown for Gun Safety — the group backed by former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg — is launching a “five-action plan” to energize supporters ahead of the midterms. The plan is the beginning of what is expected to be a major injection of …

The New York Daily News reports: A neighbor captured a chilling video of Nikolas Cruz nonchalantly firing a BB gun in his backyard just months before he shot up a Florida high school, according to a report. The cellphone video, which was taken in broad daylight last October, shows Cruz wielding a BB gun in the backyard of his home …

“Society is changing. You have to teach kids how to respond. You have to be rational about it, which means hardening soft targets through drills and training. Learning combat. Learning hand-to-hand combat. This works, by the way, for terror, if there’s a terror attack, and it works for school shootings. How do you improve upon this rationally? Well, you train …

Ars Technica reports: In the wake of a shooting that left at least 17 dead on Wednesday in a high school outside Boca Raton, Florida, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin (R) focused on violent video games as part of a “culture of death that is being celebrated” and leading to these kinds of incidents. “There are video games that, yes, are …