In an interview with the Daily Beast, a legal ethics expert at Stanford Law School was astounded that the National Rifle Association is reportedly spending close to $100,000 a day in legal fees, calling it a "red flag" that has likely set off alarms at the IRS.
Speaking with the Beast's Betsy Woodruff, Stanford professor Deborah Rhode explained that questions abound about the legal expenditures noted in leaked memos that detail approximately $24 million billed since last March and $8.8 million in the first three months of this year.
“One hundred thousand dollars a day? That’s just off the charts," Rhode said about the non-profit, adding, "Even granting that the NRA has a pile of legal problems, the context of this case should send red flags up everywhere. Creative accounting is shockingly common, even among elite firms. And what deters it is a client who’s willing to provide some oversight, which doesn’t seem to have happened in this case.”
At issue is the vagueness of what the NRA member's dollars are being spent on since the legal billings are vague about the services rendered.
“Ninety-seven thousand dollars a day for seven days a week of relatively undefined legal services seems awfully questionable,” explained Campaign Legal Center attorney Brendan Fischer. “And based on the memo, the legal representation started with one relatively defined purpose and has apparently exceeded the scope of the original representation.”
Fischer said the memos will not only draw interest from the IRS, but also at the state level.
“There’s all sorts of red flags here,” he remarked. “It’s the kind of thing that the IRS could potentially scrutinize, but in recent years it’s more likely that state attorneys general are going to review the activities of nonprofits under state law.”
The NRA is already being scrutinized by the Justice Department over interactions with reported Russian spy Maria Butina, and investigators are looking into whether possible Russian cash has been flowing into the organization.
Mass shootings are a tragic new normal in American life. They happen too often, as evidenced by the May 7 shooting in Highlands Ranch, Colo. and the April 30 shooting in Charlotte, N.C., the April 27 shooting at a synagogue in San Diego on the last day of Passover. Schools, places of worship, movie theaters, workplaces, schools, bars and restaurants are no longer secure from gun violence. Families lose loved ones, and lives are ripped apart.
Often, and especially when a person who is not a minority or Muslim perpetrates a mass shooting, mental health is raised as a real concern – or, critics say, a diversion from the real issue of easy access to firearms.
Less is discussed, however, about the stress of such events on the rest of society. That includes those who survived the shooting; those who were in the vicinity, including the first responders; those who lost someone in the shooting; and those who hear about it via the media.
I am a trauma and anxiety researcher and clinician psychiatrist, and I know that the effects of such violence are far-reaching. While the immediate survivors are most affected, the rest of society suffers, too.
First, the immediate survivors
Like other animals, we humans get stressed or terrified via direct exposure to a dangerous event. The extent of that stress or fear can vary. For example, survivors may want to avoid the neighborhood where a shooting occurred or the context related to shooting, such as outdoor concerts if the shooting happened there. In the worst case, a person may develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
When the trauma is man-made, the impact can be profound: The rate of PTSD in mass shootings may be as high as 36 percent among survivors. Depression, another debilitating psychiatric condition, occurs in as many as 80 percent of people with PTSD.
Survivors of shootings may also experience survivor’s guilt, the feeling that they failed others who died, did not do enough to help them survive or just because they survived. PTSD can improve by itself, but many need treatment. We have effective treatments available in the form of psychotherapy and medications. The more chronic it gets, the more negative the impact on the brain, and the harder to treat.
Children and adolescents are in a developmental stage of forming their worldview and how safe it is to live in this society. Exposure to such horrific experiences or related news, can fundamentally affect the way they perceive the world as a safe or unsafe place, and how much they can rely on the adults, and the society to protect them. They can carry such world view for the rest of their lives, and even transfer it to their children.“
The effect on those close by, or who arrive later
PTSD can develop not only through personal exposure to trauma, but also via exposure to others’ severe trauma. Humans are evolved to be very sensitive to social cues and have survived as a species particularly because of the ability to fear as a group. We therefore learn fear and experience terror via exposure to trauma and fear of others. Even seeing a black-and-white scared face on a computer will make our amygdala, the fear area of our brain, light up in brain imaging studies.
People in the vicinity of a mass shooting may see exposed, disfigured or burned dead bodies, injured people in agony, terror of others, extremely loud noises, chaos and terror of post-shooting, and the unknown. The unknown – a sense of lack of control over the situation – has a very important role in making people feel insecure, terrified and traumatized.
I, sadly, see this form of trauma often in asylum seekers exposed to torture of their loved ones, refugees exposed to casualties of war, combat veterans who lost their comrades and people who lost a loved one in car accidents, natural disasters or shootings.
A first responder after the shooting at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Oct. 27, 2018.
Another group whose trauma is usually overlooked is the first responders. When we all run away, the police, the firefighters and the paramedics rush into the danger zone, and frequently face uncertainty, threats to themselves, their colleagues and others, as well as terrible bloody scenes of post-shooting. This exposure happens to them too frequently. PTSD has been reported in up to 20 percent of first responders to man-made mass violence.
How does it affect those who were not even near the shooting?
There is evidence of distress, anxiety or even PTSD symptoms among people who were not directly exposed to a disaster, but were exposed to the news, including post-9/11. Fear, the coming unknown (is there another shooting, are other co-conspirators involved?) and reduced faith in our perceived safety may all play a role in this.
Every time there is a mass shooting in a new place, we learn that kind of place is now on the not-very-safe list. When at the temple or church, the club or in the class, someone may walk in and open fire. People worry not only about themselves but also about the safety of their children and other loved ones.
Media: The good, the bad and the sometimes ugly
The Daily Telegraph front page of the shootings in Las Vegas on Oct 1, 2017.
I always say American cable news are "disaster pornographers.” When there is a mass shooting or a terrorist attack, they make sure to add enough dramatic tone to it to get all the attention for the duration of the time they desire. If there is one shooting in a corner of a city of millions, the cable news will make sure that you feel like the whole city is under siege.
Besides informing the public and logically analyzing the events, one job of the media is to attract viewers and readers, and viewers are better glued to the TV when their positive or negative emotions are stirred, with fear being one. Thus, the media, along with the politicians, can also play a role in stirring fear, anger or paranoia about one or another group of people.
When we are scared, we are vulnerable to regress to more tribal and stereotyping attitudes. We can get trapped in fear of perceiving all members of another tribe a threat, if a member of that group acted violently. In general, people may become less open and more cautious around others when they perceive a high risk of exposure to danger.
Is there a good side to it?
As we are used to happy endings, I will try to also address potentially positive outcomes: We may consider making our gun laws safer and open constructive discussions, including informing the public about the risks. As a group species, we are able to consolidate group dynamics and integrity when pressured and stressed, so we may raise a more positive sense of community. One beautiful outcome of the tragic shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue was the solidarity of the Muslim community with the Jewish. This is especially productive in the current political environment, where fear and division are common.
The bottom line is that we get angry, we get scared and we get confused. When united, we can do much better. And, do not spend too much time watching cable TV; turn it off when it stresses you too much.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published Nov. 9, 2018.
With no end in sight to the mass shootings that have traumatized the country in recent decades, Americans are now finding hope in the actions of "heroes" who have sacrificed their lives to save others amidst hails of bullets.
Kendrick Castillo became the latest example of this bravery after the 18-year-old confronted one of the gunmen who attacked his school outside Denver on Tuesday.
It cost him his life, but allowed other students time to hide under their desks or flee the shooting that also wounded eight people, classmate Nui Giasolli said in an interview Wednesday on NBC television.
"They were very heroic. I can't thank them enough," Giasolli said of Castillo and the three students who joined him in battling the unidentified attacker, one of two police say stormed the school.
The US Marine Corps also spoke up in praise of Brendan Bialy, who was set to join the force this summer and was among the trio who confronted the gunman.
"Brendan’s courage and commitment to swiftly ending this tragic incident at the risk of his own safety is admirable and inspiring," the corp's local recruiting district said.
Less forthcoming were solutions to the mass shootings that have seen gun-wielding assailants kill people in schools, offices and public places across the United States in recent decades.
The frequency of the killings has prompted police forces nationwide to encourage people caught in the shootings to "run, hide, fight," said political scientist Robert Spitzer.
"The spread of these heroic stories, including the fact that people who intercede are often successful in stopping a shooter even though they are not themselves armed has encouraged more people to act," Spitzer told AFP.
And in a country where repeated administrations have failed to stop the violence, "it has encouraged not just action but the hope that doing so might matter."
- Unstoppable -
A week before the shooting outside Denver, public attention focused on Riley Howell, a 21-year-old environmental studies major who charged a gunman that opened fire on his university campus in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Howell's attack took the shooter "off his feet," local police chief Kerr Putney said, and gave officers time to intervene and end the tragedy.
But it also made Howell, shot three times, one of two victims of the killings.
"(He) did exactly what we trained people to do," Putney said after the shooting. "You're either going to run, hide and shield or you're going to take the fight to the assailant."
Gregg Carter, a sociology professor at Bryant University, said police have also grown confrontational amid the proliferation of shootings.
"Law enforcement tactics have changed from a slow ‘wait and see’ stance... to a ‘move in quickly but alertly’ approach since then," he said.
As has become typical with American mass shootings, calls to regulate firearms more tightly followed the recent killings.
"Lawmakers must stand up to the NRA so students can stop standing up to shooters," non-profit Everytown for Gun Safety tweeted after the Denver shooting, referring to the National Rifle Association.
But such appeals have faltered in the face of resistance from elected officials, the strong attachment many American feels to their firearms, and the NRA's powerful lobbying.
Shootings have remained commonplace in the US. According to the website Gun Violence Archives, 115 shootings have wounded more than four people in the country since the start of the year.
- Politics -
Amid the polarization, the NRA and other proponents of gun rights have argued that better armed citizens play an important role in stopping mass shootings.
Armed with an AR-15 rifle, 55-year-old Stephen Willeford pursued a former soldier who had killed 25 people, including a pregnant woman, during Sunday mass at a Texas church in late 2017.
Willeford succeeded in wounding the gunman before police moved in.
President Donald Trump hailed his actions, saying if the "very brave" Willeford had not been armed, "instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead," he said using a toll that included the dead woman's unborn child.
Willeford and Trump met at the NRA's annual convention last month, during which the Republican president said lives could have been saved if concert attendees at the Bataclan theater in Paris were armed during a 2015 jihadist attack that killed 90 people.
The NRA's public controversies are not going away.
Just a week after now-former National Rifle Association president Oliver North lost his job and the gun lobby group's CEO, Wayne LaPierre charged him with extortion, the new president is under fire for apparently racist and sexist remarks surrounding a U.S. Congresswoman.
New NRA president Carolyn Meadows promised voters the GOP will "get that seat back," referring to the U.S. House of Representatives seat won in November by Georgia Democrat Lucy McBath, who unseated highly-controversial Republican Rep. Karen Handel at the ballot box.
Meadows' grasp of the race seemed to differ with the facts – and have a lot to do with race.
McBath ran on a platform of opposing gun violence, but that's not the reason she won, Meadows claimed
Meadows says McBath won because she's a woman and Black.
“There will be more than one person in the race, but we'll get that seat back,” Meadows the Marietta Daily Journal, as Media Matters reports. “But it is wrong to say like McBath said, that the reason she won was because of her anti-gun stance. That didn't have anything to do with it — it had to do with being a minority female," Meadows claimed.
She went on to insist that in deep red Georgia, "the Democrats really turned out, and that's the problem we have with conservatives — we don't turn out as well.”
Media Matters notes that Meadows is also "the leader of an organization, the Stone Mountain Memorial Association (SMMA), that blocked a 2015 proposal to construct a monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Stone Mountain, GA."
The Stone Mountain Memorial Association is America’s largest Confederate memorial. It features "figures of General Lee, General Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson and President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis larger than the presidential visages of Mount Rushmore," according to Smithsonian Magazine.
According to a newly released report, a BART officer involved in the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale train station in Oakland was directly responsible for "instigating the events and escalating tensions" during the incident that inspired protests over police brutality.
KION reports, "The 10-year-old report -- recently released thanks to a new California police transparency law -- says that Bay Area Rapid Transit Officer Anthony Pirone 'started a cascade of events that ultimately led to the shooting of Grant,' and that he then lied about those events in an effort to put his own 'actions and conduct in a more favorable light'."
The shooting, which inspired the 2013 film "Fruitvale Station" occurred on New Year's Day and was captured on cellphones leading to outrage across the country.
The KION report notes, "Pirone hit Grant and used profanity and the N-word during the incident, the report says, and later lied to investigators about Grant's actions, claiming he hit Pirone's partner and kicked Pirone in the groin," adding, "Pirone's account was directly contradicted by video evidence reviewed by investigators."
While a jury found Johannes Mehserle, the officer who shot Grant, guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the report states that Pirone was "responsible for setting the events in motion that created a chaotic and tense situation on the platform, setting the stage, even if inadvertent, for the shooting of Oscar Grant."
Pirone was reportedly fired after investigators turned in their final report.
If authorities better understood these patterns, they may be able to prevent future shootings.
We’re a psychologist and sociologist who have been studying mass shooters in order to develop new prevention strategies. Our research is part of a grant from the National Institute of Justice.
Part of our work involves looking at the psycho-social life histories of mass shooters from 1966 through the present, as well as the kinds of places where
mass shootings occur.
Mass shootings are defined by the FBI as incidents in which four or more people are killed. When mass shootings occur on college campuses, it tends to be at larger, public universities like UNC Charlotte.
Strikingly, more than 70% of campus shootings took place at the end of the school year – in April, May or June – a time that students report as being the most stressed. The shooting at UNC Charlotte took place on the last day of classes of the semester.
Indeed, April stands out as a particularly deadly time of the year when it comes to campus mass shootings – the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that claimed 32 lives, and the 2012 Oikos University shooting in Oakland, California, that killed seven and wounded three, both happened in April.
Characteristics of campus shooters
The UNC Charlotte shooting is not technically a mass shooting because there were only two fatalities. Two students were killed and four were injured as they listened to final presentations in class.
So far, little is publicly available about the UNC Charlotte shooter, but the details emerging show he shares some of the same characteristics as the campus shooters in our data. The UNC Charlotte shooter is a 22-year-old former student of the school who recently dropped out.
All of the college mass shooters in our study were male, and the majority – 83% – were in their 20s. Unlike mass shooters at middle at high schools who are mostly white, the majority of mass shooters at college campuses – 83% – were non-white. More specifically, 50% were Asian and 33% were mixed-race. All but one was a current or former student at the university.
All of the university mass shooters in our study were suicidal prior to the shooting and had a history of mental illness. Half had been previously hospitalized. The majority of mass shootings at universities involved a high degree of planning. Most of the mass shooters leaked their plans ahead of time, or at least showed signs of trouble, on social media, to mental health professionals, or to people they knew.
According to publicly available records, all of the university shooters in our database legally purchased their firearms. We do not know yet how the UNC Charlotte shooter obtained his guns.
Troubled histories
All of the university mass shooters in our study experienced childhood trauma, and two-thirds were known to have been previously bullied. Analysis of the cases in our database shows that the majority of university mass shooters had a history of previous violence. The background history of the UNC Charlotte shooter is currently unknown.
Reported prevalence rates of university shootings vary widely depending on the definition being used. A study of college shootings from 2001 to 2016 identified 149 incidents of gun violence on college campuses, though the vast majority were the result of a dispute, a targeted attack, a robbery or domestic violence.
The deadliest attack, at Virginia Tech University in 2007 in which 32 people died, changed the nature and role of public safety departments at universities across the country. The recommendations to universities after Virginia Tech mirrored those made to high schools after the 1999 Columbine shooting, including increased cameras and security, communication systems, and increased training and drills for faculty and staff. However, prevention strategies have been difficult to identify and implement at universities due to a lack of research and resources.
Prevention is possible
Our data shows a distinct pattern in the background of university mass shooters that can help authorities think proactively about evidence-based prevention. University mass shooters are students with histories of trauma, mental illness and violence. They are often actively suicidal and in crisis.
Large universities need strategies to reach out and connect with vulnerable students. Current university funding for mental health care on campus is largely inadequate. And, if they aren’t already getting it, faculty and staff need training in how to identify and respond to students in crisis.
Threat assessment teams at universities can respond to threats of violence by connecting students to needed resources on campus and in the community with long-term follow-up. And the findings from our research suggest red flag laws, which allow family or law enforcement to seek a court order to seize a person’s firearms temporarily if the person poses a threat to himself or others, coupled with universal background checks, which would require background checks for private gun sales, not just those by licensed dealers, may help avert these tragedies.
"The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday mocked National Rifle Association (NRA) personality Dana Loesch.
The segment noted the growing upheaval rocking the NRA, including the investigation by New York state Attorney General Letitia James, which could threaten the organization's tax-exempt status.
The segment parodied the style of Loesch's widely-mocked NRA video.
"The liberal media wants you to believe the NRA doesn't deserve its tax-exempt status, just because we make a profit," the Loesch impersonator said.
She worried about the NRA’s charity work, like Guns On Wheels and arming stray cats.
The segment went off the rails when multiple shots were fired.
On Monday, conservative "Never-Trump" commentator Charlie Sykes brutally diagnosed the National Rifle Association's woes, following the chaotic circular firing squad at this weekend's NRA-ILA Leadership Forum.
"In case you missed it over the weekend, the National Rifle Association degenerated even further — from racket into something that more resembles the Borgia court during one its nastier squabbles," wrote Sykes. "After days of trading charges of grifting, attempted extortion, and swampy corruption, the NRA effectively ousted its president Oliver North, suspended one of its top lawyers, and girded its cash-starved loins for a challenge to its tax exempt status from the New York attorney general's office."
The meltdown this weekend, Sykes argued, was the culmination of years of mounting internal problems at the notorious gun group.
"On a cosmic level, the NRA has been hemorrhaging cash for years (running deficits of as much as $40 million a year), may be nearly broke, is losing members, and now faces a formidable legal challenge to its tax exempt status ... And this doesn’t even include its odd entanglements with the Russians," wrote Sykes. "The full NRA board is supposed to meet on Monday to hash all of this out."
But unlike the infamous 1970s "Revolt at Cincinnati," where the old NRA leadership was ousted by right-wing activists to refocus the group from marksmanship and hobbyism to Second Amendment activism, Sykes argues this is a struggle for power, not politics.
"In one sense it's a war over nothing; there do not appear to be any significant policy differences behind the battle between long time NRA boss Wayne LaPierre and North," said Sykes. "So far, it looks like this feud is mostly about personalities, power, and access to the various grifts. And the grifts are juicy indeed: million dollar salaries, sweet deals for spouses, fat consultant contracts, six-figure wardrobe allowances, and a menagerie of scams all marinated in a culture of deception, secrecy, and greed. Because the Second Amendment."
There is no easy endgame for this, Sykes cautioned. But it will probably end with President Donald Trump's loyalists even further consolidating power over whatever remains of the NRA infrastructure.
"[If] push comes to shove who will they back in the cage match between Wayne LaPierre and Oliver North?" Sykes concluded. "You know the answer: Whichever side Trump picks."
According to NRA members attending the organization's annual convention in Indianapolis, leaders of the embattled gun rights group have lost their way and sense of mission, and have tied themselves too closely to President Donald Trump.
In interviews with the Daily Beast, members who made their way to the annual convention expressed dismay that the NRA is wrapped up in a scandal related to the 2016 presidential election and has become involved in political squabbles not related to their core mission: Second Amendment rights.
According to the Beast, NRA members were bombarded at Lucas Oil Stadium with messages, including, "The fight to uphold 'Judeo-Christian values.' There was Pence, who talked about the Green New Deal. There was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), comparing the Democratic primary to a Saturday Night Live sketch, mocking former Vice President Joe Biden ('Joe will be offering backrubs for anyone that would like it,' he said). And of course there was Trump, whose biggest applause line came when he talked about 'building the wall' and the 400 miles that would supposedly be built 'by the end of next year.'"
Speaking with Allan Scott, 33, who drove from Pittsburgh for the gun confab, that is not why he was there.
“Didn’t really catch too much of what they were saying,” he admitted while browsing through weapons on display inside the Indiana Convention Center.
According to Scott, the messages of Trump are not issues he believes the NRA should be involved in.
“Stay away from other political issues and stick to guns, and I think you’ll get more people in,” Allan explained. “Keep your mouth shut about the wall."
According to Ruth Wickliff, 50, "a lifetime NRA member who drove three hours to Indianapolis on Saturday," she was upset that the leadership of the NRA is at war with each other which has come to light after involvement with the 2016 presidential campaign invited outside scrutiny.
Wickliff sees longtime executive Wayne LaPierre at the center of the NRA's problems.
“We need to get back to defending the Second Amendment,” she said of LaPierre's fundraising for an organization that appears to be enriching its leaders while they tie themselves to Washington politics. “He’s the one that needs to go.”
Cody Becker, 33. agreed, saying he already canceled his annual NRA contribution over his dismay with the leadership due to the change in direction and the financial scandals.
“I lost on any faith that any dollars they receive go to anything that matters,” he admitted before pronouncing sentence on the future of the organization. "They lost their way—period. They’re f*cked.”
A gunman opened fire at a synagogue in California, killing one person and injuring three others including the rabbi as worshippers marked the final day of Passover, officials said Saturday.
The shooting in the town of Poway came exactly six months after a white supremacist shot dead 11 people at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue -- the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.
"During the shooting, four individuals were wounded and transported to Palimar hospital. One succumbed to their wounds. The other three are in stable condition," San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore told a press conference.
He added the injured were a female juvenile and two adult men, while an older woman died from her injuries.
Gore told reporters a 19-year-old man from the city of San Diego had been detained over the shooting, and added investigators were reviewing his social media activity and establishing the legitimacy of an open letter published online.
He said police were called shortly before 11:30 am after the man entered the synagogue and opened fire with an "AR-15 type" weapon. AR-15 assault rifles have been used in many mass shootings in the United States.
"We have copies of his social media posts and his open letter and we'll be reviewing those to determine legitimacy of it and how it plays in to the investigation," he added.
An off-duty border patrol officer who was at the scene fired at the suspect as he fled and struck his car, Gore said.
The man was eventually apprehended by a K-9 officer who had been monitoring dispatch radio and raced to the scene, added San Diego chief of police David Nisleit.
"He clearly saw the suspect's vehicle, the suspect jumped out with his hands up and was immediately taken into custody by the San Diego police department.
"As the officer was placing this 19-year-old male into custody, he clearly saw a rifle on the front passenger seat of the suspect vehicle. The suspect was taken into custody without further incident."
Mayor Steve Vaus had earlier told MSNBC the rabbi at the Chabad of Poway synagogue, located in the town of 50,000 around 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of San Diego, was shot in the hand.
"For this to happen only a week later at the end of the Passover, only a week after Easter is horrific," he told the network.
"We are grateful to those in the congregation there that engaged the shooter and prevented this from being a much more horrific incident.
At the White House, US President Donald Trump offered his "deepest sympathies."
"At this moment it looks like a hate crime, but my deepest sympathies to all those affected and we'll get to the bottom of it," he said.
Minoo Anvari told the local CNN affiliate that her husband was inside the synagogue during the shooting.
"Just one message from all of us from our congregation that we are standing together," she said. "We are strong. You can't break us. We are all together."
On Twitter, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she was "heartbroken" by news of the shooting.
"We have a responsibility to love + protect our neighbors," she said."
"The hatred and violence has got to stop," added California representative Mike Levin.
According to a report at The Daily Beast, longtime top NRA lawyer Steve Hart has been suspended by the board of directors as the guns rights organization undergoes more turmoil during their annual convention.
The news of Hart's suspension follows NRA president Oliver North announcing he is stepping aside and not running for re-election after losing an internal battle with executive director Wayne LaPierre over accusation of misspent money.
The Beast reports, "Hart represented the board for years, and his suspension came before North announced that he is stepping away from his leadership role at the organization after only six months on the job."
"The lawyer’s ouster represents the departure of another senior, long-time NRA insider with detailed knowledge of the organization’s troubles. And it comes as internal turmoil and sniping rocks the gun-rights group," the report continues.
Additionally, the NRA board has accused North of double-dipping when it comes to salary, while LaPierre has been accused by North of misappropriating funds for his personal use -- which La Pierre has denied.
