Valentines Day, 2018, a day that will live in infamy.
Nikolas Cruz took an AR to a school in Florida and killed 17 students….and, according to the media, it is the fault of the NRA.
The perp walked into school and started shooting. Then he left. Yep, he walked out and was captured later because the law enforcement personnel on site did nothing to stop it.
Immediately after the smoke cleared, the news media, CNN first, started with the interviews. Emotions were raw and tears of fear and loss were shed. What the media was able to do was make it the fault of the NRA.
Never mind that this kid was a mental case. The FBI’s tip line had not just one person call about Cruz but several and months before it happened. Forty days before, a woman calls the tip line and reports that she is scared he might “slip in to a school and start shooting.”
Never mind that there were several 911 calls to the authorities due to disturbances by him. Calls that reported that he had multiple weapons and was threatening to use them. He had pointed weapons and threatened people. Once, he even called 911 himself just after Thanksgiving describing the tough time he was having due to having just lost his mother and he was “dealing with a bunch of things right now.”
Never mind that November 30, a caller told the sheriff department that he was collecting guns and knives and that he could be a school shooter in the making. Never mind that at least two years prior to the shooting, he was known to have posted on Instagram that he planned to shoot up the school.
Never mind in January, one of his closer friends reported to the FBI that he had talked about carrying out a school shooting. But the FBI failed to investigate even though the tip said Cruz had a desire to kill people, exhibited erratic behavior and was making disturbing social media posts.
Never mind that a bail bondsman from Mississippi called the FBI in September telling them about a comment left on his YouTube channel by “nikolas Cruz” who professed a desire to be a professional school shooter. But the FBI, America’s premier crime fighting agency, could not determine if he was a real person or not and didn’t keep a file on him.
Never mind that when a second tip came into the FBI in WV, in January, the specialist in the case was able to view the earlier tip too, but the FBI still did not believe he was a threat.
Never mind that these tips included accounts of Cruz’s mother’s death and that he was posting pictures of mutilated animals on social media.
Never mind that before her death, his own mother had called the authorities on multiple occasions to report his violent physical behavior against her.
Never mind that the Sheriff’s Department security officer was there and chose to stay outside and, as captured on 911 recordings, advised all law enforcement to stay away from entering the building where the shootings were happening.
Yeah, just never mind that all of the bells and whistles and flags and warnings that should have been acted upon by law enforcement failed. We need more laws and regulations for them to ignore. We need more gun control.
This was just an opening for the libs and the liberal media to exploit the message of gun control. CNN was there to interview every emotion of the survivors just hours after the event….and their questions were not of the emotions felt by the survivors but what should the government (namely President Trump) do about the NRA.
There were several students (and parents) that did not agree with the line of reasoning that this was a direct result of the NRA but we never saw them on camera, did we?
I am a Life Time Member of the NRA. I own guns, plural. I am a responsible, lawful gun owner. I have my guns, other than my carry weapons, locked in a gun safe. All of my guns have been purchased legally. Some of them I have never fired. The problem for liberals is, I am like thousands of other owners of AR-15 and other various weapons, I abide by the law of the land. So why do I want them if I do not wish to cause mass destruction? Maybe I feel that one day I will need protection from the very forces that are supposed to protect me. Maybe I feel like it is up to me and me alone to protect myself from nefarious forces, one being my own government and two being anyone else that wants to harm me or mine.
Reality is that even with the best law enforcement available, it could still take 8 to 10 minutes response time, so what do you do in the meantime? Duck? Hide in a closet? Or maybe defend yourself and fight back?
I really don’t care what you or anyone else thinks. The reality is that I have a right to own these weapons, as long as they are legal, and it doesn’t matter the reason I buy them. I don’t have to explain it to anyone. Just the same as no one has to justify to me the reason they own a gun(s). Quite frankly, it is none of my business.
But to try to prevent retards such as Cruz from getting a gun and carrying out senseless murders as he did, we do need rules and regulations. The NRA is the leading proponent in rules and safety in gun ownership. Their involvement over the years has many with the information, training and education in the areas of gun ownership. The NRA has never once endorsed a mass murder.
The NRA is a defender of the second amendment and in doing so, they strive to keep government infringement upon our rights at a minimum. Anytime the government is allowed to step in and control things, citizens and their rights suffer. The NRA realizes that, as with most things the government is involved in, give them an inch and they take a mile. Let them in the door and there is no stopping them. It is like a contagious virus that has no cure.
Tell me of one government-controlled program or agency that operates efficiently and productively. The Post Office? The VA? Welfare? Fannie Mae? Social Security? The National Budget? Acting on tips about Nikolas Cruz? The local law enforcement, FBI, ATFE could have used information given to them to stop this, but they didn’t. So, it is the NRA’s fault?
If you give the government the rights to control your gun ownership, they may start out with “assault weapons” but will not stop until the prevailing ideology is satisfied in removing all weapons from the masses. This is how total government control is started. For those who don’t believe, just read the history of, among others, Nazi Germany. The first movement is to disarm the public.
Also, one must address the fact that during the last eight years of the Obama administration, there were mass killings by gun. These were carried out by madmen no less dangerous than Cruz. Why wasn’t the problem solved under his watch?
It is because the ban of guns of a special order were prohibited by the lawmaking body of America, like it or not, the representatives are there in Washington due to a base of voters that hunt, shoot, and want to be able to protect themselves. While it sounds great to thump your chest and preach against assault weapons, it’s not so to take the guns out of the hands of the constituents that put you in office.
So, is it by default, the gun opponents become allies with the NRA? Maybe you don’t accept campaign donations from the NRA and you can denounce them on camera, but you can’t show me a politician that will refuse a donation from a NRA member. Kind of like looking for a unicorn…..they don’t exist.
Now today, March 14, one month later, there is a “walk-out of school classes” to protest gun violence. Boy, that’ll show em!!
That’s good for TV exposure but what does that do for school safety? Every time (and unfortunately I have lived to see several of these school shootings) there is a cry to make our children safer and every time our administrators want to ban the NRA, invoke gun control and keep the schools as GUN FREE ZONES! Isn’t one of the definitions of insanity is to try to solve a problem by continuing to do the same thing expecting different results?
So let me ask you this question – If you have an AR-15, not an assault AR-15 because it is not fully automatic….
NOTE: AR does not stand for Assault Rifle, it stands for ArmaLite Rifle, the company that developed the platform in the 1950’s. It is still referenced as AR due to the platform. The US Army’s definition of an “assault rifle” has several requirements, one of which is that it is capable of “selective fire” meaning it can be automatic or semi-automatic. The AR-15, commonly owned by civilians such as myself and like the ones used in mass shootings that are making the news, are not capable of selective fire – in other words, you have to pull the trigger for each shot……but I digress.
Anyway, you have a AR-15 and as many clips as you can carry. You want to kill people and you need to find people in groups to make it easier. Where do you go? Police station? Courthouse? White House? Gun Club? Tractor Pull? Kid Rock Concert?
Unless you are a complete idiot, you avoid a place where you know everyone is likely to have one and you go to a place where guns are prohibited. A GUN FREE ZONE. A school, mall, movie theater, hospital or restaurant that has posted warnings against carrying a gun.
Lawful gun owners do not enter places such as these with their guns. They obey the law and in many cases are NRA members. They obey the laws that are supposed to protect us from the likes of unlawful gun bearers.
I am not a NRA crusader, but I am behind them and I do believe they are working to secure and protect my second amendment rights. I will remain a member and supporter. I wonder why the NRA is the bad guy in this latest tragedy, except to believe it is like most incidents where the government is involved and believe that it is simply the tail wagging the dog.