A Saudi aviation student who opened fire on Naval Air Station Pensacola last December, leaving three airmen dead, had been in contact with the international terrorist organization, Al Qaeda, before the attack, the FBI revealed Monday.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/nas-pensacola-shooting-update">Fox News reports</a> that the shooter, who was one of several Saudi aviation students studying alongside American airmen at the air base in Florida, was known to have expressed anti-American sentiments online, but this is, reportedly, the first concrete link investigators have found to international terror networks.
The FBI found the connection after requesting help from Apple and others to unlock the shooter&#8217;s phone. Investigators, Fox News says, eventually &#8220;broke through the encryption&#8221; and discovered that the shooter had been communicating with members of Al Qaeda.
&#8220;The FBI, following the Dec. 6 shooting, had asked Apple for help in accessing data from a pair of iPhones owned by the gunman, as investigators had been unsuccessful in unlocking the devices,&#8221; Fox News said Monday. &#8220;It is not immediately clear if Apple gave in, or if the FBI was able to find another way to search the phone’s contents.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/18/politics/pensacola-shooting-al-qaeda/index.html">CNN reports</a> that the breakthrough ended a &#8220;standoff&#8221; between Apple and the Justice Department, implying that the technology behemoth&#8217;s cooperation was, ultimately, not required. Apple would only provide the Justice Department with access to the shooter&#8217;s iCloud account and other data stored on Apple&#8217;s servers but would not break the encryption on the shooter&#8217;s phone.
&#8220;Apple has said creating special access to its devices for the government was where it would draw the line, noting in January &#8216;there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys. Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers,'&#8221; according to CNN.
Back in January, just after the incident, Attorney General William Barr called the shooting an act of &#8220;terrorism,&#8221; suggesting that the shooter had jihadist objectives. Barr told a press conference that the shooter was &#8220;motivated by jihadist ideology&#8221; and that &#8220;during the course of the investigation, we learned that the shooter posted a message on September 11 stating, ‘the countdown has begun.'&#8221;
The shooter also, just hours before the attack, posted a message on social media referencing Al Qaeda directly. As he was rampaging through the air base, he recorded a video, in which he &#8220;made statements during the attack that were critical of American servicemen overseas&#8221; according to the FBI, per CNN.
An Al Qaeda branch claimed credit for the attack, according local news in Florida, but that is not necessarily dispositive of terror connections given that international jihadists regularly take advantage of tragedies to boost their presence.
If there does prove to be a concrete connection between the Pensacola shooter and international Al Qaeda, it would mark a big milestone: the first time a jihadist has carried out a deadly attack on United States soil since September 11, 2001.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

pensacola

SHOCK: FBI Discovers Pensacola Mass Shooter Had Contact With Al Qaeda Before Attack

Al Qaeda

mass shooting

Terrorism

A gunman disguised as a law enforcement officer killed 16 people in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Sunday, during a 12-hour rampage that authorities say is Canada&#8217;s deadliest-ever mass shooting.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police tracked the shooter in a small town in northern Canada for hours, finally killing him in a shootout on Sunday night, hours after he began his rampage, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/americas/nova-scotia-shooting-monday/index.html">according to CNN</a>.
Two of the shooting victims are police officers.
&#8220;The chaos began when police were first called to a property around 10:30 p.m. Saturday in Portapique, a seaside town about an hour and a half&#8217;s drive north of Halifax,&#8221; CNN says. &#8220;When police arrived at the scene the members located several casualties inside and outside of the home,&#8221; the head of the RCMP told the network.
&#8220;RCMP were led to several crime scenes miles apart beginning in Portapique and stretching about 60 miles to Enfield, where the suspect was found,&#8221; the RCMP added.
Authorities have no identified a motive for the shooter, who contained the murders largely to the town of Portapique. Although some of the victims are related to the shooter, authorities say, others appear to have no connection at all to the man, leaving officers mystified. It seems he began shooting in a subdivision close to his home but moved on to targeting victims &#8220;at random,&#8221; per police.
The suspect was dressed as a RCMP officer and, at one point, may have been driving a mock police vehicle though authorities say he did switch cars in the middle of the rampage, likely to throw off authorities searching for him across the 6o-mile range.
&#8220;This is one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province&#8217;s history,&#8221; Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil told media at a press conference on Sunday. &#8220;I never imagined when I went to bed last night that I would wake up to the horrific news that an active shooter was on the loose in Nova Scotia.&#8221;
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau echoed his sentiments and promised to &#8220;be with&#8221; the community of Portapique.
&#8220;To the Portapique community, we&#8217;re keeping all of you in our thoughts. And on behalf of all Canadians, I want you to know that we&#8217;re here for you &#8211; and we&#8217;ll be here for you in the days and weeks ahead,&#8221; the PM said on Twitter.
<a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/nova-scotia-canada-mass-shooting-rampage-20200420.html">The Inquirer reports</a> that this is Canada&#8217;s deadliest mass shooting, and its first in more than a decade.
<div class="card paragraph-spacing collection-item " data-type="text">
<div class="card-content font-flag">
&#8220;Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada,&#8221; the outlet said Sunday. &#8220;The country overhauled its gun-control laws after gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before this weekend&#8217;s rampage, that had been the country&#8217;s worst.&#8221;
Canada&#8217;s gun laws are particularly restrictive. It is &#8220;illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon in Canada,&#8221; according to the Inquirer, and anyone who purchases a firearm must endure an extensive training program, a &#8220;personal risk assessment,&#8221; and a criminal background check, and must provide &#8220;two references&#8221; and &#8220;spousal notification.&#8221;
</div>
</div>

Canada

Gunman Kills 16 People In Canada’s Deadliest-Ever Mass Shooting

Texas Governor Greg Abbott awarded Jack Wilson, the hero who stopped the church shooting last month near Forth Worth, with the prestigious Governor&#8217;s Medal of Courage for his heroic actions.
On December 29, an armed man opened fire on churchgoers at the West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas, for approximately five seconds before being neutralized by Wilson, who used a handgun he was carrying to stop the attacker.
&#8220;When faced with an evil that few of us will ever comprehend, Jack Wilson responded with strength, bravery, and with love for those in the church that day,&#8221; Abbott <a href="https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-presents-governors-medal-of-courage-to-west-freeway-church-of-christ-hero-jack-wilson">said</a> in a statement.  &#8220;The courage in his actions cannot be understated, and Jack is not only a hero to West Freeway Church of Christ — he is a hero to the entire State of Texas.&#8221;
&#8220;So many lives were saved because of Jack Wilson&#8217;s quick action, his calmness under pressure, and above all else his courage and his willingness to risk his own life to save the lives of others,&#8221; Abbott said before giving the award to Wilson. &#8220;Only God knows who is alive today because of Jack Wilson.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today I presented the Governor’s Medal of Courage to Jack Wilson. 
He’s the hero who risked his life to save the lives of others by stopping a gunman in a deadly shooting at a church near Fort Worth. 
It’s the highest award given to civilians in Texas. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/txlege?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#txlege</a> <a href="https://t.co/UPaWjmsjTi">pic.twitter.com/UPaWjmsjTi</a>
&mdash; Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1216831092092735488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last September, 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden attacked Abbott for allowing churchgoers to carry weapons with them in places of worship so they can defend themselves from attackers.
“Dealing with firearms, it is irrational, with all due respect to the governor of Texas, irrational what they are doing,” Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-attacked-texas-governor-for-signing-law-letting-churchgoers-carry-guns-totally-irrational">told</a> reporters on September 2. “On the very day you see a mass shooting … and we’re talking about loosening access to have guns, to be able to take them into places of worship, it’s just absolutely irrational. It’s totally irrational.”
The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/01/us/texas-new-gun-laws-trnd/index.html">new</a> laws that went in place in Texas last year include:
<ul>
<li>Allow licensed gun owners to have their firearms in their cars on school property</li>
<li>Allow for school districts to have more school marshals</li>
<li>Allow for some foster homes to be able to have firearms</li>
<li>Ban homeowners or landlords of rental property from prohibiting residents from having firearms</li>
<li>Prohibit residents from being charged with a crime for carrying a handgun during a disaster</li>
<li>Allow people to carry weapons in places of worship</li>
</ul>
Other Democrats responded to Wilson&#8217;s heroic actions by attacking the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.
Earlier this month, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren responded to Wilson&#8217;s heroic actions by announcing that she would not support laws that make it easier for law-abiding citizens to carry weapons to protect themselves and others.
“Will you support a universal conceal carry law for everyone in the country who’s willing to be licensed and checked by the government?” Warren was asked at a town hall even.
“No,” Warren <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/warren-responds-to-hero-stopping-texas-church-shooting-i-will-not-support-conceal-carry">responded</a> as she repeatedly shook her head.
Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, an anti-gun extremist, responded to Wilson&#8217;s heroic actions by essentially saying that Wilson should not have been the one who took out the shooter.
“It may be true — I wasn’t there; I don’t know the facts — that somebody in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people, but it’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot,” Bloomberg <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloomberg-on-hero-stopping-church-shooting-cant-let-the-average-american-have-guns-in-church">said</a>. “You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.”

Jack Wilson Greg Abbott

WATCH: Texas Governor Greg Abbott Awards Church Hero Jack Wilson With Prestigious Medal

Greg Abbott

Shooting

Texas

<a href="https://www.predictit.org/markets/detail/3633/Who-will-win-the-2020-Democratic-presidential-nomination">Top-tier</a> 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-michael-bloomberg-stand-on-the-issues-heres-everything-you-need-to-know">long been an adamant foe</a> of Second Amendment rights, has now come out with his latest anti-gun doozy.
In the aftermath of the recent church shooting outside Fort Worth, Texas, which saw an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-church-shooting-reported-in-texas-armed-churchgoers-appear-to-have-stopped-it-reporter-suggests">armed churchgoer hero take down the culprit</a> a mere six seconds after he initially opened fire, Bloomberg has seen fit to opine that we as a society &#8220;can&#8217;t let the average American have guns&#8221; in a &#8220;crowded place&#8221; such as a house of worship.
&#8220;It may be true — I wasn’t there; I don’t know the facts — that somebody in the congregation had their own gun and killed the person who murdered two other people, but it’s the job of law enforcement to have guns and to decide when to shoot,&#8221; Bloomberg recently said, as <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/bloombergs-texas-shooting-take-government-guns/">reported</a> by Conservative Review. &#8220;You just do not want the average citizen carrying a gun in a crowded place.&#8221;
That is a curious response, to say the least, to the revelation that the Texas church shooting hero was able to quickly neutralize the madman shooter. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-footage-emerges-of-good-guy-with-gun-taking-down-attacker-in-seconds">reported</a> on the dramatic video footage from West Freeway Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas that flooded national media after the horrific tragedy.
<blockquote>The footage shows a man dressed in black in the back corner of the auditorium talking to another man, who has been blurred out in the video. The alleged attacker then pulls out what appears to be a short shotgun and opens fire on the man with whom he was interacting.
The alleged attacker fires one shot at the man he was talking to before being immediately shot by a good guy with a gun. The alleged attacker fires off one more shot toward the front of the church before he falls to the ground.
Within a matter of only a few seconds, at least four armed people in the congregation draw their firearms and immediately provide backup assistance to the individual who engaged the alleged attacker.</blockquote>
Bloomberg, who is himself Jewish and has long been involved in Jewish/Israel-related philanthropy, also seems uniquely out of touch amidst an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/phillips-a-year-of-rampant-anti-semitism-in-new-york-city">alarmed</a> American Jewish community that seems increasingly interested in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-an-armed-and-trained-jew-is-the-best-kind-of-jew">arming itself</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/remer-its-time-for-jews-to-take-up-arms">en masse</a>.
Here is how The Daily Wire has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/where-does-michael-bloomberg-stand-on-the-issues-heres-everything-you-need-to-know">summarized</a> Bloomberg&#8217;s stances on Second Amendment-related issues:
<blockquote>Bloomberg’s anti-gun advocacy is perhaps the single most defining issue of his recent private citizen activism — and perhaps the single most defining issue of his 2020 presidential bid. He is very closely affiliated with and has <a href="https://everytown.org/press/new-gun-violence-prevention-group-everytown-for-gun-safety-unites-mayors-moms-and-millions-of-americans-on-new-paths-to-victory-state-capitols-corporate-responsibility-voter-activation/">helped</a> <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/bloomberg-gun-violence-moms-demand-action-volunteers">fund</a> Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, which are both groups deeply hostile to Second Amendment rights. He also co-founded Mayors Against Illegal Guns while he was mayor of New York City. Bloomberg supports <a href="https://www.mikebloomberg.com/policies/gun-safety">“universal” background checks</a>, which often serve as a rhetorical euphemism for the government serving as an intermediary in all private firearms transfers. Bloomberg believes that every gun owner should need a permit before making a gun purchase. He <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/cory-booker-wants-a-ban-on-assault-weapons-and-yes-it-means-putting-gun-owners-in-jail" data-reader-unique-id="49">supports a ban</a> on the undefinable sub-class of firearms referred to as so-called “assault weapons” — a line of thought that, if taken to its logical conclusion, could <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/42837/hammer-kamala-harriss-flirtation-banning-all-semi-josh-hammer" data-reader-unique-id="50">lead to the banning of all semi-automatic firearms in America</a>.</blockquote>

Michael Bloomberg campaign trail

Bloomberg On Hero Stopping Church Shooting: ‘Can’t Let The Average American Have Guns’ In Church

2020 Election

Anti-Semitism

Crime

Democratic Party

Gun Control

Gun Laws

Gun-Free Zones

Guns

Homicide

On Monday, former New York City Mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg tweeted out a wildly misleading campaign ad.
Above the video, Bloomberg wrote: “21 students are shot every day – because of Trump’s unwillingness to act. Between protecting the NRA and our children, he&#8217;s made his choice. Which is why we need to beat him.”
The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, features various clips of President Trump speaking about gun safety before on-screen text reads: “Here’s every school shooting since Trump took office.”
The video then lists hundreds of “school shootings,” eventually reaching the number 263.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QR4lf2K7rFs" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Here’s the problem – “school shooting” is a subjective phrase with no commonly understood objective definition. What this means in practice is that any time a firearm is discharged at or near a school, it can be labeled a “school shooting.”
One could argue that in the minds of many Americans, a “school shooting” is a mass-casualty incident in which one or more active shooters open fire in a school with the express and singular intent of killing as many innocent people as possible.
This widespread definitional perception of “school shooting” could be the result of the way in which the media covers mass-casualty shootings at high schools and universities such as Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Parkland.
Regardless, because of this perception, there will be some who see Bloomberg’s video and come to the conclusion that there have been 263 mass-casualty shootings at schools and universities since President Trump came into office.
This is not true.
Among the “school shootings” listed in Bloomberg’s video are multiple suicides (at least one of which just happened to take place in a school parking lot) and unintentional firearm discharges. A mass-casualty event like the May 2018 <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/18/us/texas-school-shooting/index.html">Santa Fe High School shooting</a> in which ten people were murdered is listed alongside these other incidents as though in the same vein.
Here are some of the “school shootings” in the Bloomberg list:
<ul>
<li>In February 2017, a man allegedly kidnapped his former girlfriend, and drove her to a parking lot at Maplewood Middle School in St. Paul, Minnesota. When she escaped from the vehicle, he proceeded to shoot himself in the head, reports <a href="http://www.startribune.com/police-investigating-kidnapping-suicide-outside-north-st-paul-school/414181103/?refresh=true">Star Tribune.</a></li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In May 2018, one woman was injured and another killed following a verbal confrontation that turned violent in a parking lot at Mount Zion High School in Jonesboro, Georgia, according to <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/breaking-multiple-people-shot-mount-zion-high-school-police-say/fKmGV5rP6tZA1QthMTtyCN/">AJC</a>.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In September 2018, a student at Appling County High School in Baxley, Georgia, was found in a restroom with a gunshot wound, reports <a href="https://www.wsav.com/news/local-news/update-student-found-shot-at-appling-co-hs-declared-dead-coroner-says/">WSAV</a>. He later died.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In November 2018, a school resource officer committed suicide by firearm while in his office at Eastern Technical High School in Baltimore, Maryland, according to <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-co-officer-suicide20181113-story.html">The Baltimore Sun</a>.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In December 2018, a student at Jefferson High School in Jefferson, Oregon, reportedly took his own life using a firearm, according to the <a href="https://democratherald.com/news/local/sheriff-death-of-teen-in-jefferson-apparently-suicide/article_3eb0d660-a01e-55d9-8d38-076025be56cb.html">Albany Democrat-Herald</a>.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In March 2019, police confronted a man who was reported to have been sleeping in the Fine Arts building at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Police engaged the man, who was allegedly carrying a weapon. The physical altercation ended when police shot and killed the man, reports <a href="https://fox6now.com/2019/05/31/officer-involved-shooting-at-uw-milwaukee-ruled-a-justifiable-use-of-potentially-deadly-force/">FOX6</a>.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In August 2019, “a man allegedly fired at least three shots into the ground” on the football field at Roosevelt High School in Long Island, New York, during “a dispute with landscapers over trees that had fallen across his property line,” according to <a href="https://abc7ny.com/police-man-fires-shots-on-li-school-grounds-in-dispute-over-trees/5495839/">WABC</a>.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In August 2019, a student at Hollenbeck Middle School was hit with what appears to have been a stray bullet. School Police Chief Steven Zipperman claims no students or faculty noticed anything out of the ordinary at the time of the incident. The principal of the school later noted that the bullet came from “off-campus,” reports <a href="https://www.foxla.com/news/lausd-confirms-middle-school-student-in-boyle-heights-was-shot-in-the-jaw-during-nutrition">FOX11</a>.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>In October 2019, a student at the University of Georgia shot himself in the leg by accident with a firearm, according to college newspaper <a href="https://www.redandblack.com/uganews/update-more-details-emerge-about-uga-student-who-accidentally-shot/article_96d91b1c-ea05-11e9-8e29-3fd74716ec66.html">The Red and Black</a>.</li>
</ul>
The incidents above are listed in the video alongside mass-casualty shootings. It appears likely that Bloomberg is getting his information from <a href="https://everytown.org/press/new-gun-violence-prevention-group-everytown-for-gun-safety-unites-mayors-moms-and-millions-of-americans-on-new-paths-to-victory-state-capitols-corporate-responsibility-voter-activation/">Everytown for Gun Safety</a> – an organization he founded.
[In the video, the “shootings” appear just as school names. Not definitively knowing the source of Bloomberg’s information, I used a search engine to cross-reference the school names with news articles pertaining to shootings.]
Democratic candidate Andrew Yang made a similarly misleading gun crimes claim in August when he released his plan to combat gun violence.
In the plan, it states:
<blockquote>Gun violence is a scourge in this country. … After the tragedies in El Paso and Dayton, there have been 255 mass shootings in 2019 – more than days have passed in the year. Our children are twice as likely to die from gun violence than cancer.</blockquote>
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dem-presidential-candidate-andrew-yang-claims-frank-camp">reported</a>, Yang didn’t cite the source from which he obtained his information, however, the data line up identically with those of the Gun Violence Archive (GVA).
GVA’s criteria for what constitutes a mass shooting is different than what is established by an organization like Mother Jones, which has a stricter set of guidelines.
According to GVA:
<blockquote>GVA uses a purely statistical threshold to define mass shooting based ONLY on the numeric value of 4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter. GVA does not parse the definition to remove any subcategory of shooting. To that end we don’t exclude, set apart, caveat, or differentiate victims based upon the circumstances in which they were shot. GVA believes that equal importance is given to the counting of those injured as well as killed in a mass shooting incident.</blockquote>
Mother Jones, which has one of the most comprehensive data sets on mass shootings available online, has a different set of criteria.
“Dating back to at least 2005, the FBI and leading criminologists essentially defined a mass shooting as a single attack in a public place in which four or more victims were killed. We adopted that baseline for fatalities when we gathered data in 2012 on three decades worth of cases,” <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map/">states</a> the website.
“In January 2013, a mandate for federal investigation of mass shootings authorized by President Barack Obama lowered that baseline to three or more victims killed. Accordingly, we include attacks dating from January 2013 in which three or more victims were killed,” Mother Jones continues, adding that their estimate may appear conservative because they don’t include shootings that result in fewer fatalities.
As a result of Yang’s usage of the GVA data without citation and explanation, his message about mass shootings is, intentionally or not, misleading.

Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg Ad Makes Wildly Misleading Claim: 263 School Shootings ‘Since Trump Took Office’

Michael Bloomberg

school shooting