MSNBC anchor Katy Tur warned against getting "lost in any illusions" that President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress would address gun control in the wake of the Parkland shooting massacre.
"In this moment, is there movement on guns?" Tur wondered.
"Today, we're seeing what could be a movement of teenagers, who are angry about gun violence and want lawmakers to listen," the host noted. "And we're also seeing what could be movement from those lawmakers who have yet another opportunity to do something -- or nothing -- about gun violence."
"Now, though, the White House says the president is open to looking at what can be done to prevent this from happening again, announcing they'd get behind a bipartisan effort that's aimed at making the background check system more effective," Tur noted.
"Let's not get lost in any illusions here, though. Remember, this bill has been out there since after the mass shootings in Texas and Las Vegas last fall," she reminded. "Remember, that moment, a potential movement on guns came and went, without any action."
"Remember, this bill, that the president is open to, wouldn't necessarily have kept a gun out of the hands of Nikolas Cruz," Tur continued.
"Remember, any action on anything related to guns is a serious uphill climb in Washington. Five years ago, a Democratic president couldn't even pass background check legislation through a Democratic Senate," the host recalled.
"Remember, we have a Republican president, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate," Tur emphasized.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade argued on Monday that the way to prevent school shootings was for the Department of Education to be more like the Transportation and Security Agency (TSA), which is tasked with keeping firearms out of airports.
During a discussion about the Parkland school shooting on Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy said that the lesson from the incident was that "unstable people should not have access to guns."
"Something needs to happen from both sides to prevent bad people from doing bad things," he remarked. "Who knows? Maybe something will be done to federal background checks because the way it's working right now ain't working."
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt asserted that there needs to more armed security in schools.
Kilmeade noted that while one guard at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland had a gun, a coach who was killed in the mass shooting was not armed.
"I think the one thing that could emerge from this that I think most people would embrace is -- I don't want to set up a TSA for schools but I would like some standardized security for schools, allow and not allow."
"So we could have a Department of Education and Security," he added. "At the same time."
"This school had it all," Doocy replied. "Unfortunately, this shooter at closing time figured out at closing time, they're going to be opening the gates. And I can go in at that time."
As a parent, I understand the desire for practical responses to school shootings. I also absolutely believe the government should do more to prevent such incidents. But the gun control debate has proven so divisive and ineffective that I am weary of waiting for politicians to act.
I study the kind of aggressive childhood behavior that often predates school shootings. That research suggests what communities and families can start doing today to better protect children. Here are 10 actions we can all take while the federal government drags its heels.
What schools can do
Because educators observe students’ emotional and behavioral development daily, they are best positioned to detect troubled behaviors and intervene. In Los Angeles, for example, schools have successfully used outreach and training to identify potentially violent students before problems occur.
1. Teach social and emotional skills
Children learn social skills from everyday interactions with each other. Playtime teaches young people how to control their emotions, recognize others’ feelings and to negotiate. Neighborhood “kick the can” games, for example, require cooperation to have fun – all without adult supervision.
But social and emotional skills can – and should – be taught in school as a way to prevent student violence. Students with more fluent social skills connect better with others and may be more able to recognize troubled peers who need help.
2. Hire more counselors and school resource officers
In my opinion, school resource officers – trained police officers who work with children – are also helpful for students. While untrained officers may pose a threat to students, well-trained school resource officers can connect with kids who have few other relationships, acting as a support system. They are also on hand to respond quickly if crime or violence erupts.
Putting trained school resource officers and counselors in every school will cost money, but I believe it will save lives.
3. Use technology to identify troubled students
Technology may challenge kids’ social development, but it can also be harnessed for good. Anonymous reporting systems – perhaps text-message based – can make it easier for parents and students to alert law enforcement and school counselors to kids who seem disconnected or disturbed. That enables early intervention.
In Steamboat Springs, Colorado, one such tip appeared to prevent extreme violence in May 2017. Police took a young man who’d threatened to harm his peers into protective custody before he could act on his words.
What communities can do
Communities also help raise children. With many eyes and ears, they can detect often smaller problems before young people grow into violence.
4. Doctors should conduct standard mental health screenings
Doctors could detect these problems early on with a standardized screening at health checkups. If concerns arise, referrals to counseling or other mental health professionals might follow.
Doctors are an underutilized community resource. Regular check-ups could help prevent violence.
I would like to see companies like Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat create algorithms that identify repeated online threats and automatically alert local law enforcement.
What parents can do
Parents and guardians are often the first to detect their child’s emotional struggles. Here are some tips for monitoring and promoting healthy emotional development at home.
6. Think critically about your child’s social media use
From virtual war games to cruel trolls, the internet is full of violence. The relationship between violent content and aggression hasn’t been consistent in research: Some studies see no relationship at all, while others find some correlation between violent video games and violent behavior.
This mixed evidence suggests that online content affects children differently, so parents must assess how well their child handles it. If your daughter likes “Assassin’s Creed” but is gentle, socially successful and happy, the onscreen violence may not be strongly impacting her.
But if your child is drawn to violent games and tends to be aggressive or troubled, discuss the situation with your pediatrician or school counselor.
Like adults, children need confidants to feel invested in and connected with their community. The trusted person can be parent, a family member or a friend – just make sure someone’s playing that role.
For children who struggle to make friends and build relationships, there are programs that can help them learn how.
Children need confidants to feel connected to their communities.
So rather than just fret over screen time, focus instead on how children can benefit from a variety of activities. Evidence shows that children who experience different pursuits over the course of their day – from sports and music to an after-school job – are happier and healthier for it.
10. Talk with your child
This is both the easiest and hardest way to make sure your kids are doing OK. Children, especially teenagers, don’t always want to talk about how life is going. Ask anyway.
My research shows that simply asking children about their friends, their technology use and their day is an important way to show you care. Even if they don’t respond, your interest demonstrates that you’re there for them.
Try this one now. Ask your children what they’re thinking about the shooting in Florida and how they like their friends and school. Then listen.
Stunned by the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, students mobilized across the country on Sunday to organize rallies and a national walkout in support of stronger gun laws, challenging politicians they say have failed to protect them.
Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a former student is accused of murdering 17 people on Wednesday using an assault-style rifle, joined others on social media to plan the events, including a Washington march.
"I felt like it was our time to take a stand," said Lane Murdock, 15, of Connecticut. "We're the ones in these schools, we're the ones who are having shooters come into our classrooms and our spaces."
Murdock, who lives 20 miles (32 km) from Sandy Hook Elementary School where 20 children and six adults were shot to death five years ago, drew more than 50,000 signatures on an online petition on Sunday calling on students to walk out of their high schools on April 20.
Instead of going to classes, she urged her fellow students to stage protests on the 19th anniversary of an earlier mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Students from the Florida high school are planning a "March for Our Lives" in Washington on March 24 to call attention to school safety and ask lawmakers to enact gun control.
They also plan to rally for gun control, mental health issues and school safety on Wednesday in Tallahassee, the state capital. The students were expected to meet with a lawmaker who is seeking to ban the sale of assault-style weapons like the AR-15 allegedly used in the school shooting.
The demands for change by many still too young to vote has inflamed the country's long-simmering debate between advocates for gun control and gun ownership.
Students from the Florida school have lashed out at political leaders, including Republican President Donald Trump, for inaction on the issue. Many criticized Trump for insensitivity after he said in a weekend Twitter post that the FBI may have been too distracted with a Russia probe to follow leads that could have prevented the massacre.
"You can't blame the bureaucracy for this when it's you, Mr. President, who's overall responsible," David Hogg, an 18-year-old Douglas senior, said in a phone interview.
'LISTENING SESSION'
The White House said Trump planned to host "a listening session" with high school students and teachers on Wednesday, but did not specify which students or school would be involved.
Democratic leaders vowed to redouble efforts to fight the nation's powerful gun lobby to reduce violence from firearms.
"We're the adults. We're the leaders in this country who are supposed to keep our children safe - and again and again, our country has let them down," Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said on Twitter.
The suspect in the Parkland shooting, Nikolas Cruz, 19, faces multiple murder charges in the deaths of 14 students and three staff members, and the wounding of more than a dozen others in a rampage that eclipsed Columbine as the country's worst mass shooting at a high school.
Cruz was reported to have been investigated by police and state officials as far back as 2016 after slashing his arm in a social media video, and saying he wanted to buy a gun. Authorities determined, however, he was receiving sufficient support, newspapers said on Saturday.
In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted on Friday that it failed to investigate a warning that Cruz possessed a gun and the desire to kill.
A couple who opened their home to Cruz after his mother's recent death saw no signs he was planning a rampage, according to the Sun Sentinel in south Florida.
Kimberly and James Snead told the newspaper they knew Cruz had guns, and that they made him lock them in a safe. They thought they had the only key, they said.
Cruz faces charges that could bring the death penalty. Prosecutors have not yet said if they will seek capital punishment.
Four people still hospitalized with wounds from the shooting were in fair condition on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the Broward Health system said.
School officials in Broward County said on Sunday they were aiming to have staff return to the high school campus by the end of the week. They did not say when classes would resume.
(Writing and additional reporting by Peter Szekely in New York, Letitia Stein in Detroit and Jeff Mason in West Palm Beach, Fla.; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney)
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) told MSNBC's David Gura that he stands by his Saturday morning tweet saying that the United States will "regret the day" that "psychopath" President Donald Trump was born.
"You are such a psychopath that you have to make even the death of 17 children about you," the congressman wrote, in reference to Trump's tweet late Saturday night blaming special counsel Bob Mueller's Russia probe for the school shooting massacre in Parkland, FL last week.
But Gallego reserved special scorn for Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who he called a "coward" for his passivity regarding the national gun lobby.
"Let's be realistic," he said. "As long as the Republicans are in power, they're not going to let us do anything."
Ryan, said Gallego, won't allow any bill containing gun restriction on the House floor.
"He's going to smile, say some really cute words, maybe cry a little and say something about mental health care, but will do nothing about passing good, sane gun control legislation," he said.
"Noting is going to happen as long as Paul Ryan is in charge -- or as long as Paul Ryan doesn't have a spine to stand up to the NRA," he concluded.
School walkouts for gun control are already being planned by Women’s March organizers
Support continued to grow over the weekend for a planned March 14 National School Walkout protest in the aftermath of the Valentine’s Day school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.
A group of third graders in Missouri has been asked to sell raffle tickets for an AR-15 military-style assault weapon after a similar gun was used in a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Community baseball team coach Levi Patterson told The Kansas City Star that the decision to sell raffle tickets was made before the shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The weapon was reportedly donated by the co-founder of Black Rain Ordnance Inc., who is the father of one of the players.
Patterson told the paper that he initially considered raffling a different item after the mass shooting, but he changed his mind after receiving criticism from what he called a "hate group" on Facebook. After that, Patterson said that he decided to turn the AR-15 raffle "into a positive thing."
But Patterson later admitted that he did not know if the messages on Facebook came from a "hate group."
"I applaud them for standing up for what they believe in. I just think they have feelings to this specific type of gun (that are) different than people around here do,” he insisted.
In a response to his Facebook critics, Patterson wrote that “gun raffles have been going on for years. Evil has and will always exist. Our hearts break for those involved, and we do not take that lightly.”
He also offered a defense of the AR-15 as a legal gun, insisting that it was not a "killing machine."
Patterson said that the children on his team, who are between 7 and 9 years old, would not be forced to sell the raffle tickets.
“We appreciate your ‘concern’ but please understand, we are not, have not, and will not force one of our boys to sell raffle tickets for the Black Rain AR15 Spec 15, if they are uncomfortable doing so,” he wrote on Facebook.
Emma Gonzales, a survivor of the mass shooting Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, said on Sunday that President Donald Trump was using his Twitter account to divert attention away from gun control.
During an interview on MSNBC, host Alex Witt asked the student about a recent Trump tweet blaming the shooting on the FBI's Russiainvestigation.
"I think the best way to deal with this is to ignore him," Gonzales asserted. "I think we can all agree that the things that President Trump tweets is nothing that will have a lasting impact -- unless it's a negative lasting impact -- on the people around us."
"At this point especially, the things that he mentions when he brings up talk of the FBI, he's trying to blame somebody," she added. "And we can't let him do that. So, the best thing for us to do is to ignore him and to continue fighting our fight, the fight that he refuses to acknowledge. The fact that he refused to even tweet the word 'gun' in any of his tweets. And yet, he insists on tweeting, and he insists on blaming the Democrats for something that he did wrong -- looking back into the past instead of looking forward into the future."
Radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked a group of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida for organizing marches after 17 were killed in a mass shooting at their school.
While speaking to Fox News Sunday, Limbaugh was asked by host Chris Wallace if a planned march by students could get lawmakers to act to prevent school shootings.
"Chris, I have to ask if anybody is really serious about solving this because none of this -- by the way, I couldn't care less about the gun angle of this," Limbaugh replied, referring to a group of students from Parkland that Wallace had just spoken to. "None of this is going to solve -- prayers and condolences don't solve it and marches aren't going to solve it. Chris, the next shooter is out there."
"It's not the fault of the NRA. It's not the fault of any -- it's the fault of the people doing this and our inability to deal with that and stop them," he insisted. "Until we're willing to get serious about where we are and how do we they stop this from happening and marches aren't going to do it, saying no more guns isn't going to do it, bashing the NRA isn't going to do it."
Wallace also wondered if it was fair to blame the FBI and local law enforcement for missing the signs that the shooter exhibited "erratic behavior."
"I could be snarky and I could say maybe the FBI should stop trying to find every case of sexual harassment in the White House and maybe they ought to give up on this ridiculous pursuit the Russians colluded with Trump in the election," Limbaugh suggested. "You know, we're told, well, we can't do anything until the crime has been committed. That's what has to change and is going to take some really smart people to figure how to do that without violating civil liberties and the Fourth Amendment and so forth. But it's clear that the way we deal with this now -- this, Chris, this is totally political."
"Until we're willing to get serious about where we are and how do we they stop this from happening and marches aren't going to do it, saying no more guns isn't going to do it, bashing the NRA isn't going to do it," he added.
Limbaugh disputed the notion that the group of students from Parkland that Wallace had just interviewed are "taking politics out of this."
"The minute they bash the NRA, it's politics," the conservative talker asserted.
"But to buy an AR-15, a semiautomatic rifle, you can be 18 years old and the background check takes just minutes," Wallace noted. "Question, is that sensible?"
"It may not be sensible. I don't know," Limbaugh replied, deflecting the question. "My point is, that's not
the problem. If you ban the AR-15, they're going to find something -- most of these are handguns anyway. If you ban that, they're going to find some other way to do this."
Former South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andrew Bauer (R) on Sunday suggested that more students are committing mass shootings because they no longer receive paddlings from teachers or watch The Andy Griffith Show.
During a panel segment on CNN, Bauer explained that he did not expect Republicans to take action against guns after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
"We have a culture thing here that we're not discussing," Bauer insisted, shifting the topic away from gun control and the National Rifle Association (NRA). "When I grew up it was Andy Griffith. You never had school shootings and we still had prayer in school and we drove to school with guns in the car."
"Today, we are in a different time," he said. "The movie industry, the rap industry in general talks about these things that are common now and we have almost desensitized it. Now we have have to worry about kids eating Tide PODs. Instead of discipline -- we go after parents who discipline their children. When I was in school, the principal had a paddle. It was called the Board of Education and he used it on all the students. We have changed the mindset today. It's scary now that students would even contemplate this type of behavior."
According to Bauer, the shootings can be blamed on "a cultural shift."
But former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm responded by saying she respected the "culture" of guns in America "but that doesn't mean that you can't have reasonable restrictions."
"Do you think there is a moment now for Republicans, either out of fear or morality or compassion, to say enough is enough, we are going to do some reasonable restrictions?" she asked Bauer.
"I think it sounds good," Bauer replied, dismissing the suggestion. "I think there is a bigger problem. If you look in Virginia, one of the biggest school shootings ever, it was done with a handgun, not an AR-15."
"There [are] an awful lot gun control measures that do have impact," Granholm interrupted. "There's been a lot of studies about this. There's no question. For example in Connecticut, when they adopted tough gun control, they saw 40 percent decline in homicides by guns. Contrary to that, in Missouri, when they have very lax standards and they release them, you increase in gun homicides. Those are just two anecdotes of a million about what the impact is."
"There's no question that reasonable restrictions work," she added. "There's no question that gun owners themselves are in favor or background checks, mental health checks. The only question is, why does Congress not act? And it is because of the NRA."
President Donald Trump fired off a rare late-night tweet on Saturday blaming the FBI's attention to Russian meddling in the 2016 election for the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday.
"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable," Trump wrote. "They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!"
Trump followed up with a second tweet that appeared to address criticisms that the president's claims of vindication from the Mueller indictments are unfounded.
"General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!" said the president.
In fact, nothing in Mueller's indictments precludes further charges against Americans associated with Russia's "translator project" nor does it provide any exculpatory evidence on Trump and his campaign.
A gun show taking place this weekend near the site of Wednesday's horrific massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL is proudly offering AR-15s for sale, in spite of the weapon's role in the lethal attack, which killed 3 adults and 14 students.
According to the New York Post's Laurie Mizrahi, the organizers of a gun show in Hollywood, FL see no reason not to display and sell models of the AR-15, the type of semi-automatic weapon reportedly used by Nicholas Cruz to mow down his former classmates.
“What would not selling [the gun] have done?” said dealer Will McDough to the Post. “If he had a knife would you regulate the knife -- or the person standing behind it?”
Student Emma Gonzales pointed out in her riveting speech to an anti-gun violence rally on Saturday that Cruz would not have been able to kill nearly as many of her classmates if he'd been armed with a knife.
Gun show shopper Joe Arrington, 29, told the Post, "I don’t believe that any law that they would have added would have deterred what happened."
Gun shows are a favorite place for gun buyers and sellers to move new and used weapons, ammunition, scopes and accessories like the "bump stock" modification that enables semi-automatic guns to fire like automatic weapons. Background checks are not required at many gun shows, allowing people access to weapons they could not otherwise obtain.
The gunman who killed 59 people and injured dozens more in Las Vegas last fall used a bump stock to spray hundreds of rounds per minute. After that mass murder, a short-lived movement to ban bump stocks sprang up but was quashed by the NRA.
Try this one now. Ask your children what they’re thinking about the shooting in Florida and how they like their friends and school. Then listen.