On his top-rated radio program on Monday, Rush Limbaugh predicted that, in contrast to earlier congressional responses to mass shootings, this time &#8220;there is gonna be some kind of a deal made on new gun control legislation or gun legislation.&#8221;
Following the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio last week that left over 30 people dead and dozens injured, congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle have been discussing possible gun control measures, particularly &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws, which many Republicans have signaled that they would support and which President Trump has openly backed, along with improved background checks.
Limbaugh <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/08/12/youre-going-to-see-some-kind-of-gun-legislation/">predicted</a> Monday that we would see some form of gun legislation, citing &#8220;the prevailing winds in Washington&#8221; which are telling lawmakers, &#8220;We&#8217;ve gotta do something! Just do something so it can be seen that they&#8217;ve done something. So it can be seen that there has been a response by our government to the tragedies.&#8221;
Limbaugh made clear that he doesn&#8217;t believe any gun legislation enacted by the federal government will actually prevent tragedies like those that occurred in El Paso and Dayton because, in the end, &#8220;it&#8217;s not gun legislation that is responsible for it.&#8221;
&#8220;You can ban guns left and right,&#8221; he said. &#8220;You can take guns away from the law-abiding all day. People who intend, who have made up their minds to use guns in a criminal way are going to find them. They are, by definition, criminals.&#8221;
But the mounting pressure to &#8220;do something,&#8221; he predicted, will win the day in Washington this time because of human psychology.
&#8220;They&#8217;re demanding anything &#8217;cause everybody just wants to feel better about this,&#8221; he said of the public outcry for action. &#8220;Everybody just wants to think we’re doing something about it, &#8216;even if it doesn&#8217;t matter, we want to do something.&#8217; Because of the psychological need to do something. And then you add on to the psychological need that to do something, the government has to do it.&#8221;
After playing a clip of Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt warning Trump about doing an &#8220;about-face&#8221; on gun control and potentially violating the Second Amendment, Limbaugh stressed his larger point again: The reflex to &#8220;do something&#8221; ultimately &#8220;comes under the umbrella of the false premise that Washington can stop things, that Washington — that legislation — can somehow eliminate these shootings, and what we have here are people that are not really interested in solving this.
&#8220;They&#8217;re interested in making people think they care and are doing something,&#8221; he continued, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;m just telling you here that the motivation for anybody involved in this is not to actually stop this. If somebody knew how to stop this, it would have been done long ago. If anybody had the answer to this, it would have been implemented long ago. Nobody does.&#8221;
Limbaugh went on to provide a few reasons he says we&#8217;ve seen an escalation of mass shootings, among them that we&#8217;ve &#8220;scourged the concept of fatherhood and maleness as barbarism&#8221; and that social media &#8220;has led to the literal isolation of people.&#8221; The latter, he said, results in people wanting to do things just to &#8220;get noticed,&#8221; to &#8220;be famous&#8221; — and the media inflames the situation by covering the mass shootings &#8220;like whoever does this is gonna get the dream that they&#8217;ve always wanted.&#8221; Then there&#8217;s abortion, Rush suggested, which erodes &#8220;the perception of the sanctity of life.&#8221; &#8220;I mean, it&#8217;s a cascade of a whole lot of things over a long period of time,&#8221; he said.
Transcript via <a href="https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/08/12/youre-going-to-see-some-kind-of-gun-legislation/">RushLimbaugh.com</a>

Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump

Limbaugh: Here’s Why We’re Going To See Gun Legislation This Time

Dayton Shooting

El Paso Shooting

Gun Control

Rush Limbaugh

Second Amendment

Following two mass shootings that occurred in less than 24 hours last week and resulted in over 30 people dead and dozens injured, The Washington Post published Sunday a list of all of the names of the victims of every mass shooting since 1966.
During that 54-year span, a total of 1,196 people have died at the hands of mass shooters, averaging 22 deaths per year via mass shooting over that period. Since the Sandy Hook massacre, which took place in December 2012, the average number of deaths per year from mass shootings is 64.
&#8220;Eleven hundred ninety-six,&#8221; the Post tweeted Sunday along with a photo of its published list of victims&#8217; names. &#8220;That’s the number of names on this page. People who were doing ordinary things until they were shot to death by killers bent on mass fatalities. In today&#8217;s Washington Post, a special 12-page print section lists every mass shooting victim since 1966.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Eleven hundred ninety-six.
That’s the number of names on this page. People who were doing ordinary things until they were shot to death by killers bent on mass fatalities.
In today’s Washington Post, a special 12-page print section lists every mass shooting victim since 1966. <a href="https://t.co/kgXDJq8bMY">pic.twitter.com/kgXDJq8bMY</a>
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1160567450850734081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In a follow-up tweet, the Post notes that the pace of mass shootings has significantly picked up since the horrific Sandy Hook shooting. &#8220;The pace of the deadliest public mass shootings has accelerated significantly in recent years,&#8221; the Post tweeted. &#8220;The 423 people represented here died between the Sandy Hook massacre and last weekend’s attack in Dayton, Ohio. They accounted for more than a third of the 1,196 killed since 1966.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a moment to reflect on the horrific human toll of mass shootings in our country and to remember the individuals whose lives were cut short,&#8221; said the Post&#8217;s Executive Editor Marty Baron.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">The pace of the deadliest public mass shootings has accelerated significantly in recent years. The 423 people represented here died between the Sandy Hook massacre and last weekend’s attack in Dayton, Ohio.
They accounted for more than a third of the 1,196 killed since 1966. <a href="https://t.co/04mkucWlM6">pic.twitter.com/04mkucWlM6</a>
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1160568811537481728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">“This is a moment to reflect on the horrific human toll of mass shootings in our country and to remember the individuals whose lives were cut short,&#8221; said Executive Editor <a href="https://twitter.com/PostBaron?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PostBaron</a>. <a href="https://t.co/W6OuwpIK2X">pic.twitter.com/W6OuwpIK2X</a>
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) <a href="https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1160570338079629313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Though the Post intended to underscore the severity of mass shootings with its publication of the names, the statistics prompted a flood of responses online from pro-Second Amendment advocates suggesting that the Post was actually undermining gun control advocates&#8217; attempt to use mass shootings as a rationale for significantly restricting gun rights.
Many gun rights advocates stressed that while any death is tragic, particularly preventable ones, the total number of deaths from mass shootings has been relatively small compared to other national issues, including the opioid crisis and gang violence. As noted by The Daily Wire&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/emzanotti/status/1160627132378337280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1160627132378337280&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2019%2F08%2F12%2Fa-media-own-goal-washington-post-page-on-mass-shootings-shows-how-rare-they-are%2F">Emily Zanotti</a>, opioid-related deaths reached <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm675152e1.htm">nearly 50,000 </a>in 2017 alone. Gun-related homicides in Chicago, largely the result of gang violence, came up in several responses, the city averaging <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/us/chicago-murders-drop-2018/index.html">over 600 homicides</a> a year in recent years.
&#8220;Mass shootings are horrible, but your chances of being killed in one are about the same as being struck by lightning [<a href="https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-victims">49 per year</a>],&#8221; wrote one gun control advocate. &#8220;Chicago has the same number of people killed about every two years. The USA is a massive country, 327 million people. This isn&#8217;t to under[mine] the severity of mass shootings, they are horrible and we all want to put a stop to them. However, putting a list of names of people killed over a 65 year period is pure sensationalism and an attempt to exaggerate the problem.&#8221;
&#8220;So far, 1636 people have been shot in Chicago this year. How many of those names have appeared in the Post?&#8221; wrote The Daily Caller&#8217;s <a href="https://twitter.com/derekahunter/status/1160587281268432896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1160587281268432896&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2019%2F08%2F12%2Fa-media-own-goal-washington-post-page-on-mass-shootings-shows-how-rare-they-are%2F">Derek Hunter</a> (h/t <a href="https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2019/08/12/a-media-own-goal-washington-post-page-on-mass-shootings-shows-how-rare-they-are/">Twitchy</a>). &#8220;If they don&#8217;t help the liberal agenda they don&#8217;t exist.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">So far, 1636 people have been shot in Chicago this year. How many of those names have appeared in the Post? If they don&#8217;t help the liberal agenda they don&#8217;t exist. <a href="https://t.co/NUIrCkdla9">https://t.co/NUIrCkdla9</a> <a href="https://t.co/eS9CEWu4Ne">https://t.co/eS9CEWu4Ne</a>
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) <a href="https://twitter.com/derekahunter/status/1160587281268432896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
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For perspective on scale of deaths, some pointed to the number of unborn children aborted every year. According to the <a href="https://nrlc.org/uploads/factsheets/FS01AbortionintheUS.pdf">Guttmacher Institute</a>, between 1973 and 2018, over 60 million abortions were performed, averaging 1.3 million abortions per year. &#8220;The trend on mass shootings is a serious issue, but I&#8217;m not sure that this is a good way to frame it,&#8221; wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/AG_Conservative/status/1160603473680982017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1160603473680982017&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fgregp-3534%2F2019%2F08%2F12%2Fa-media-own-goal-washington-post-page-on-mass-shootings-shows-how-rare-they-are%2F">AG Conservative</a>. &#8220;For context: Many on the left argue that late-term abortions are very rare and therefore not a big issue, but there are 10,000-12,000 such abortions every year.&#8221;
Others noted that gun control advocates&#8217; renewed push for banning assault weapons ignores the prominence of other types of guns, particularly handguns, in mass shootings. A study by <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/476409/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-weapon-types-used/">Statista</a> released this year found that between 1982 and August 2019, handguns were used in 93 mass shooting incidents, shotguns in 26, and rifles in 45.
A few days after the tragic mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, President Trump called for bipartisan action to help address the problem, particularly discussions about so-called &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws, which a growing number of Republicans have signaled that they are willing to consider.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50510/watch-dan-crenshaw-urges-conservatives-join-red-molly-prince">WATCH: Dan Crenshaw Urges Conservatives To Join The Red Flag Law Debate: ‘Take Control Of The Narrative’</a>

Washington Post

WaPo Lists All Deaths From Mass Shootings In Last 54 Years; Gun Rights Advocates Respond

Guns

Shooting

President Trump’s historic speech against the mass shooting epidemics lays the first collective brick on the pathway of a national preventing violent extremism program. Addressing the nation on Monday August 5th, 2019, President Trump declared that “these <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzQx_jg5ZRw">sinister ideologies must be defeated</a>.”
The sinister ideologies (white supremacism, Neo-Nazi supremacists, Antifa, Islamist extremism) in many ways mirror the frameworks of cults and gangs. While the latter has often been confined to specific demographics or otherwise contained in a pipeline, ideological extremism bleeds through and recruits every vulnerable mind through either recruitment or self-radicalization. The president’s defining speech sets the stage for a national bipartisan conversation on extremism, arriving with urgency at the heels of another shooting spree over the weekend.
On Saturday, August 3rd, a gunman opened fire in a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, killing at least 20 people including the parents of a two-month whose parents used their bodies to shield their newborn. The El Paso gunman posted a manifesto online shortly before the attack, not unlike the New Zealand Christchurch shooter who walked into a mosque and destroyed the lives of peaceful worships, all while live steaming the attack in some disjointed reality in which he imagined himself a hero. The second attack took place in Dayton, Ohio, which killed at least 9 people. Both attacks come within a week of a shooting spree at a garlic festival in Northern California that took the lives of three people, including a six-year-old boy.
Ideological drivers behind the attacks are complex but both pushed the <a href="https://clarionproject.org/fueling-to-brink-of-destruction/">theory of acceleration</a>, which looks to force society toward the brink of destruction in what can be classified as the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fq27dPEAqU&amp;t=8s">war of extremes</a>. Yet, outright ideological extremists launching domestic terror attacks aren’t alone in that drive toward annihilation.
Less than 48 hours after domestic terrorist attacks, agitators took to Twitter to incite violence. In a <a href="https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1158476809220055041?s=20">tweet</a>, One American News Network host Jack Posobiec pointed to “<a href="https://www.phillyvoice.com/local-antifa-leader-i-fight-whats-wrong-and-i-know-im-winning/">Antifa leader</a>” Daryle Lamont Jenkins. Also in a tweet, Jenkins urged his followers to show up at a Baltimore clean up event organized by conservative activist Scott Presler and attended by other conservative personalities who all pitched in to help clean up a city that has been attacked in recent headlines for its dilapidated condition.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">HEADS UP, BALTIMORE! If you are anywhere near N. Fulton Ave. and Westwood Ave, a few well-known neo-fascist gloryhounds that like to pull stunts and pretend they are not &#8211; namely Jack Posobiec and Scott Pressler &#8211; are in Baltimore making like they are doing a cleanup of the city.
— Daryle Lamont Jenkins (@DLamontJenkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/DLamontJenkins/status/1158413660378861570?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Jenkins is just one example among many, especially in a climate that has seen <a href="https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1158491318118572033?s=20">Antifa attacks against journalists</a> go unpunished with <a href="https://onenewsnow.com/media/2019/07/17/aoc-her-squad-refuse-to-condemn-antifa-terror-attack-on-ice">congressional leadership refusing to denounce Antifa</a>.
Domestic terrorism has many faces. Speaking to the rise of domestic terrorism, Brian Levin, the director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism observes, “We’re seeing a coalescence of traditional hate crime with <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-02/domestic-terrorism-white-supremacy">political violence</a>.”
For many, simply holding a different political opinion can make you a target or force you into alienation from your community. In some cases, as we’ve seen with freshman Democratic Congresswomen, there is an <a href="https://clarionproject.org/aoc-omar-nodding-to-political-violence/">open nod to violence</a> against political opponents. In fact, as I recently shared with Laura Ingraham and Candace Owens, political divisions have become a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCNx3X3wXb8&amp;t=212s">gateway drug to radicalization</a> in that violence is tolerated as a means to an end.
Domestic terrorism also doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s often a reaction to larger failed conversations and policies that have pushed individuals toward the fringes of society. Disruptive <a href="https://twitter.com/AsraNomani/status/1158104159238930432?s=20">dog whistles</a>, for example, pull the trigger assaulting our collective consciousness long before a literal trigger is pulled. The mind is the weapon, while the behavior is the vessel and the gun is the tool. Rather than focusing on the ideological weapons, to date the conversation has been a tug of war hinged on a gun debate that undermines the constitutional fabric of our society at a time when loose threats are already being pulled at by those who would like radical ideological changes both within and without government. A conversation on national security against domestic terrorism deserves to be much bigger than that; it deserves to be honest and and move with integrity.
Instead of honest conversations, mainstream narratives represent a national dialogue as reactionary sound bytes that pin white supremacist attacks on political conservatives. The <a href="https://twitter.com/hradzka/status/1158539658894221312?s=20">truth is more complex</a>. The El Paso shooter, for example, was an Elizabeth Warren supporter whose manifesto echoed anti-corporation themes.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Per the manifesto, the El Paso perp was a white nationalist (w/ a side of environmentalism/ecofascism). The Dayton perp&#8217;s social media and people who knew him describe him as a Hard Lefty. He was a socialist, and an acquaintance from the music scene described him as antifascist.
— David Hines (@hradzka) <a href="https://twitter.com/hradzka/status/1158540667871735810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
However, in the problem we also see the solution. The fact that the portrait of a domestic extremist is complex (and falls across the spectrum of ideological extremisms), tells us that we need to be looking at broader vulnerabilities.
For starters, discordant and distorted rapid fire online exchanges have broken down conversation pathways, compacted in part by the 24/7 instant connectivity of the internet. At the same time, violent attacks by domestic terrorists are often seen as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/08/how-can-fbi-fight-far-right-extremism-ideology/595435/">isolated and unconnected incidents</a> when in fact the two are co-dependent factors. What this tells us is that to prevent violent extremism, we’re going to need to shift beyond the online space and return to real time, to communities and families.
In July of 2019, I traveled with Clarion Project to meet with congressional and senate leaders to introduce a preventing violent extremism training program rooted in community resilience. The program is designed to bring together key stakeholders across law enforcement, education, clergy, civil leaders, and business. Our nationwide pilot program launches out of Georgia, where bipartisan leadership is invested in cultivating initiatives that inform their sectors about identifying and intervening against signs of ideological extremism.
The second prong of the preventing violent extremism (PVE) program goes further and caters specifically to youth. Speaking with school administrators, it was clear there was a pressing need to develop viable counter messaging against the rise of neo-Nazi incidences on high school and junior high campuses. With co-collaborators that include a Native American elder and a Samurai warrior to name a few, I’ve co-created a series of 18 workshops to help cultivate empathy, listening skills, perspective shifting, and tolerance among children as young as nine-years-old. Those workshops are built on, inviting youth to a conversation across themes of human dignity in way that captures the heart and mind of a child.
This is the first step, but additional steps must to be explored if we’re going to flank the problem of domestic extremism in the spirit of American excellence that has always applied ingenuity and imagination toward every problem.
Cameron Sinclair, the managing director at <a href="https://www.armoryofharmony.com/">Armory of Harmony</a>, encourages political leaders to avoid “jamming bills together as political leverage” in what will inevitably be a politically charged conversation going into the 2020 election. Speaking privately, Sinclair adds, “As someone who is creating a solution to the perversive nature of gun violence, I look to the path of least resistance, so should politicians. Focus on clear mandates and act swiftly.”
While conservatives have not been shy about calling out other forms of ideological extremism, including Islamist radicalization, as a nation we have been slow to develop solutions to address the problem domestically. We can’t afford to fall behind the curve of extremist acceleration when it comes to white supremacism, as we had been even after the April 2019 congressional hearing on “<a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/439118-how-the-conversation-on-hate-crimes-reinforces-hate-and">Hate Crimes and the Rise of White Nationalism</a>,” where the conversation reinforced many of the same tropes we’re struggling with in the public space while without the mention of any tangible data-driven solutions.
One solution is a national mandate for preventing violent extremism programs that pairs community driven program with education initiatives. That solution must come with the patience and understanding that it is a long game invested in relationship building to restore and empower the community as the frontline defense against ideological extremism.
A second solution comes from Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang in the form of his universal basic income, the Freedom Dividend, which grants $1000 to every American over the age of 18. In his <a href="http://yang2020.com/">yang2020.com</a> policy position, he shares how the dividend would offer security while opening up lifestyle pathways for Americans that help them escape the gridlock of day to day living.
Yang believes universal basic income (UBI) models can help curb extremism among youth. In conversation, he shares, “The less our system appeals to the downtrodden, the weaker we are in the ideological war. When people give up hope in a current system, they are more vulnerable to finding hope in another system or ideology.”
Yang’s theory is supported by academic findings on the push and pull factors that drive extremism. Disaffection and alienation, a failure to belong to mainstream society, is often what drives youth to seek alternative and fringe ideological models. What we’re seeing with the shootings over the weekend is a Frankenstein-like mash up of different extremist leanings with no clear orientation other than a desire accelerating civilizational downfall.
What Yang is essentially offering in UBI models is a counter message that pivots away from simply taking away the threat. While there are many debates around gun restriction and now video game restriction as a means to curb violence, what I see with the rise of hate in school campuses is that the lack of a counter message is literally killing us. If we want to move forward as a nation, we must look at how we can empower the building blocks of society: the communities. From there we need to look at how we’re incentivizing youth with philosophy that prepares them for the world they’re walking into while also rewarding them with means to invest in their future.
Shireen Qudosi is a conservative writer and speaker on faith, identity and belonging. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/ShireenQudosi">@ShireenQudosi</a>.

Dayton

QUDOSI: After Mass Shootings, National Preventing Violent Extremism Programs Is The First Step Forward.

Radical Islam

Terrorism

White Supremacy

On Wednesday night, billionaire Oprah Winfrey doled out some wisdom in the wake of recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that took the lives of 31 innocents. The media mogul took a deeper approach than we are used to from Hollywood, taking aim at the &#8220;morality&#8221; issue plaguing the United States.
&#8220;I think what people are missing is a core moral center,&#8221; Winfrey <a href="https://extratv.com/2019/08/07/oprah-winfrey-speaks-out-on-mass-shootings/">told</a> &#8220;Extra&#8221; reporter Renee Bargh.
&#8220;Churches used to do that,&#8221; the former talk show host explained. &#8220;It was a central place you could come to and there was a core center of values about a way of living and being in the world. Until we can return to that, however that is, in whatever form, we will continue to be lost.&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s why I actually believe storytelling is a form of a new religion because it&#8217;s a place where people can gather and be inspired and see themselves and get filled,&#8221; she added.
After an armed man murdered nearly dozens of innocents in an El Paso area Walmart on Saturday, Gov. Greg Abbot (R-TX) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50216/breaking-shooting-el-paso-multiple-fatalities-frank-camp">released</a> a statement assuring Texans that the state&#8217;s government will be doing all they can to &#8220;ensure justice is delivered to the [perpetrator] of this heinous act.&#8221;
&#8220;Today, the El Paso community was struck by a heinous and senseless act of violence. Our hearts go out to the victims of this horrific shooting and to the entire community in this time of loss,&#8221; Abbot said on Saturday. &#8220;While no words can provide the solace needed for those impacted by this event, I ask that all Texans join Cecilia and me in offering our prayers for the victims and their families. The state of Texas and the Department of Public Safety are assisting the El Paso Police Department as they conduct their investigation. We have deployed troopers, special agents, Texas Rangers, tactical teams, and aircraft to the scene in a support role. The state of Texas will do everything it can to ensure justice is delivered to the perpetrators of this heinous act.&#8221;
The following day, nine more people were murdered in Dayton by another mass shooter. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) said he and his wife Fran were &#8220;absolutely heartbroken&#8221; in the hours following the tragedy.
&#8220;Fran and I are absolutely heartbroken over the horrible attack that occurred this morning in Dayton,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;We join those across Ohio and this country in offering our prayers to victims and their families. I have spoken with Mayor Nan Whaley and offered any assistance on behalf of the state. I have been briefed by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol has offered assistance to local law enforcement as they investigate this heinous act. I commend Dayton Police and other first responders for their bravery and quick response to save lives and bring an end to this tragedy.&#8221;
In recent years, rumors have flown over a possible Winfrey run for the White House. But the celebrity quieted the whispers last summer, telling British Vogue that politics is just, well, too dirty. &#8220;In that political structure — all the non-truths, the bulls***, the crap, the nastiness, the backhanded backroom stuff that goes on — I feel like I could not exist,&#8221; she said, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/03/entertainment/oprah-winfrey-vogue-trnd/index.html">according</a> to CNN. &#8220;I would not be able to do it. It&#8217;s not a clean business. It would kill me.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Oprah Winfrey

WATCH: Oprah: Mass Shootings A Symptom Of Lost ‘Values,’ Drift From ‘Moral Center’

Ohio

Texas

There may be no place so dispiriting after a mass shooting as Twitter. It&#8217;s a little digital analogue of hell. In Real World, the bodies have yet to be cleared away and our countrymen on the scene are only beginning to deal with their unimaginable trauma and grief. But on Twitter, everything is cruelty, insults, accusations and rage. You can almost see the flecks of spittle flying as the gun-grabbers shriek at the constitutionalists and the constitutionalists shriek back. The phrase &#8220;blood on your hands,&#8221; is so overused it becomes a kind of meaningless hum.
My sympathies are with the constitutionalists, sure, but any valid point anyone has to make is drowned out by the nearly demonic nastiness with which they make it. If the point is to convince your opponents, how can such malice help? And if your point is not to convince them, why say anything at all?
According to the Pew Research Center, only 22 percent of American adults use Twitter, and less than half of those send almost 80 percent of the Tweets. What&#8217;s more, these Tweeters tend to be younger and more Democrat than the general population. So essentially, the atmosphere of rage and unkindness on the social website is created by only 10 percent of the people, and those are not representative of the other 90 percent.
Yet this tiny, left-leaning little clan wields tremendous power. They inspire the news media to echo their opinions and rage — opinions and rage which journalists largely share. By the end of this week, all the media world seemed to be Twitter at its worst as supposed journalists and commentators absurdly declared President Trump a white nationalist and likewise absurdly opined that the shooter in El Paso had been inspired by his &#8220;rhetoric.&#8221;
Perhaps even worse, in Twittery fashion, the news media manipulated the facts to serve its political purposes. When Trump spoke words of healing, journalists dismissed them as hypocritical. And when the president responded to the vicious, dishonest and hate-filled remarks about him by his Democrat opponents, journalists condemned him for &#8220;lashing out.&#8221; What&#8217;s more, because the El Paso shooting was committed by a white bigot, news outlets acted as if that were the only shooting that had taken place. The Dayton shooting, perpetrated by a left-winger, was played down. The equally deadly shootings in Democrat-ruined Chicago were barely mentioned at all.
But once again, this vitriol, this hatred, these lies and distortions, are coming from a tiny portion of the American populace, and that portion is non-representative. Their power comes from two sources: one, the dominance of the Left&#8217;s ownership of these powerful communications outlets, and, two, the cowardice and dishonesty of those whom they attack.
Incoming Access Hollywood host Mario Lopez recently apologized after he was Twitter-mobbed for saying that 3-year-olds should not be allowed to determine their gender. This is undoubtedly true. To mutilate or hormone-dose so young a child because of his passing opinion on such a matter is an atrocity worthy of a Nazi torture doctor. But a tiny, vocal minority — in sympathy with the leftists at Access&#8216;s network, NBC — meant Lopez had to cave or lose his job.
Compare Chick-fil-A, which has long withstood a firestorm of media criticism for its founder&#8217;s support of groups opposing gay marriage. There have been protests, boycotts, bans. The chain was even labeled a hate group by the hate group Southern Poverty Law Center. But Chick-fil-A did not back down and has now become the third-largest fast food chain in the country.
The outrage mobs — and the hate-speaking journalists who echo them — do not represent the opinions of the majority of Americans. They gain their power from their masquerading as the vox populi and from our unwillingness to openly oppose them.
They work hard to create the impression that if you disagree with them you will pay a price. And maybe you will pay a price. But people have died for your right to speak your mind and they have sent their sons to die for it. To lose your platform, your popularity, some money or even a job is not the greatest sacrifice you can make. The outraged minority should not be allowed to determine the future of the nation.

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KLAVAN: To Defeat The Outrage Mobs, We Must Stand Up To Them

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Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang echoed many of his primary challengers on Friday by contending that President Donald Trump is a white supremacist.
“To me, you should judge an individual by their actions and words,” Yang replied to CNN’s John Berman when asked why it’s important to directly refer to Trump as a white supremacist.
“So, in this case, it’s very clear the president’s actions and words have conveyed a very strong sense to many, many Americans that he has white supremacist beliefs,” he continued. “That’s the only standard we can go by.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Andrew Yang: “The President’s actions and words have conveyed a very strong sense to many, many Americans that he has white supremacist beliefs” <a href="https://t.co/HXPDMvRQaI">pic.twitter.com/HXPDMvRQaI</a>
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1159808722304196608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Yang reiterated his response after Berman asked him directly if he believes that the president is a white supremacist.
“I mean, again, if someone acts and speaks in a certain way, then you have no choice but to say that’s what he is,” Yang answered.
Yang’s remarks come after a host of other Democratic presidential candidates made similar statements in the wake of two back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Just hours after the first shooting spree in El Paso, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) appeared on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50219/watch-beto-orourke-swiftly-makes-rounds-blaming-molly-prince">multiple news programs</a> to accuse Trump of being a racist who incited the mass murders.
“He is [a white supremacist],” O’Rourke said later on Wednesday. “He’s also made that very clear. He’s dehumanized or sought to dehumanize those who do not look like or pray like the majority here in this country.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/BetoORourke?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BetoORourke</a> just told me he thinks <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> is a white supremacist. <a href="https://t.co/8PqvycBDWh">pic.twitter.com/8PqvycBDWh</a>
— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) <a href="https://twitter.com/jacobsoboroff/status/1159221564891652096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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O’Rourke, however, has made multiple comparisons between the president and Nazis. In late July, he likened Trump’s campaign rally to a “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/07/23/2020-meghan-mccain-takes-beto-orourke-over-nazi-comment/1810427001/">Nuremberg rally</a>” and, weeks later, he argued that Trump&#8217;s rhetoric is similar to someone in Nazi Germany’s Third Reich.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also said that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/us/politics/beto-elizabeth-warren-trump-white-supremacist.html">she believes Trump is a white supremacist</a> and has supported the racist movement as a way to divide the country.
“He has given aid and comfort to white supremacists,” Warren told The New York Times on Thursday. “He’s done the wink and a nod. He has talked about white supremacists as fine people. He’s done everything he can to stir up racial conflict and hatred in this country.”
Another outspoken critic of the president, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), also agreed with Warren and O’Rourke. Sanders told CNN on Sunday that he believes Trump is either “a white supremacist or a white nationalist.” However, a senior campaign official reportedly followed up and confirmed that Sanders believes Trump is both.
The self-proclaimed democratic socialist has long accused the president of espousing racist views.
“We must be honest and straightforward and say that we have a president who is a racist, a president who is a sexist, a president who is a homophobe, a president who is a xenophobe, and a president who is a religious bigot,” Sanders <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/11/15/bernie-sanders-trump-racist-sexist-bigot/">said in November</a> while addressing Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network conference. “It gives me no joy to tell you that, but that is the simple truth and we’ve got to confront the truth.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden argued that Trump &#8220;fanned the flames of white supremacy&#8221; and that he is &#8220;openly racist.&#8221;
&#8220;The sad thing about this is it&#8217;s no longer really a debatable point. There is just a long list of statements and tweets and behaviors from this president that make it very clear that he possesses hate and that he is divisive and that he is a racist,&#8221; Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1159601934602506240?s=20">said on the issue</a>. She further noted that he is &#8220;someone who empowers white supremacists and who condones their behavior.&#8221;
Trump, however, has repeatedly denounced the hate-filled ideologies. Following the deadly mass shootings, he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50246/watch-trump-urges-nation-condemn-white-supremacy-molly-prince">addressed the nation</a>, calling for all Americans to join him in doing so.
&#8220;In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,&#8221; Trump said from the White House. &#8220;These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.&#8221;

Andrew Yang

WATCH: Andrew Yang Joins 2020 Democrats In Calling Trump A White Supremacist

2020 Election

Donald Trump

On Friday, President Trump reiterated his support for &#8220;meaningful background checks&#8221; when it comes to potentially dangerous people obtaining firearms. He also invited staunch Second Amendment supporters to join him in crafting the necessary legislation.
&#8220;Serious discussions are taking place between House and Senate leadership on meaningful Background Checks,&#8221; Trump tweeted. &#8220;I have also been speaking to the NRA, and others, so that their very strong views can be fully represented and respected. Guns should not be placed in the hands of mentally ill or deranged people. I am the biggest Second Amendment person there is, but we all must work together for the good and safety of our Country. Common sense things can be done that are good for everyone!&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8230;.mentally ill or deranged people. I am the biggest Second Amendment person there is, but we all must work together for the good and safety of our Country. Common sense things can be done that are good for everyone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1159797315680555014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The concept of &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws, which President Trump proposed in the wake of the horrific shootings this past weekend, has proven to be a divisive issue among conservatives. Proponents of the laws say it will put a necessary system in place to prevent people who exhibit clear signs of potentially violent behavior from obtaining a firearm; opponents say that it can potentially be used as a political tool to deprive law-abiding individuals of owning guns. David French of National Review <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/gun-control-republicans-consider-gvro/">likened such laws to restraining orders</a>:
<blockquote>There is broad conceptual agreement that regardless of whether you view gun ownership as a right or a privilege, a person can demonstrate through their conduct that they have no business possessing a weapon.
Felons, the dangerously mentally ill, perpetrators of domestic violence — these people have not only demonstrated their unfitness to own a weapon, they’ve been granted due process to contest the charges or claims against them. There is no arbitrary state action. There is no collective punishment. There is, rather, an individual, constitutional state process, and the result of that process is a set of defined consequences that includes revoking the right to gun ownership.</blockquote>
Josh Hammer <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50404/hammer-conservatives-should-be-very-skeptical-red-josh-hammer">argued</a> here at The Daily Wire, however, that the red flag laws, also called &#8220;Gun Violence Restraining Orders&#8221; (GVROs), could easily be subject to abuse, where people are forced to defend themselves against false accusations:
<blockquote>The Framers would have been positively aghast at the notion that a next-door neighbor or workplace supervisor could successfully petition a court to deprive an individual of his Second Amendment rights — let alone in ex parte, secretive fashion — for <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/08/06/red-flag-laws-not-good-solution-mass-shootings/">up to two weeks</a> before a gun owner may attempt to defend himself. To many, that may seem awfully reminiscent of the old English Star Chamber. And even more horrifyingly Orwellian is the on-the-ground reality that people have <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/11/06/maryland-police-officer-shoots-kills-man-being-served-with-gun-grab-order-under-new-red-flag-law">already died at the hands of law enforcement</a> after they have been unwilling to turn in their GVRO-stripped firearms.</blockquote>
According to<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/gun-background-checks-red-flag-laws-may-be-on-senate-agenda-in-the-fall-mitch-mcconnell-says"> Fox News</a>, legislation on background checks and &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws may be on the Senate floor this coming fall. &#8220;After several calls to bring the Senate back from recess to consider gun violence legislation following last weekend&#8217;s mass shootings,&#8221; reports the outlet. &#8220;Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he and President Trump are considering several options, including background checks, and are &#8216;anxious for an outcome&#8217; when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill in the fall.&#8221;

President Trump Departs White House For Fundraising Events And Vacation

Trump Tweets Support For Red Flag Laws: ‘Common Sense Things That Are Good For Everyone’

On Monday, CNN ran a fact-check regarding the claim that tougher background checks would have stopped the two mass shootings that tragically took the lives of a total of 31 innocents in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend.
&#8220;In the wake of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/el-paso-dayton-shootings-august-2019/index.html">two mass shootings</a> that left 31 dead, President Donald Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1158330512341164032">tweeted</a> Monday morning that &#8216;Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks,&#8217; suggesting that the legislation be paired with immigration revisions,&#8221; noted CNN. &#8220;Would strengthening or expanding background checks have prevented the alleged shooters from purchasing firearms?&#8221;
The network&#8217;s fact-check admitted that this was &#8220;doubtful&#8221;:
<blockquote>“There is no indication that the shooting in Dayton, Ohio, would have been prevented by proposed universal background checks or legislation to bolster the federal background check system. The alleged El Paso, Texas, shooter purchased his firearm legally and there is no evidence that he had a criminal history that a background check would&#8217;ve caught.”</blockquote>
CNN has taken heat for their glaring bias in favor of gun control measures, most notably with their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27513/dana-loesch-reveals-more-evidence-cnns-town-hall-james-barrett">disaster</a> of a &#8220;town hall&#8221; event following the Parkland High School shooting in Florida. National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswomen Dana Loesch was heckled as a murderer and had her role as a mother questioned by grieving students who were shoved in front of TV cameras.
On the same day the fact-check was published on <a href="http://CNN.com">CNN</a>, anchors Poppy Harlow and John Avlon falsely <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50243/cnn-claims-trump-rolled-back-obama-rule-keep-guns-amanda-prestigiacomo">claimed</a> on-air that President Donald Trump eliminated a proposed Obama-era regulation that would keep firearms out of the hands of the &#8220;mentally ill.&#8221; The proposed rule was a broad measure that would have undermined not only the Second but Fourth Amendment rights of tens of thousands of innocent Americans in constitutionally dubious fashion. Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has become increasingly partisan over the years, vehemently opposed the regulation. &#8220;The ACLU and 23 national disability groups did not oppose this rule because we want more guns in our community. This is about more than guns. Adding more innocent Americans to the National Instant Criminal Background database because of a mental disability is a disturbing trend — one that could be applied to voting, parenting or other rights dearer than gun ownership. We opposed it because it would do little to stem gun violence but do much to harm our civil rights,&#8221; the ACLU wrote at the time, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27229/heres-truth-about-trump-revoking-gun-checks-amanda-prestigiacomo">noted</a> by The Daily Wire.
Another common battle cry from the Left in the wake of tragedy is to ban so-called assault weapons. But according to an independent study commissioned by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), former President Bill Clinton’s 1994 assault weapons ban did not reduce gun violence, The Washington Times <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/aug/16/20040816-114754-1427r/">reported</a> in 2004.
“We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation&#8217;s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence,” the NIJ report said.

Blue Ridge Arsenal Gun Store

CNN: Stronger Background Checks Would Not Have Stopped Latest Mass Shootings

On Wednesday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) appeared on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;The Daily Briefing&#8221; with Dana Perino.
During the segment, Rep. Kinzinger discussed his support for &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws, as well as other policy proposals that he believes would potentially help curtail mass shootings. He also spoke about the dangers of overreach as it pertains to such laws, and the culture shift he believes to be witnessing whereby a growing contingent of younger voters might seek to have the Second Amendment overturned.
<blockquote>KINZINGER: I think, on the law side, you already have to be 21 to buy a handgun, by the way. And what&#8217;s happened is, it was 18 to buy a long-gun, really, before all these ARs and stuff started coming, so I think raise that to 21. You can have states with exceptions to say, for a certain shotgun, for hunting, and whatnot, and protecting your home. But, you have too many kids that have a grudge in high school, or just out of high school, and we&#8217;ve seen it too many times where they go out, they can&#8217;t buy a handgun, they buy an AR, and they come in and take that out. So I think that&#8217;s a realistic thing.</blockquote>
When Perino asked Kinzinger if there is legislation that Republicans and Democrats could both get behind, he replied:
<blockquote>I think the red flag laws. Every law that you put forward, there&#8217;s going to be some instance where you can say this is unfair to somebody, and a red flag law is just like that. There could be people temporarily deprived of rights unnecessarily, and we should have mitigating factors in place for that. But as a society, you can never come up with a perfect solution, so the answer to that isn&#8217;t to do nothing, it&#8217;s to say, look, if somebody appears to be willing to go do things like shoot up a festival in California or Dayton or somewhere in Texas, then you should be able to put a red flag on them and have that investigated. That&#8217;s not an ending of due process, it&#8217;s simply looking at it and saying, let&#8217;s make sure this is safe. That&#8217;s how we protect our Second Amendment right.</blockquote>
Perino challenged Kinzinger on how he would respond to Second Amendment defenders who might push back on his proposals:
<blockquote>PERINO: I think some people, defenders of the Second Amendment would say, but &#8230; the right is ours, given to us in the Constitution. Because some people abuse it, why do we then have to change our approach to that right? How would you answer that?
KINZINGER: I agree with all of the arguments, frankly. It is unfair that you would deny somebody a right by putting a restriction in place because 99.9% &#8230; I own an AR. 99.99% of us are responsible with these guns. But as a society, we can&#8217;t predict individual behavior. We have to make societal differences and changes, and this is one that I think can begin to make some of the difference.
But &#8230; attitudes are turning so much against the Second Amendment that the thing that we risk is that there will be a serious movement to not just create restrictions but to overturn the whole amendments. Now, by the way, your freedom of religion is protected by the First [Amendment]. If we begin to start to repeal the Bill of Rights, who knows where this whole thing goes&#8230;</blockquote>
Earlier in the segment, Kinzinger made a similar statement:
<blockquote>As a Second Amendment guy, we have to be willing to say what can we do to help alleviate some of these issues to preserve our rights, because this next generation, I&#8217;ve got to tell you, Dana, people think they&#8217;re going to become conservative when they&#8217;re older. They are very decided on this issue, and when they take power, or they take a seat from me or something like that, it&#8217;s going to be a very different outcome.</blockquote>
The congressman added that what progressives don&#8217;t seem to understand is that these shootings are also an issue of societal moral rot:
<blockquote>&#8230;the Left needs to understand, this really is an issue of the heart. This is a spiritual rot in this country, a moral issue, where we no longer value life and people feel like the only way they can be heard is to go out and make this name for themselves, and then the media doesn&#8217;t do any favors by publishing manifestos and publishing names.</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">WATCH: our full segment with <a href="https://twitter.com/RepKinzinger?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepKinzinger</a> talks universal background checks, and raising legal age for gun purchasing. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DailyBriefing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DailyBriefing</a> <a href="https://t.co/TlLuaFWtjI">pic.twitter.com/TlLuaFWtjI</a>
— The Daily Briefing (@dailybriefing) <a href="https://twitter.com/dailybriefing/status/1159175229622620160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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As Rep. Kinzinger seemed to express in passing, many conservatives are concerned that even at their best, &#8220;red flag&#8221; laws, otherwise known as &#8220;Gun Violence Restraining Orders&#8221; (GVRO), pose a threat to constitutional protections such as due process.
Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50404/hammer-conservatives-should-be-very-skeptical-red-josh-hammer​">articulated</a> as much:
<blockquote>GVRO advocates argue that the burden of proof must still fall on the party petitioning to confiscate the respondent&#8217;s firearms — but the procedural reality is that the petitioner is still the first mover and, after that initial move, the onus shifts to the respondent to demonstrate his innocence. That is hardly an exemplary means by which to dispense with a cherished constitutional liberty, and it is made even more egregious in the context of &#8220;emergency&#8221; ex parte (i.e., one-party) proceedings — which GVRO advocates concede will be a reality.</blockquote>
Further, Hammer wonders if conservatives would be comfortable with the idea of judges who may have political motivations adjudicating GVRO cases:
<blockquote>The potential for abuse here is astounding. In blue states especially, but also in many red states, anti-gun fanatics populate large swaths of the judiciary. These black-robed oracles will oftentimes be massively incentivized to grant very weak petitioners the GVROs they seek, due mostly to an innately held animus against gun rights.</blockquote>
Kinzinger&#8217;s proposal that sales of semi-automatic rifles be age-restricted to 21, which he wrote about in a recent <a href="https://medium.com/@RepAdamKinzinger/united-against-hate-how-we-can-sensibly-address-gun-violence-b99dc76d0238">op-ed</a>, is also somewhat dubious. According to a comprehensive data set compiled by <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQBEbQoWMn_P81DuwmlQC0_jr2sJDzkkC0mvF6WLcM53ZYXi8RMfUlunvP1B5W0jRrJvH-wc-WGjDB1/pub?gid=0&amp;single=true&amp;output=csv">Mother Jones</a>, out of the 114 mass shootings committed since 1982, only 16 were committed by persons under the age of 21.
Regarding a ban on high-capacity magazines, as proposed by Kinzinger, CATO Institute&#8217;s Matthew Larosiere <a href="https://www.cato.org/publications/legal-policy-bulletin/losing-count-empty-case-high-capacity-magazine-restrictions#full">notes</a> that aside from numerous other issues, including but not limited to constitutional ones, such a ban would likely prove useless in practice.
As an example, Larosiere cites the Virginia Tech and Luby&#8217;s Cafeteria shootings, in which men using only handguns reloaded an exceptional number of times, and still managed to kill 32 and 24 people, respectively:
<blockquote>In the Virginia Tech shooting, for several years the deadliest mass shooting in American history, the shooter changed magazines a total of 17 times during the course of his rampage, rapidly and frequently exchanging 10-round magazines that would be compliant with most magazine bans. Similarly, in the 1991 shooting at Luby’s cafeteria, which left 24 dead, the shooter changed magazines again and again, yet patrons had no opportunity to escape.</blockquote>
He does note that a shooter can theoretically be stopped in between, citing the 2011 shooting in Tucson, Arizona: &#8220;There have been rare instances in which a shooter could be stopped before reloading. During the 2011 attack on U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, for example, the shooter was tackled by bystanders after dropping a fresh magazine during a reload.&#8221;
Lastly, according to Gallup and Pew Research <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/02/24/588069946/millennials-are-no-more-liberal-on-gun-control-than-elders-polls-show">polling</a>, people between the ages of 18 and 36 hold approximately the same views on gun control as older generations. Kim Parker, Pew&#8217;s director of social trends research, told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/02/24/588069946/millennials-are-no-more-liberal-on-gun-control-than-elders-polls-show">NPR</a> shortly after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School:
<blockquote>What we&#8217;re hearing now in the immediate aftermath of Parkland might not be representative of what a whole generation feels.</blockquote>
&#8220;&#8230;past polling suggests that people younger than 30 in the U.S. are no more liberal on gun control than their parents or grandparents — despite diverging from their elders on the legalization of marijuana, same-sex marriage and other social issues,&#8221; adds NPR.
The Daily Wire reached out to Rep. Kinzinger for comment, but the congressman is out on &#8220;military duty,&#8221; according to his communications director.

Rep. Kinzinger

WATCH: Republican Rep. Kinzinger Backs ‘Red Flag’ Laws, Banning ‘Certain’ High-Capacity Magazines, And Increasing Firearm Age Limit

Democratic Party

Republican Party

The mother of the El Paso shooting suspect says she contacted police weeks before her son allegedly carried out an act of terror at a Walmart Saturday that left 22 people dead and over two-dozen injured.
As more information has come out about both the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings, reports of potential &#8220;red flags&#8221; have emerged. The self-described &#8220;leftist&#8221; Dayton shooter posted &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50292/dayton-attacker-was-hardcore-leftist-pro-warren-ryan-saavedra">pro-Antifa, anti-police</a>&#8221; messages on social media, kept a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dayton-shooting-hit-list-rape-list-bellbrook-high-school-classmates-say-ohio-shooter-connor-betts/">&#8220;hit list&#8221; and &#8220;rape list&#8221;</a> that he once showed to classmates, and had a glaring obsession with death and violence, as evidenced in his participation in a &#8220;pornogrind&#8221; band that sang about <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/j5yekp/exclusive-dayton-shooter-was-in-a-pornogrind-band-that-released-songs-about-raping-and-killing-women">raping and killing women</a>.
Any potential warning signs involving the suspect in the El Paso shooting — who authorities believe posted a manifesto on 8chan espousing racist and anti-immigrant views before opening fire on mostly Hispanic victims — were not so obvious, as he appeared to keep a rather low-profile and kept out of trouble with the law.
However, as reported by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/07/us/el-paso-crusius-gun-warning/index.html">CNN</a>, his mother did reach out to law enforcement weeks ahead of the mass shooting concerned about his possession of an &#8220;AK-type&#8221; weapon, though family lawyers said she did so solely on an &#8220;informational&#8221; basis.
&#8220;The El Paso shooting suspect&#8217;s mother called the Allen, Texas, Police Department weeks before the shooting because she was concerned about her son owning an &#8216;AK&#8217; type firearm, lawyers for the family confirmed to CNN,&#8221; the network reported. &#8220;The mother contacted police because she was worried about her son owning the weapon given his age, maturity level and lack of experience handling such a firearm, attorneys Chris Ayres and R. Jack Ayres said.&#8221;
The attorneys told CNN that the suspect&#8217;s mother was transferred to a public safety officer who said that, according to her description of the situation and his age, 21, her son was legally allowed to possess the weapon. The lawyers said she did not give authorities her son&#8217;s name, and police did not seek additional information from her on the call.
Whether the rifle that she was referencing was the one her son allegedly used in the shooting is not known, CNN notes. The Allen Police Department has no documentation of the call.
As for the suspect&#8217;s record, police told CNN that only three minor incidents were connected to him: &#8220;one, a false burglar alarm at the family home, another when [he] was a passenger in a bus involved in a minor traffic accident and a third when he ran away from home but returned 30 minutes later.&#8221; Police said they had no other documented contact with the shooter.
The attorneys told CNN that the mother&#8217;s call was &#8220;informational&#8221; rather than prompted by concerns about any threat her son might pose, Ayes describing the suspect as &#8220;not a volatile, explosive, erratic behaving kid.&#8221;
The suspect has been charged with capital murder and federal authorities are considering charging him with hate crime and firearm charges.
Editor&#8217;s note: The name of the suspects have been withheld per <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/27329/why-daily-wire-will-no-longer-publish-names-or-ben-shapiro">Daily Wire policy on mass shooters</a>, as it has become &#8220;increasingly clear in recent years that the value of public knowledge regarding specific names and photographs of mass shooters is significantly outweighed by the possibility of encouraging more mass shootings.&#8221;

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