Tag Archives: terrorism

The Washington Post reports: In the days after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, President Trump expressed support for universal background checks and raising the age to buy an assault weapon to 21. He even seemed to entertain a ban on assault weapons. A year later, on the anniversary of that wrenching tragedy, when 14 students and three faculty …

The New York Times reports: State legislatures, both Republican- and Democratic-controlled, passed 76 gun control laws in the past year — from bans on bump stocks and caps on magazine sizes to new minimum-age requirements and expanded background checks. Among the victories for gun control advocates was an omnibus bill in Florida that raised the minimum age to purchase a …

The Associated Press reports: The suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges Monday as his new lawyer, a prominent death penalty litigator who represented one of the Boston Marathon bombers, signaled he might be open to a plea deal. Robert Bowers, a truck driver who authorities say gunned down 11 people at Tree of …

Mediaite reports: Manuel Oliver, the father of a child who was slain during the Parkland massacre, repeatedly confronted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) during a hearing, and Gaetz tried to have Oliver ejected. During a House hearing on HR8, which expanded background checks to include all firearms purchases, Gaetz used the occasion to promote Trump’s border wall by suggesting that immigrants …

The State reports: Students at a North Carolina middle school used social media to plan a “Columbine-style” attack on specific classmates and a teacher, according to the Scotland County Sheriff’s Office. Four Carver Middle School students, between 12-13 years old, face felony charges of communicating threats against a school, Capt. Jessica Sadovnikov said. The school district has not made any …

The Associated Press reports: A high-stakes gambler who rained a hail of gunfire down on a crowd of country music fans, killing 58, took any specific motive for the 2017 attack to his grave, the FBI said Tuesday as it concluded the investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The agency found no “single or clear motivating …

The New York Post reports: A Maryland white supremacist hobbled into Manhattan court Wednesday and admitted to fatally stabbing a black New Yorker. James Jackson, 30, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, terrorism, hate-crime and weapons charges in exchange for a sentence of life in prison for slaughtering Timothy Caughman, 66, in Midtown on March 20, 2017. “You stabbed Timothy Caughman …

The New York Times reports: A seemingly offhand remark in a high school lunchroom set off an investigation that uncovered an arsenal of weapons and a plot to attack a Muslim enclave in upstate New York, law enforcement officials said. The comment was made by a 16-year-old student at Greece Odyssey Academy in Greece, N.Y. On Friday, he showed classmates …

Provo’s Gephardt Daily reports: A 27-year-old Provo man has been arrested after he allegedly wrote on his Facebook page that he was going to kill “as many girls as I see,” because he had been rejected. Christopher Wayne Cleary is facing charges of third-degree felony threat of terrorism as well as probation violation, according to a probable cause statement from …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump and the White House’s revelation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Afghanistan travel plans had put the group traveling there in danger and forced them to scrap the trip entirely, her spokesperson said Friday, pointing to a formal government assessment. After Trump decided to block Pelosi, D-Calif., and other lawmakers from using a military jet …

Mediaite reports: A visibly astonished and displeased Jake Tapper took pains to point out that when President Donald Trump ostentatiously canceled Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi‘s secret trip (with a congressional delegation) to Afghanistan, he compromised the entire delegation by announcing “to the world, including the Taliban,” that Pelosi was headed to the war-torn region. Tapper led Thursday’s edition …

Canada’s CBC News reports: Nearly six months after Toronto’s deadly Danforth Avenue shooting rampage, newly released details from court documents reveal a startling amount of ammunition was found in the apartment of gunman Faisal Hussain, along with a number of DVDs by the American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. In the hours after the shooting, which claimed the lives of 18-year-old …

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis removed Broward Sheriff Scott Israel from office Friday, replacing him after 10 months of turmoil spawned by the slaughter of 17 staff and students in Parkland. The governor replaced Israel with former Coral Springs Police Sgt. Gregory Tony, 40, who has a background in active-shooter training and becomes the first black sheriff …

Bloomberg reports: The partial government shutdown is now damaging the FBI’s capacity to conduct investigations and other national security operations, the president of an association representing about 13,000 FBI special agents told reporters. The FBI Agents Association is calling on Congress and Trump to immediately come to an agreement to fully fund the FBI and pay special agents during the …

The Daily Beast reports: Airport security screeners forced to work without pay during the government shutdown have been calling out sick. But now the mad-as-hell workers are actually quitting their jobs. “Some of them have already quit and many are considering quitting the federal workforce because of this shutdown,” Hydrick Thomas, head of the American Federation of Government Employees’ TSA …

CNN reports: Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown, have called out from work this week from at least four major airports, according to two senior agency officials and three TSA employee union officials. The mass call outs could inevitably mean air travel is less secure, especially as the …

The Daily Beast reports: More than 4 million children endured school lockdowns last year, according to a Washington Post report based on a review of news stories and data from school districts in 31 of the country’s largest cities. Experiencing a lockdown can be extremely traumatizing for children, with some soiling themselves and writing what they believe to be their …

NBC News reports: Brett McGurk, the special envoy for the global coalition to defeat Islamic State, submitted his resignation on Friday, effective Dec. 31, a U.S.State Department official said on Saturday. A person familiar with the matter said McGurk has quit because he objected to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out U.S. troops from Syria, a decision followed by …

The Miami Herald reports: Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was obsessed with guns — and to the chagrin of his mother, also appeared to be a fan of President Donald Trump. So when his mother, “a liberal anti-gun type,” died in 2017, Cruz used his own “Trump hat” to get a twisted final word on their political differences, a friend …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The Justice Department is effectively banning rapid-fire bump stock devices, like the ones used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre, making them illegal to own or sell and likely setting the stage for long legal battles with gun owners and manufacturers. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker signed and submitted a regulation prohibiting the firearm accessory …