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Following the shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita on Thursday that left two teenagers dead, celebrities and Democrats were pushing gun control, scolding politicians for refusing to take action.
Speaking on his program “The Late Late Show” on CBS, comedian James Corden said that  America needs to elect politicians with the &#8220;moral courage&#8221; to address gun laws.
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“We’re horrified that another place of innocence, learning and education has become instead a site of violence and trauma,” said Corden, as reported by <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-corden-santa-clarita-shooting_n_5dce83e7e4b0294748154172">HuffPost</a>. “Our hearts break for the families, they really do.”
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“Whilst we continue to elect politicians without the moral courage to address gun laws, these tragedies are destined to keep repeating themselves,” he continued. “Tonight, we grieve for the families of the victims and the community that’s been shattered. Tonight, we send our love to Santa Clarita.”
Corden&#8217;s call for gun control in the wake of the shooting was just one voice among many on Thursday. As reported by <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/democrats-call-for-stricter-gun-control-mere-hours-after-shooting-at-california-high-school">The Washington Examiner</a>, Democrats were calling for gun control mere hours after the incident occurred.
&#8220;The obvious point is that part of what we all have to say is enough is enough, and we need reasonable gun safety laws in our country,&#8221; Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said on CNN. &#8220;Stop with the nonsense.&#8221;
&#8220;We don’t yet have all the details of the horrifying events in Santa Clarita,&#8221; Mayor Pete Buttigieg tweeted. &#8220;But we do know that in America today, children are scared to go to school. Parents and teachers are terrified. And that can’t stand.&#8221;
&#8220;To me, it just says with complete and utter clarity, we don’t have a choice but to flip the Senate and to get somebody in the White House who is going to make this a priority,&#8221; said former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA). &#8220;So, regardless of your other political beliefs, if you think that the safety of our kids matter, then that’s to me what needs to get you to the polls.”
Celebrities from Michael Moore to Alyssa Milano were pushing similar gun control messages in the wake of the shooting.
&#8220;This week’s school shooting, 7:38 am PT this morning at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. 6 students shot, 2 dead as of now,&#8221; tweeted Michael Moore. &#8220;I have NO prayers, but MANY thoughts. We Americans are a strangely frightened people with 340 million guns in private possession. Madness! We Americans are a violent people. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill Indians. Lynch black people or shoot them in their homes. Invade nations. Assassinate leaders. A Senate that kills the Violence Against Women’s Act. Not one bishop in jail for allowing rape of children. The list is endless.&#8221;
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We Americans are a violent people. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill Indians. Lynch black people or shoot them in their homes. Invade nations. Assassinate leaders. A Senate that kills the Violence Against Women’s Act. Not one bishop in jail for allowing rape of children. The list is endless
&mdash; Michael Moore (@MMFlint) <a href="https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/1195077683048329218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Another day. Another school shooting. When will we demand meaningful change? When will our voices mean more to our elected officials than their funding from the NRA? How many children need to suffer? How many need to die?&#8221; tweeted Alyssa Milano.
&#8220;Not AGAIN. OMG. I am praying for all the people physically hurt and spiritually traumatized by the [Santa Clarita] school shooting. This MUST STOP. We must protect our children,&#8221; tweeted Debra Messing.
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2020 Breakthrough Prize &#8211; Red Carpet

Democrats, Celebrities Push Gun Control Following Santa Clarita Shooting

Democratic Party

Guns

Hollywood

Shooting

Former Vice President Joe Biden claims in a newly released campaign video that he met with the families of all the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, but a victim&#8217;s brother disputed that claim on Wednesday.
&#8220;This issue of gun violence has been a concern of mine for a long, long time. What really got to me though really firsthand was what happened up at Sandy Hook,&#8221; Biden says in the video. &#8220;I think I met with every one of the parents and or the families of those who were lost — little kids.&#8221;
&#8220;I met with the police officers who investigated that. They had great difficulty handling what they saw, just going in and seeing those babies and it just enraged me,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;When I sat down with those parents — I&#8217;ve lost a child, not to gun violence [but] I&#8217;ve lost two children. It is the most devastating thing that could happen to a parent. But I can&#8217;t fathom, fathom how they must have felt.&#8221;
JT Lewis, who lost his six-year-old brother Jesse during the attack, challenged Biden&#8217;s claim by claiming that former President Barack Obama had met with each of the grieving families — and not Biden
&#8220;This is a lie. Obama came to Sandy Hook and met with every family. Joe Biden DID NOT,&#8221; Lewis responded. &#8220;In fact, my family was not allowed on Air Force One because we refused to support Obama/Biden gun control efforts.&#8221;
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This is a lie. Obama came to Sandy Hook and met with every family. Joe Biden DID NOT. 
In fact, my family was not allowed on Air Force One because we refused to support Obama/Biden gun control efforts. <a href="https://t.co/SSIv7SpHVL">https://t.co/SSIv7SpHVL</a>
&mdash; JT Lewis (@thejtlewis) <a href="https://twitter.com/thejtlewis/status/1186995003307909120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Lewis later doubled down on his statement in a series of tweets criticizing the Democratic presidential candidate for falsely claiming to have experienced Sandy Hook firsthand while it was actually Obama who did so. He also harkened back to a previous claim that Biden made, where he stated that he met with the families of the deadly Parkland shooting in 2018. At the time, President Donald Trump was in office and Biden&#8217;s claim was quickly debunked.
&#8220;Joe Biden just claimed that he came to Sandy Hook after the shooting and met with every family who lost someone,&#8221; Lewis said. &#8220;It was actually Obama who did that, NOT Joe Biden.&#8221;
&#8220;Biden also thought he was VP when Parkland happened,&#8221; he added. &#8220;[Biden] is either a liar or he&#8217;s losing his mind.&#8221;
He also clarified that the Obama administration offered to fly the families of Sandy Hook victims to Washington, D.C. on Air Force One if they would lobby on behalf of gun control. Accordingly, Lewis, who is a staunch advocate of the Second Amendment, was not one of those selected.
Lewis announced in July that he would be running for a seat in the Connecticut State Senate in 2020. He stated that he was inspired to seek public office after Jesse was one of 20 first-graders murdered in the elementary school shooting in 2012.
Jesse is largely credited with saving the lives of many of his classmates. After the gunman&#8217;s firearm temporarily jammed, Jesse yelled for his classmates to run while he stayed behind and defended his teacher, according to law enforcement. Several students were able to escape before the gunman started firing again.
Biden&#8217;s campaign did not return The Daily Wire&#8217;s request for comment.

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Campaigns In Eastern Iowa

Biden’s Sandy Hook Claim Is Refuted By Victim’s Brother

Barack Obama

Joe Biden

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee debated several gun control bills. One of those bills, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1236/text">H.R. 1236</a>, the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2019, would allow certain people to petition a court to &#8220;[prohibit] a named individual from having under the custody or control of the individual, owning, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm &#8230; [or] having a firearm removed or requiring the surrender of firearms from a named individual.&#8221;
This type of legislation, colloquially known as a &#8220;Red Flag&#8221; law, has been a topic of debate for some time, but has recently bubbled back to the surface of public consciousness in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton shootings.
While some Republicans have joined their Democratic colleagues in support of Red Flag legislation, other conservative lawmakers and pundits have pushed back, detailing the constitutional dangers of such laws, as well as how they can be abused.
During the Tuesday hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) ripped into the bill, which he says would &#8220;invert&#8221; the principle of &#8220;innocent until proven guilty,&#8221; and violate not only the Second Amendment, but due process rights and property rights:
<blockquote>If the House Judiciary passes this bill today, we will have changed a fundamental and sacred principle in this country. In America, you are innocent until proven guilty until today. If we pass this bill today, we are going to invert the standard and say, &#8220;you are guilty until proven innocent, and you will be guilty without doing anything wrong.&#8221; Under this bill, you are guilty without doing anything wrong simply because someone thinks you might do something wrong – and who is this someone under this bill who can petition the court to take away your Second Amendment liberties? Who is this someone defined under this bill? Page 13, amendment &#8230; it says &#8220;family or household member.&#8221; Go down to subsection D. Who&#8217;s a household member? &#8220;An individual who resides or who has resided with the respondent during the past year.&#8221; A roommate who hung out with you for one month last year can go petition a court to take away your Second Amendment liberties. Some roommate maybe didn&#8217;t like you, thought you were a slob, whatever, can go petition the court to take away your fundamental right without you doing anything wrong – and oh, guess what? When they go in the court to take away your fundamental liberty even though you haven&#8217;t done anything, committed no crime, guess what? You don&#8217;t even get to be there; you don&#8217;t even get to defend yourself.
That&#8217;s exactly what this bill does, and Mr. Raskin has talked about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – I heard him on TV talk about [it], I heard him twice now in this committee hearing today talk about it, and that&#8217;s how we&#8217;re gonna take away someone&#8217;s Second Amendment liberties? This is the House Judiciary Committee, for goodness sake.
What other constitutional right can you lose without doing anything wrong and without your knowledge, and then have to go petition a court to get it back? Tell me what that is. Tell me when that happens. This bill is so wrong on so many – it violates fundamental Second Amendment rights; it violates property rights; it violates due process rights, and yet today, the House Judiciary Committee, with the storied history this committee has in defending the Bill of Rights, is going to pass this legislation. I mean, this is scary. This is a scary road to start heading down.
We all want to stop gun violence. We all know these terrible evil things that happen are just that, terrible and evil, but trying to do something that this bill seeks to do in this manner is so fundamentally wrong, and again, for the Judiciary Committee in the United States House of Representatives, who is charged more than any other committee in this body with defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to pass this, it&#8217;s just wrong.</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The House Judiciary Committee has a storied history of defending the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
But today, Democrats are using the Committee to violate 2nd Amendment liberties, property rights, and due process rights, all before you&#8217;ve done anything wrong! <a href="https://t.co/PI82VTAriK">pic.twitter.com/PI82VTAriK</a>
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1171563096328089601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
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H.R. 1236, which was originally sponsored by Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA), has 197 co-sponsored in the House, only two of whom are Republicans. The bill passed the committee, according to C-SPAN.
A related bill sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/506/all-actions">S.506</a>, was introduced in the Senate in February. Following its introduction, it was &#8220;read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary,&#8221; reports Congress.gov. The legislation has 28 co-sponsors, 26 of whom are Democrats, and two of whom are independent. No further action has been taken as of publication.

Jim_Jordan.jpeg

WATCH: Rep. Jim Jordan Blasts ‘Red Flag’ Bill: ‘Innocent Until Proven Guilty &#8230; Until Today’

Gun Control

Jim Jordan

Republican Party

The Trump White House is looking into a cutting edge but &#8220;controversial&#8221; proposal that seeks to prevent mass shootings prompted by mental illness.
With <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/pre-attack-behaviors-of-active-shooters-in-us-2000-2013.pdf/view">studies</a> finding that about a quarter of mass shooters have been diagnosed with some form of mental illness, Trump has repeatedly pointed to psychological as well as ideological causes behind many mass shootings. In his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50277/democrats-blast-nyt-after-outrageous-trump-speech-james-barrett">speech</a> following the horrific shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Trump outlined a series of steps his administration is promoting to address the growing problem, including &#8220;reform[ing] our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence, and mak[ing] sure those people not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement.&#8221; He added, &#8220;Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.&#8221;
One of the new ways of proactively addressing the issue that the administration is considering involves the development of a new research agency and the use of a technology that will help detect those suffering from mental illness who may pose a risk to themselves or others.
&#8220;The White House is considering a controversial proposal to study whether mass shootings could be prevented by monitoring mentally ill people for small changes that might foretell violence,&#8221; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/white-house-considers-controversial-plan-on-mental-illness-and-mass-shooting/2019/09/09/eb58b6f6-ce72-11e9-87fa-8501a456c003_story.html">The Washington Post</a> reported Monday.
The proposal, presented by former NBC Chairman and long-time Trump associate Bob Wright, seeks to create a new agency called HARPA to &#8220;come up with out-of-the-box ways to tackle health problems,&#8221; the Post reports.
In a three-page proposal presented to Health and Human Services Sec. Alex Azar and other administration officials, Wright introduced a plan called &#8220;SAFEHOME&#8221; (Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes), which researches how technology, including cell phones, might be used to detect warning signs of violence from those suffering from mental illness.
The SAFEHOME proposal stresses that all of the subjects of the research would participate on a volunteer basis and the program would prioritize protecting individuals&#8217; rights and avoiding &#8220;profiling of any kind.&#8221;
The Post spoke with some authorities on the concept and found some heavy skepticism, including from a former chief research psychologist for the U.S. Secret Service who warned against the possibility of false positives. Noting that three-quarters of mass shootings are carried out by people who are not diagnosed with a mental illness, she also pushed back on the premise.
But the lead researcher behind the HARPA proposal, Geoffrey Ling, suggested that while there might be some controversial aspects to the program, he hasn&#8217;t seen many better ideas for addressing the problem.
&#8220;To those who say this is a half-baked idea, I would say, &#8216;What&#8217;s your idea? What are you doing about this?'&#8221; Ling said in comments reported by the Post. If the program proves unsuccessful at preventing mass shootings, he maintained, it might end up helping address other issues, like suicides or child abuse. &#8220;The worst you can do is fail, and failing is where we are already,&#8221; he added. &#8220;You need to find where the edge is so you can push on that edge.&#8221; (<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/health/white-house-considers-controversial-plan-on-mental-illness-and-mass-shooting/2019/09/09/eb58b6f6-ce72-11e9-87fa-8501a456c003_story.html">Read the full report here</a>.)
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51456/ocasio-cortez-accuses-dan-crenshaw-lending-guns-james-barrett">Ocasio-Cortez Accuses Dan Crenshaw Of Lending Guns To Spouse Abusers, Criminals; He Fires Back</a>

To Prevent Mass Shootings, Trump Looks Into ‘Controversial’ Mental Illness Proposal

Donald Trump

Mental Illness

Trump Administration

Washington Post

Far-left activist David Hogg appeared on MSNBC on Friday night where he demonized white people and suggested that the United States has a problem with violence because the U.S. government committed &#8220;indigenous mass shootings.&#8221;
Hogg joined MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who asked Hogg what he thought about the &#8220;very violent culture in America.&#8221;
Hogg responded, &#8220;I think it comes down to reckoning with our history, and our history of white supremacy in the United States, and the fact that we live in a post-genocidal society, oftentimes that was orchestrated by the United States government and that, if we want to talk about mass shootings, we have to recognize the massive number of indigenous mass shootings that were committed by the United States government.&#8221;
&#8220;I think back to the Battle of Wounded Knee and the several hundred Native Americans, predominantly men, women, and children that were slaughtered by the United States government back in the 19th century, and how that’s never discussed as a mass shooting and that’s wrong because those people were not armed, and we were stealing their land,&#8221; Hogg continued. &#8220;I think it comes down to reckoning with the tough history and realizing that it’s okay if you recognize the actual history of the United States, it’s okay to hate that injustice that much of this country has been founded on and much of the oppression that this country was founded on. That doesn’t mean you hate America because it means you love your fellow Americans so much that you don’t want to repeat the same mistakes we’ve made in the past.&#8221;
WATCH:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Far-left activist David Hogg says America is violent because of “our history of white supremacy” and because the U.S. government was “genocidal” and committed “indigenous mass shootings”
Hogg says it’s “OK to hate the injustice” and “oppression” America was founded on <a href="https://t.co/CANcJRWKoI">pic.twitter.com/CANcJRWKoI</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1170525666992779264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2019</a></blockquote>
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At another point during the segment, Hogg demonized white people, suggesting that they were the primary drivers of gun violence in the U.S.
&#8220;White people feel that it is more American to pick up a gun because you are afraid of what you don’t know than it is to actually explore what you don’t know and have the courage to actually address that,&#8221; Hogg said, adding, &#8220;because I would personally argue that peace is patriotic.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Far-left activist David Hogg: “White people feel that it is more American to pick up a gun because you are afraid of what you don’t know than it is to actually explore what you don’t know &#8230; because I would personally argue that peace is patriotic” <a href="https://t.co/nud3PomA77">pic.twitter.com/nud3PomA77</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1170398033319620608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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David Hogg Blames Violence In U.S. On White People, Government Committing Mass Shootings

David Hogg

Progressivism

On September 1, former police officer and President of the Family Research Council (FRC) Tony Perkins appeared on Fox News to discuss the shooting in Odessa, Texas.
During the segment, Perkins, as well as pastor Corey Brooks from New Beginnings Church, made the case that a waning morality in the United States is contributing to incidents of public violence.
Following introductions, Perkins stated that &#8220;at some point, we have to realize that as a nation, we have a problem, and the problem is not the absence of laws, it&#8217;s an absence of morality. Really, the result of a decade&#8217;s long march through the institutions of America driving religion and God from the public square.&#8221;
Host Todd Piro then asked Perkins to elaborate on a recent op-ed in which he wrote about gun violence.
Perkins replied:
<blockquote>
Well, I&#8217;m willing as a former police officer and an ardent supporter of the Second Amendment, I&#8217;m willing to sit down with the Left who say, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to hear any more about your prayers.&#8221; Well, I agree. Praying alone is not enough. It&#8217;s time to act, and it&#8217;s not just about having a conversation about restricting those who should not have guns, criminals, but it&#8217;s also a discussion of the absence of a moral core in our culture today.
I mean, look, we&#8217;ve taught our kids that they come about by chance through primordial slime and then we&#8217;re surprised that they treat their fellow Americans like dirt.
It&#8217;s time we talk about the result of the Left&#8217;s systematic march through our institutions driving religious expression from the public square. I think we have to go back to the point where we instill in these children &#8211; at least give them the opportunity to know that they&#8217;re created in the image of God, therefore they have inherent value, and as the first president United States said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t think that we can have morality without religion.&#8221; We&#8217;ve driven religion from our public life, and we&#8217;re shocked that we no longer have morality and we no longer value human life.
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Piro then brought on Brooks, and asked him for his position.
Brooks stated:
<blockquote>
I agree a lot with with Tony just said. The fact that morality is at a &#8230; low in America right now, we have to do everything we can to make sure that we turn America back toward God. It&#8217;s unfortunate that in so many institutions, God has been forced out of the equation and as a result, you see individuals throughout America who have emptiness &#8211; whether you&#8217;re dealing with the kid in Texas or a kid on the block in Chicago &#8211; a lot of these young people have emptiness inside; they&#8217;re needing attention affirmation, and acceptance, and until we get that settled, and no matter how many laws we do, no matter how restrictive we make it &#8211; Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun laws, but yet we still have a high surge of violence &#8211; that is because we&#8217;re lacking in morality.
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When Piro noted that some in the mainstream press would argue that &#8220;religion doesn&#8217;t stop bullets,&#8221; Brooks responded:
<blockquote>
Well, I&#8217;d tell them that the legislation doesn&#8217;t stop bullets. The fact that peoples&#8217; hearts are not changed by politics; peoples&#8217; hearts are not changed because of laws; peoples&#8217; hearts are changed by God, and I really do believe that the lack of morality in America, the [act] of forcing religion into the fringes and not being a part of our society has really caused us some serious issues.
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Christian religious identification appears to be on the decline in the United States.
<a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx">Gallup polling</a> shows that from 1985 &#8211; 2018, the percentage of respondents who claimed to be &#8220;Protestant&#8221; slid from 57% to 35%, while the percentage of people claiming to hold no religious association at all rose from 8% to 20% over the same time period.
Identifying Catholics have also dropped by 6% (28% &#8211; 22%).
Gallup asked: &#8220;How important would you say religion is in your own life &#8211; very important, fairly important, or not very important?&#8221;
From 1992 &#8211; 2018, respondents who said that religion was &#8220;very important&#8221; dropped from 58% to 50%; respondents who said that religion was &#8220;fairly important&#8221; dropped from 29% to 23%; while respondents who said that religion was &#8220;not very important&#8221; jumped from 12% to 26%.
Gallup probed further, asking: &#8220;How often do you attend church or synagogue &#8211; every week, almost every week, about once a month, seldom, or never?&#8221;
From 1992 &#8211; 2018, &#8220;every week&#8221; dropped from 34% to 22%, while &#8220;never&#8221; jumped from 14% to 28%.

Tony Perkins On Mass Shootings: ‘The Problem Is Not The Absence Of Laws; It’s An Absence Of Morality’

Christianity

Tony Perkins

On Tuesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show,&#8221; Shapiro talks about the differences between mass shootings that are heavily covered by the media and those that are not. Video and partial transcript below: 
There was a mass shooting over the weekend, again, and this is happening far too often obviously. But this one was out of the news within 48 hours. This is always fascinating to watch because when a mass shooting happens, if it fulfills certain criteria the media are looking for, it remains in the news forever. If it does not fulfill the criteria the media are looking for, it disappears. Poof! It&#8217;s gone.
So if it&#8217;s the El Paso shooting, and it&#8217;s a white supremacist shooting Hispanics going aisle to aisle in a Wal-Mart, in the news forever. If it is a shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in the news forever. If it is a shooting of children in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, in the news forever. If it&#8217;s shooting in Parkland, Florida, in the news forever.
[However], if it&#8217;s a shooting at a gay club in Orlando, no, we don&#8217;t talk about that one anymore. If it’s a shooting at a church in Texas, we don&#8217;t talk about that one anymore. If it&#8217;s a shooting in Dayton, Ohio, we don&#8217;t talk about that one anymore. And this one here in Odessa, Texas, we don&#8217;t talk about this one. There&#8217;s no need to talk about this one. Why? Because there&#8217;s certain criteria the media are looking for.
One, they&#8217;re looking for a long gun — they&#8217;re looking for somebody who&#8217;s using an AR-15. Two, they&#8217;re looking for somebody who is motivated by some sort of white supremacist or a quasi-right belief that they can pin on conservatives. And three, they&#8217;re looking for some sort of mass shooting scenario in which the motive is not only clear and convincing, but the person who is at issue is not really on anyone&#8217;s radar so much. If there are too many red flags, then it tends to fall off&#8230; So you need a clear motive, &#8230;and the motive has to be some sort of motive that cannot be attributed to the Left.
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So if it&#8217;s an attempted shooting of congressional baseball players, people playing baseball who are in Congress, then that doesn&#8217;t make the news&#8230; The motive has to be a right-wing motive or something that can be pinned on the right-wing — if you’re the media. It has to be of a certain type of gun. If it&#8217;s a handgun, then it doesn&#8217;t make a difference. The long gun, that&#8217;s what you&#8217;re looking for. Those are the three motives they can attribute to the Right&#8230;
This shooting in Odessa did not fulfill all of those three categories. According to CNN, the Odessa police department on Sunday identified the man who killed seven people and wounded 22 others in a shooting spree in West Texas. Now immediately, as soon as the spree started happening, this was top of news — obviously, because it&#8217;s big news when someone goes on a shooting spree. This person, it turns out, however, was not motivated by any sort of right-wing beliefs. Not only was this person not motivated by right-wing beliefs, there are a thousand red flags — as one of the criteria too, is the media would like for somebody who didn&#8217;t trip off any red flags, because then it can&#8217;t be blamed on government failure. Then it can be blamed on the right-wing generally, it can be blamed on America&#8217;s tenor of violence. If, however, it can be blamed on the authorities missing it over and over and over and over again, then things get really awkward because the media don&#8217;t like that story.
This is what happened in Parkland. In Parkland, it was the authorities, led by the Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, failing repeatedly to target the shooter in that particular case or protect the school. The media just pretended that never happened and then there&#8217;s this big town hall on CNN with Dana Loesch and with Marco Rubio in which the right-wing was abused while Scott Israel stood there and grinned, with Jake Tapper presiding. That&#8217;s what the media are looking for. This shooting does not fill any of these criteria.
So according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/02/us/west-texas-shooting-monday/index.html">CNN</a>, this particular shooter had been fired from his trucking job just hours before the rampage killing. According to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/us/texas-gunman-odessa-midland.html">New York Times</a>, this person was arrested in 2001 for criminal trespass and evading arrest, both misdemeanors. According to public records, adjudication was deferred, though the details of the case were not immediately available. Also, his record included a 2017 traffic citation for a Federal Motor Carrier Safety violation according to Ector County court records. Apparently, the shooter was pulled over by Texas troopers in Midland on Saturday afternoon for failing to use his signal. He then shot at the troopers with what police described as an AR-type weapon and sped away. Okay, so they get one factor, but not the other two.
Now it&#8217;s pretty clear early on, according to media reports, that there were a thousand red flags that got missed. Which, again, counters why this thing should be in the news, according to the media. If there were red flags, it&#8217;s a government failure. That&#8217;s bad. What the media are looking for is: no government failure, an AR-type weapon, clear motive from the Right — or at least something given can be pinned on the Right — you know, something white supremacist they can pretend is a normal conservative position even when it totally isn&#8217;t. So ABC News reports that this Odessa shooter actually called an FBI hotline like 15 minutes before he went on a shooting spree.
<blockquote>FBI: He called a national tip line about 15 minutes before his encounter with the troopers. It was, frankly, rambling statements about some of the atrocities that he felt that he had gone through. He did not make a threat during that phone call. He ended that phone call. After the phone call, we initiated all our law enforcement procedures trying to figure out who he was, where he was. Unfortunately, it was only 15 minutes before the trooper was engaged.</blockquote>
Ok, so that was one red flag. Then there was another red flag. Apparently, CNN reported that this particular shooter [had] threatened to shoot his neighbor next month and nothing happened. At all. That&#8217;s a pretty big red flag there, guys.
<blockquote>CNN: He is a 36-year-old white man. A neighbor tells CNN that last month he threatened her with a rifle after she put trash in a nearby dumpster. She says that he would often shoot into his backyard from a structure on top of his house and then go and retrieve dead animals. She also tells us that she called the police after that incident last month, but claims they never showed up because the property&#8217;s location doesn&#8217;t show up on GPS and it&#8217;s hard to find. As far as a motive, that is still unknown, and the FBI special agent in charge warns we may never know.</blockquote>
Well, whoopsie doodle. So it turns out that there are all of these terrible red flags — everybody missed them — and that&#8217;s why you&#8217;re not hearing about the shooting anymore. It&#8217;s not going to be top of news today. If this were El Paso, it would be in the news for weeks. It&#8217;s not El Paso, so therefore it&#8217;s not in the news for even days.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Listen to full episodes of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show&#8221; on iTunes. </a>
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mass_shooting_texas_2018

SHAPIRO: The Three Criteria That Determine How The Media Covers Mass Shootings

Leftism

White Supremacy

In the month of August, mass shootings in El Paso, Dayton, and now West Texas left not only death and devastation, but also heartbreak and outrage in their wake.
Before all the victims were tended to, we politicized tragedies in a crude attempt to score political points. On social media, we rewarded Americans for lunging at each other’s throats with likes and retweets. We applauded each other for impugning false motives and dismissed “thoughts and prayers” from those with whom we politically disagree. In exercises of shameful straw-manning, we equated the values of the average Republican or Democrat with the political motivations of deranged sociopaths. We prioritized political victory over all else — even our fellow Americans’ well-being.
How did we get here, to an America that doesn’t extend to our fellow citizens a helping hand — but one that throws clenched fists and hopes to beat our political opponents into submission? More importantly, how do we fix it?
We must make a concerted effort to de-escalate our politics if America truly wants to heal. This is easy enough in the abstract, but the crassness and pettiness of our politics makes the task more difficult on a concrete level.
Our effort to de-escalate ought to begin with allotting time for “thoughts and prayers” and taking those prayers seriously. This contemplation helps remind us of the importance of what is in our fellow Americans’ hearts and minds. Their “thoughts and prayers” are important, too. Only then will we be on the path of constructive healing that brings the clear-headedness needed to identify our nation’s problems and propose possible solutions.
These tragedies ought to rightly call for Americans to share in their outrage and grief, and to use that commonality to unify in word and deed. But today, our French Revolutionary-like zeal to “do something” means we dive head-first into a toxic vat of reactionary outrage and panicked politics.
American governance is equal parts code and civil society — and for far too long, we’ve relied too heavily on the former and neglected our responsibilities to the latter. We’ve decried the institutions that made us a moral and religious people — namely, family and religion. In our moral depravity, we’ve managed to simultaneously denounce our Constitution and the American way of life that undergirds it — just as John Adams once predicted.
As our civil society has increasingly fallen out of style, we’ve tried to fill that void with more and more government.
Over-reliance on big government gave way to the idea that government could cure any and all of society’s ills, and created a political rationale I call the “big government binary.” If solving every problem requires more government action, and you’re against government action, then you must be for the status quo. In the case of gun violence, you’re either in favor of solving the problem — thus more government restrictions — or for the status quo, which means you’re for mass shootings and more massacred Americans.
When the big government binary labels those who offer alternate solutions as proponents of evil, Americans can forget how to coexist in the public square. Let this way of thinking creep into our political discourse over time — all the more as more horrific events become ripe for political exploitation — and it’s no surprise we dismiss “thoughts and prayers” when they don’t lead to our preferred political outcomes.
When our politics leads to inevitable government gridlock, American civil society is more often than not more than capable of stitching the tatters of our social fabric back together. Combating the scourge of violence in our schools, churches, and meeting places means Americans must purposefully re-engage with civil society. Undertakings by civil society to confront our nation’s problems, unlike a giant government program, come in many different forms. They include the high school student who raises awareness for mental health; the veteran who joins his local NRA to teach people how to safely store and operate their firearms; and the stay-at-home mom who volunteers to work at her church’s food pantry. Each is laudable in his or her own right, and we can either choose to respect each other’s efforts to strengthen civil society or we can shame them and continue to see our unifying fabric wither away into the ether.
This won’t be easy. It’s an intergenerational project that requires a resurgence of personal responsibility and public duty at a time when few will be incentivized to do so. But, if America fails to get it right this time — if we fail to make time to process our emotions, de-escalate our politics, and strengthen our civil society — our rancorous politics will only become more polarized. The brokenness that has pitted Americans against one another and given rise to a resurgence of white supremacist terror and extreme left-wing radicalization will only continue to rear its violent, ugly head.

Connecting with God

DEVLIN: America Needs Thoughts And Prayers Now More Than Ever

Prayer

Religion

Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) delivered a blistering rebuke to Second Amendment-hating forces in the media and Democratic Party on Saturday in response to the tragedy in Odessa, Texas, saying that he will not cave and surrender the rights of law-abiding Americans.
&#8220;&#8216;Do something!&#8217; is the statement we keep hearing,&#8221; Schaefer began. &#8220;As an elected official with a vote in Austin, let me tell you what I am NOT going to do.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">“Do something!” is the statement we keep hearing. As an elected official with a vote in Austin, let me tell you what I am NOT going to do. 1/6
— Matt Schaefer (@RepMattSchaefer) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMattSchaefer/status/1167989160507895809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent,&#8221; Schaefer added. &#8220;I say NO to &#8216;red flag&#8217; pre-crime laws. NO to universal background checks. NO to bans on AR-15s, or high capacity magazines. NO to mandatory gun buybacks.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">I say NO to “red flag” pre-crime laws. NO to universal background checks. NO to bans on AR-15s, or high capacity magazines. NO to mandatory gun buybacks. 3/6
— Matt Schaefer (@RepMattSchaefer) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMattSchaefer/status/1167989350014971904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;What can we do? YES to praying for victims. YES to praying for protection. YES to praying that God would transform the hearts of people with evil intent. YES to fathers not leaving their wives and children. YES to discipline in the homes,&#8221; Schaefer continued. &#8220;YES to supporting our public schools. YES to giving every law-abiding single mom the right to carry a handgun to protect her and her kids without permission from the state, and the same for all other law-abiding Texans of age.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">YES to supporting our public schools. YES to giving every law-abiding single mom the right to carry a handgun to protect her and her kids without permission from the state, and the same for all other law-abiding Texans of age. 5/6
— Matt Schaefer (@RepMattSchaefer) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMattSchaefer/status/1167989483234398214?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Schaefer concluded: &#8220;YES to your God-given, constitutionally protected rights. YES to God, and NO to more government intrusions.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">YES to your God-given, constitutionally protected rights. YES to God, and NO to more government intrusions. 6/6
— Matt Schaefer (@RepMattSchaefer) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMattSchaefer/status/1167989557415075840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Schaefer&#8217;s tweets came in response to the usual choir of voices from the far-left who demand action in the wake of tragedies, yet never have any solutions to address the problem.
Texas loosened restrictions on firearms on Sunday, which was planned long before this weekend&#8217;s tragedy.
The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/01/us/texas-new-gun-laws-trnd/index.html">new laws</a>:
<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>

Odessa

Texas Lawmaker Delivers Blistering Rebuke To Anti-Gun Democrats, Media

Second Amendment

On Saturday, Democratic presidential candidates pounced on the shooting in Texas that killed five and wounded several others as they looked to boost their campaigns.
The candidates, most of whom <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47464/heres-where-2020-democrat-presidential-candidates-ryan-saavedra">support</a> abortion up until the moment of birth, immediately seized on the tragedy and looked to score political points.
Beto O&#8217;Rourke, desperately seeking attention, used profanity in a tweet, writing: &#8220;We don&#8217;t know how many have been killed. We don&#8217;t know the motivation. But here&#8217;s what we do know: This is f***** up.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-cards="hidden" data-lang="en">We don&#8217;t know how many have been killed. We don&#8217;t know the motivation. But here&#8217;s what we do know: This is fucked up. <a href="https://t.co/NRvyPfUjiM">pic.twitter.com/NRvyPfUjiM</a>
— Beto O&#8217;Rourke (@BetoORourke) <a href="https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1167954084122353664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
O&#8217;Rourke also <a href="https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1167867903820980224">called</a> for confiscating semi-automatic firearms from law-abiding Americans.
Joe Biden tweeted: &#8220;I’m heartbroken, sickened, &amp; angry. Weeks after the horror in El Paso, another community in Texas has been terrorized by gun violence. Enough. We must end this epidemic. @DrBiden &amp; I send our thoughts to those affected &amp; thank our law enforcement who responded at great risk.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I’m heartbroken, sickened, &amp; angry. Weeks after the horror in El Paso, another community in Texas has been terrorized by gun violence. Enough. We must end this epidemic.<a href="https://twitter.com/DrBiden?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DrBiden</a> &amp; I send our thoughts to those affected &amp; thank our law enforcement who responded at great risk.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1167965983127945217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Elizabeth Warren tweeted: &#8220;I&#8217;m heartsick for the victims of this latest mass shooting in Odessa and Midland. We shouldn&#8217;t have to live with this near daily fear and horror. We&#8217;ve already lost far too many to gun violence—Congress must act now.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I&#8217;m heartsick for the victims of this latest mass shooting in Odessa and Midland. We shouldn&#8217;t have to live with this near daily fear and horror. We&#8217;ve already lost far too many to gun violence—Congress must act now. <a href="https://t.co/Hgdb7h6kpI">https://t.co/Hgdb7h6kpI</a>
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1167938741564071936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Kamala Harris tweeted: &#8220;Keeping the Midland and Odessa community and the victims in my thoughts and prayers. Grateful to first responders who ran into harm&#8217;s way. I’m sick of this. America is sick of this. We need to act.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Keeping the Midland and Odessa community and the victims in my thoughts and prayers. Grateful to first responders who ran into harm&#8217;s way.
I’m sick of this. America is sick of this.
We need to act.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1167940797703938052?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Andrew Yang tweeted: &#8220;The Odessa shooting is horrific – people shot randomly in a shopping center for no reason. My heart goes out to the families of the dead and wounded, including our brave law enforcement officers. We must do all we can to curb the scourge of gun violence in this country.&#8221;
&#8220;We are the only country that struggles with gun violence at this level,&#8221; Yang added. &#8220;Other countries respond to tragedy. We must as well. Our people deserve better than to live in fear and be struck down at random. We are better than this. We will do better for our kids.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">We are the only country that struggles with gun violence at this level. Other countries respond to tragedy. We must as well. Our people deserve better than to live in fear and be struck down at random. We are better than this. We will do better for our kids.
— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1167944491988176896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
John Delaney tweeted: &#8220;Another tragic mass shooting. We have to take action. Universal background checks, banning assault weapons, red flag laws and more. People deserve to be safe driving down the highway, going to church, going to school, everywhere.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Another tragic mass shooting. We have to take action. Universal background checks, banning assault weapons, red flag laws and more. People deserve to be safe driving down the highway, going to church, going to school, everywhere.
— John Delaney (@JohnDelaney) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnDelaney/status/1167967078923427841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Cory Booker tweeted: &#8220;A 17-month-old baby. It’s perverse that we live in a society where this is allowed to happen. My heart goes out to all those affected by today’s mass shootings in Odessa and Midland, Texas.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">A 17-month-old baby.
It’s perverse that we live in a society where this is allowed to happen. My heart goes out to all those affected by today’s mass shootings in Odessa and Midland, Texas. <a href="https://t.co/HgEnreuhSK">https://t.co/HgEnreuhSK</a>
— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) <a href="https://twitter.com/CoryBooker/status/1167959133326151686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Pete Buttigieg

Democrats Pounce On Odessa Shooting To Boost Their Political Campaigns

Andrew Yang

Beto O'Rourke

Cory Booker

Elizabeth Warren

Kamala Harris

[UPDATE 3]
NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/death-toll-odessa-shooting-rises-7-17-month-old-child-n1048711">reports</a> that the death toll has risen from five to seven.
[UPDATE 2]
Vice President Mike Pence stated the following about the shooting:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">VP Pence: I just spoke to the president and he&#8217;s at Camp David and he&#8217;s closely monitoring the developments in the investigation in the mass shooting in Odessa. Our hearts go out to all the victims, families who had loved ones lose their lives. <a href="https://t.co/4YS3j6EErl">pic.twitter.com/4YS3j6EErl</a>
— The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1167966714606182401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 1, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
[UPDATE 1]
The Associated Press <a href="https://www.apnews.com/ef232b9d892042afa447788af331bec4">reports</a> that &#8220;14 shooting victims are being treated at&#8221; Odessa’s Medical Center hospital.
Additionally, a man named Alex Woods recorded a video of the confrontation between police and the suspect:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: video from the shooting in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Odessa?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Odessa</a>, Texas (courtesy of Alex Woods on Facebook) <a href="https://t.co/AdnAU7m9Yb">pic.twitter.com/AdnAU7m9Yb</a> <a href="https://t.co/1tl5O66hXK">https://t.co/1tl5O66hXK</a>
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) <a href="https://twitter.com/AmichaiStein1/status/1167926158765117443?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
[Original Story]
On Saturday, a shooter took the lives of at least five people and injured more than 15 others near and in the city of Odessa, Texas.
According to Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke, at approximately 3:17 p.m. local time, a Department of Public Safety (DPS) Officer stopped a vehicle outside Odessa, Texas. The man driving the vehicle shot the DPS officer and fled the scene.
The suspect then drove to several other locations, where he shot multiple people, including reportedly a 17-month-old baby.
During the course of the crime, the suspect abandoned his gold Honda, hijacked a mail truck, and continued to open fire on innocent people. The suspect was traveling toward a movie theater called Cinergy, at which point he was engaged by law enforcement. A shootout followed, and the suspect was killed.
At a press conference, Police Chief Gerke stated in part:
<blockquote>We have law enforcement injured; we have the DPS trooper in Midland County; we had one MPD [Midland Police Department] officer and one OPD [Odessa Police Department] officer that were struck. As far as civilian casualties, we have at least 21 victims – 21 shooting victims – and a least five deceased at this point in time.</blockquote>
When asked about the identity of the suspect, Gerke simply said that &#8220;he is a white male in his mid-30s.&#8221; He did not provide a name. The weapon or weapons used in the shooting have not been identified.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mN7ciQBX73Y" width="720" height="385" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
While it was initially believed that there might have been multiple shooters, it is now believed that the suspect acted alone, according to the Odessa Police Department:
<div class="embed"><iframe width="500" height="394" frameborder="0"></iframe></div>
This was echoed by Gerke, who stated the following during the press conference: &#8220;I would tell people to still be cautious, still try to stay in their residences if at all possible. We do believe that we have the threat contained, but I can&#8217;t be 1,000% positive that&#8217;s the case at this point.&#8221;
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has released a <a href="https://twitter.com/govabbott/status/1167931119309737985?s=21">statement</a> offering condolences to the victims and families of the victims:
<blockquote>The First Lady and I are heartbroken over this senseless and cowardly attack, and we offer our unwavering support to the victims, their families, and all the people of Midland and Odessa. The state of Texas and the Department of Public Safety are working closely with local law enforcement to provide resources as needed and deliver justice for this heinous attack. I thank the first responders who have acted swiftly and admirably under pressure, and I want to remind all Texans that we will not allow the Lone Star State to be overrun by hatred and violence. We will unite, as Texans always do, to respond to this tragedy.</blockquote>
This is a breaking news story. Refresh the page for updates.

Crime Scene

BREAKING: Shooting In Odessa, Texas; At Least 7 Dead

Crime

Texas

On Thursday, The Washington Post published a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/22/white-house-considers-new-project-seeking-links-between-mental-health-violent-behavior/?noredirect=on">report</a> alleging that the Trump administration has been presented with a project that would use technology as a means of collecting data on human subjects in order to prevent mental health-related violence.
The outlet states that a new governmental agency would be created, called the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency, or HARPA, and that the agency would be Russian-dolled inside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
According to the report, the HARPA agency was initially proposed by the Suzanne Wright Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the process by which treatments and cures for various diseases are uncovered and implemented.
The foundation <a href="https://www.suzannewrightfoundation.org/about-us/">states</a> that HARPA is &#8220;modeled after the spectacularly successful DARPA unit at the Department of Defense, [and] would leverage federal research assets and private sector tools to build new capabilities for diseases that have not benefitted from the current system.&#8221;
Following the recent shootings in El Paso and Dayton in which 31 Americans were killed, the foundation once again approached the Trump administration, reports The Washington Post, offering a new program within HARPA, which would use &#8220;breakthrough technologies with high specificity and sensitivity for early diagnosis of neuropsychiatric violence&#8221; in order to potentially help prevent instances of public violence, such as mass shootings.
Robert Wright, the founder of the Suzanne Wright Foundation, is the former chairman and CEO of NBC, and is reportedly close with President Trump.
The program, according to anonymous officials cited by The Washington Post, would be called &#8220;Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes,&#8221; abbreviated as SAFE HOME.
The Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/08/22/white-house-considers-new-project-seeking-links-between-mental-health-violent-behavior/?noredirect=on">continues</a>:
<blockquote>The document goes on to list a number of widely used technologies it suggests could be employed to help collect data, including Apple Watches, Fitbits, Amazon Echo and Google Home. The document also mentions &#8220;powerful tools&#8221; collected by health-care provides like fMRIs, tractography and image analysis.</blockquote>
The project would allegedly be volunteer based, spanning four years at a cost of between $40 &#8211; $60 million, according to Dr. Geoffrey Ling, founding director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office and CEO of NED Biosystems.
President Trump has been focused on mental illness in the wake of the recent spate of shootings.
During a rally in New Hampshire on August 15, the president <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-vows-uphold-second-amendment-during-new-hampshire-rally-not-gun-that-pulls-trigger-1454656">stated</a>:
<blockquote>We are working very hard to make sure we keep guns out of the hands of insane people and those who are mentally sick and shouldn’t have guns – but people have to remember, however, that there is a mental illness problem that has to be dealt with. It&#8217;s not the gun that pulls the trigger; it&#8217;s the person holding the gun.</blockquote>
The Daily Wire reached out to several professors of law to get their input as it pertains to the ethics of this proposed program, as well as the potential for Fourth Amendment violations.
Professor Sherry Colb of Cornell Law School said:
<blockquote>You ask a very interesting question, and at the moment, the law is unclear. On the one hand, having the government gather personal recordings about you from inside your home seems like an outrageous invasion of privacy that ought to be considered a Fourth Amendment violation. On the other hand, the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that when private individuals surrender personal information to third parties and the government subpoenas that information from the third parties, there&#8217;s no Fourth Amendment violation. It&#8217;s called the &#8220;third party doctrine,&#8221; and examples include bank records and telephone numbers called (collected by—and then handed to—the government from the provider).
The fly in the ointment is that the Court recently said that gathering cell site data about a particular suspect&#8217;s whereabouts over time (or, technically, his phone&#8217;s whereabouts) does violate the Fourth Amendment if there&#8217;s no warrant, so the Court may be prepared to dial back on the so-called &#8220;third party doctrine&#8221; when it comes to invasive tech.</blockquote>
NYU Law School Professor Barry Friedman noted that while the previously described voluntary nature of the initial program wouldn&#8217;t violate the Fourth Amendment, anything involuntary would have &#8220;profound Fourth Amendment implications.&#8221;

Smart Watch

REPORT: Trump Admin Considering Program That Would Use Data Harvested From Smart Devices To Prevent Mass Violence

Technology

On Tuesday, the first day of school at Clark Atlanta University, one of a group of historically black colleges, a male shooter fired into a group of roughly 200 students, wounding four female students who attended either Clark Atlanta or nearby Spelman College. The shooting occurred outside the library, which is used by students from nearby colleges as well. The students were holding a party to mark the end of orientation, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/students-shot-block-party-clark-atlanta-university-65093996">ABC News</a> reported.
Atlanta police Capt. William Ricker stated, “It appears there were two separate groups that were targeting each other, and these people were just caught in the crossfire.”
<a href="https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/4-students-shot-near-the-atlanta-university-center-library/85-f49c796c-dbf8-4402-950f-d92ea9ceb076">11 Alive</a> reported, “Police said they initially <a href="https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/4-students-shot-near-clark-atlanta-university-library/85-f49c796c-dbf8-4402-950f-d92ea9ceb076">found three </a>women students with gunshot wounds near the Robert W. Woodruff Library at the AUC. Those students were immediately taken to Grady Hospital. That’s when a fourth student showed up to the hospital as well to be treated for a gunshot wound. Police said the victims are in stable condition.”
By late Wednesday, no suspect had yet been arrested. Clark Atlanta’s Office of Religious Life stated, “Evil will not have its way on our campus.” Clark Atlanta interim President Lucille Maugé added, “We are asking our faculty to be aware and prepared to support those students experiencing the effects of this incident.”
The university <a href="https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/2-shot-near-clark-atlanta-university-library-police-say/977876297">released a statement</a> saying, “One of our top priorities at CAU is the safety and security of our students. Here at Clark Atlanta University, and across the country, students have the right to gather together in celebration without the fear of violence. We will not stand for it in the Atlanta University Center. We are working diligently with Atlanta PD to identify those involved.”
Darryl B. Holloman, Vice President, Office of Student Affairs at Spelman College released a <a href="Darryl%20B.%20Holloman,%20Ph.D.%20%20Vice%20President%20Office%20of%20Student%20Affairs">statement</a> reading in part, “We are asking our faculty to be aware and prepared to support those students experiencing the effects of this tragedy who may not be in class, as well as others who will attend class, but will need guidance and an opportunity to discuss any concerns. Public Safety has shared the following advisory: Stay clear of the area where this incident occurred as it remains an active crime scene. There is no reason to believe that this incident represents an on-going threat to any individual or the community-at-large.”
Police spokesman Carlos Campos said, “We’re always very much aware when school is open at the campuses inside the city of Atlanta and we do make a concerted effort to work closely with the campus police, and make sure we properly patrol our areas.” Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms released a statement reading, “When parents across this country have entrusted the well-being of their children to our city, it is most important that we continue to work with our partners to ensure their safety … we as a community will continue to work with the Atlanta University Center and campus police, and all of our colleges and universities to take meaningful action to keep our campuses safe.”
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Atlanta Cityscapes And City Views

4 Female Students Shot At Historically Black University

Georgia

After allegedly shooting six Philadelphia police officers during an over seven-hour standoff from his apartment building, the shooting suspect surrendered Wednesday night after calling his lawyer &#8220;in a panic&#8221; and was taken into police custody.
On Wednesday, police identified the suspect as a 36-year-old African-American man from Philadelphia with a lengthy rap sheet dating back to when he was 18 that includes gun, drug, and aggravated assault convictions and kidnapping and attempted murder charges (his name is here withheld due to Daily Wire policy on mass shootings).
&#8220;The standoff began Wednesday about 4:30 p.m. when a Narcotics Strike Force unit attempted to serve a search warrant at a house on the 3700 block of North 15th Street,&#8221; <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-shootings-six-shot-suspect-maurice-hill-20190815.html?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar">The Philadelphia Inquirer</a> reports. After he shot six police officers, all of whom are expected to recover, authorities spent several hours attempting to get him to surrender. He finally gave himself up at around midnight.
<a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Gunman-Shoots-Police-Officer-in-Nicetown-Tioga-542724941.html">NBC Philadelphia</a> reports that around midnight, a member of the SWAT team shot tear gas into the suspect&#8217;s apartment; he soon walked out of his home and was taken into custody by police. &#8220;He had a gun on him at the time, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross said,&#8221; NBC notes.
Shaka Johnson, the lawyer of the suspect, spoke with the Inquirer Wednesday night, confirming that his client was the man involved in the shootout. &#8220;My client is requesting me to come to the scene,&#8221; said Johnson.
In an interview after the suspect surrendered, Johnson told <a href="http://twitter.com/GregArgosCBS3/status/1161865269129744385">CBS</a> that his client had called him around 8:30 p.m. &#8220;in a panic.&#8221; &#8220;I told him, &#8216;You gotta surrender, man,'&#8221; Johnson told the press.
The suspect was first taken to Temple University Hospital for evaluation, before being released to police custody Thursday morning, NBC reports.
Johnson says his client is likely to be charged with six counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault.
Those charges would add to an already lengthy list of charges tracing back to 2001, when the suspect was first arrested at age 18 for possessing a gun with an altered serial number. The Inquirer provides a summary of his numerous arrests and convictions:
<blockquote>Public records show that he has been arrested about a dozen times since turning 18, and convicted six times on charges that involved illegal possession of guns, drug dealing, and aggravated assault. He has been in and out of prison; the longest sentence handed him came in 2010, when a federal judge gave him a 55-month term.
And, his record would indicate, he does not like to go to prison. In 2008, he was convicted of escaping, fleeing from police, and resisting arrest. Along the way, he beat criminal charges on everything from kidnapping to attempted murder.</blockquote>
His 2010 federal prison sentence came after he pled guilty in 2008 to federal firearms violations for illegally possessing a Smith &amp; Wesson .357 and a Taurus PT .45 semiautomatic, the Inquirer notes. He was also convicted in 2013 of perjury and given seven years probation. But even on probation, he racked up more charges, including fleeing officers on an unregistered scooter, putting pedestrians at risk, charges for which he was eventually acquitted. He arrested again in October 2014 on charges of drug possession and false imprisonment but somehow managed to &#8220;beat&#8221; those charges as well.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50559/limbaugh-heres-why-were-going-see-gun-legislation-james-barrett">Limbaugh: Here’s Why We’re Going To See Gun Legislation This Time</a>

Philadelphia Shooting

Suspect Who Shot Six Philly Cops Arrested, Identified

Philadelphia

Over the weekend, 42 people were wounded and 5 people were killed in the Windy City as a result of shootings, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/another-violent-chicago-weekend-leaves-5-dead-nearly-50-injured">Fox News</a>. The deaths come amid a national debate on guns after the recent tragedies in El Paso and Dayton.
<a href="https://chicago.cbslocal.com/tag/weekend-shootings/">CBS Chicago</a> reports that last weekend 7 people were killed and 46 were wounded from shooting-related incidences. The prior weekend 8 people were killed and 39 were wounded. The weekend before that, 9 were killed and 32 more were wounded. During fourth of July weekend, nearly 70 people were shot, five of which would eventually succumb to their injuries. This trend continues week after week, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade.
So far this year, 309 people have been killed in Chicago, as reported by the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-homicides-data-tracker-htmlstory.html">Chicago Tribune</a>. That figures averages out to 1.6 murders per day since January 1st. The city is also on track to nearly match the body count of Detroit and Baltimore combined. If the average rate of murders keeps up, then 587 people in the city will die from gunfire in 2019.
The demographics of the deceased are not evenly distributed among the races. A preponderance of those killed are black, as 75 percent of the victims are African American. While Hispanics make up the second-largest group, they make up only 18 percent of all victims. The percentages are not consistent with the demographics of the city, as only 30 percent of the city is black. This means that black people are disproportionately hit by a factor of 2.6. Men are also over-represented on the list of the dead, accounting for 90% of the victims. These numbers are according to the most recent data released from the <a href="https://home.chicagopolice.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2011-Murder-Report.pdf">Chicago Police Department</a>.
Although these statistics are horrible, the homicide rate is significantly lower than it was in 2016 and 2017. The reason for this is mainly the subsidence of the so-called &#8220;Ferguson effect.&#8221; The &#8220;Ferguson effect&#8221; is the feeling of distrust and resentment towards the police by local racial minorities. This occurred nationwide after a white police officer shot Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri — a shooting the Obama Department of Justice determined was justified after an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50601/washington-post-shreds-democrats-claim-mike-brown-james-barrett">extensive review</a> of the evidence and 40 witness testimonies. The fracturing of the bond between local communities and their constables, along with federal pressure applied to local police, weakened the effectiveness of law enforcement. The diminished capabilities of the police created a vacuum that criminals exploited.
The country at-large witnessed a rise in violent crime, with Chicago especially experiencing a huge surge in gun-related homicides.
Chicago has been a violent city for a long time and is notorious for being a hotbed of illegality, going back to the days of bootlegging by characters such as Al Capone in the 1920s. A crime wave hit the city in 1965 and it never truly subsided. Shootings would reach their peak in 1994. The violence was so great that Congress was forced to act. The federal government passed the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which is known as the “1994 Crime Bill.” Since the bill was passed, crime has decreased significantly. While shooting remains the highest of any city across much of the Western world, the situation has significantly improved. (See the graph below.)
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Chicago&#8217;s top cop laments violence as 66 shot, 5 fatally, over long Fourth of July weekend

5 Dead And 42 Wounded From Shootings In Chicago Over The Weekend

Chicago

<a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-remarks-grand-lodge-fraternal-order-polices-64th">Speaking in New Orleans</a> at the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police&#8217;s 64th National Biennial Conference on Monday, Attorney General William Barr stated in a fiery pro-police speech that the Trump administration will propose legislation calling for the swift imposition of death sentences for mass shooters or those who murder police officers.
Barr stated, “We will be proposing legislation providing that in cases of mass murder, or in cases of murder of a law enforcement officer, there will be a timetable for judicial proceedings that will allow imposition of any death sentence without undue delay. Punishment must be swift and certain.”
Noting that the troops who fought in the first Gulf War were justifiably cheered and given ticker tape parades when they returned, Barr pointed out, “But when police officers leave their precincts every morning, there are no crowds on the highway cheering you. And when you come home at the end of the day after a job well done, there are no ticker tape parades. One reason for this is that law enforcement is fighting a different type of war. We are fighting an unrelenting, never-ending fight against criminal predators in our society. While there are battles won and lost each day, there is never a final resolution – a final victory is never in sight.”
Barr saluted the police, saying, “In the final analysis, what stands between chaos and carnage on the one hand, and the civilized and tranquil society we all yearn for, is the thin blue line of law enforcement. You are the ones manning the ramparts – day in, and day out.”
Barr offered his diagnosis for some of the most dangerous trends plaguing American society: “We live in an age now when the institutions we have relied on to inculcate values and self-restraint have been under constant assault for over 50 years. As a result, we see about us increased social pathology: boys growing up without fathers; alienated and angry young men; gangs engaged in the most brutal violence; mass shootings; increasing mental illness and suicide among young people; a drug epidemic inflicting casualties beyond what we would sustain in a major war; growing domestic violence; an increase in sexual assaults and child exploitation.” He continued, “And who is expected to deal with this? As other institutions fail and abdicate, who is expected to stand their ground? Who is expected to pick up the pieces? You are. The police. The thin blue line.”
Barr acknowledged that there have been abuses, but asserted, “… these are very much the exceptions, not the rule. If anything, I continue to be amazed at the professionalism of our police officers in the most extreme circumstances.”
Barr took a shot at the Obama Administration, positing, “On the drug front, we are facing a monumental challenge. To be frank, the Obama Administration showed little interest in prosecuting the fight against dangerous drugs. A tsunami built up and has been crashing over the country, bringing death and destruction. The death toll from opioids alone is higher than we would sustain in a major war. Indeed, in a single year, we lose more people to opioids than we lost during the entire Vietnam War … I think our attack on illicit opioids is building momentum. It is going to be a long difficult road, but we are gaining real traction. As you know, this Administration has sharply increased drug trafficking prosecutions, especially as to opioids. In 2018 we prosecuted 36 percent more opioid-related offenses than we did in the previous year. Fentanyl prosecutions were up 200 percent.”
Barr said bluntly, “Obviously, the head of the snake is outside the United States. Most of the illegal drugs coming into the country – opioids, cocaine, and meth – are trafficked from Mexico by transnational organized crime, particularly the Mexican cartels. We must destroy these cartels. This is a uniquely Federal responsibility. We have destroyed cartels in the past, but we let up so that other groups were able to take their place. We cannot do that again. I don’t underestimate how hard this work is, and how long it will take.”
He concluded, “Please continue to do what you do. This Administration has your back. May God bless you and keep you safe. And may God bless the United States of America.”
Video below:
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AG Barr

WATCH: AG Barr Gives Fiery Speech Defending Police, Proposes Swift Death For Mass Shooters And Cop-Killers

Department of Justice

William Barr

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;
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<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>
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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.
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<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>
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<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;
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<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>

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

Dayton Shooting

El Paso Shooting

On Wednesday, businessman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang released his plan to combat gun violence in the United States. At the top of the <a href="https://www.yang2020.com/blog/combating-violence-hate/">document</a>, the following statement is made:
<blockquote>Gun violence is a scourge in this country. &#8230; 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>
Despite his assertion that there have been 255 mass shootings in 2019, Yang never mentions the source from which he gathered his information. However, if one follows the numbers, it appears that Yang used the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) as his authority.
The Gun Violence Archive website <a href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/methodology​">explains</a> its methodology regarding mass shooting data as such:
<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>
While the Gun Violence Archive uses one set of criteria to define a mass shooting, other organizations use different criteria that can substantially alter perceptions regarding how common mass shootings are.
For example, Mother Jones, which has one of the most comprehensive data sets pertaining to mass shootings, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQBEbQoWMn_P81DuwmlQC0_jr2sJDzkkC0mvF6WLcM53ZYXi8RMfUlunvP1B5W0jRrJvH-wc-WGjDB1/pub?gid=0&amp;single=true&amp;output=csv">defines</a> the act as &#8220;an incident where four or more people are shot in a single shooting spree. This may include the gunman himself, or police shootings of civilians around the gunman.&#8221; Using this definition, there have been seven mass shootings in 2019.
In a 2015 <a href="https://www.hsdl.org/?view&amp;did=787620">report</a> on mass shootings published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), William J. Krouse and Daniel J. Richardson use the FBI definition for &#8220;mass murder&#8221; as a template for &#8220;mass shooting.&#8221;
<blockquote>According to the FBI, the term &#8220;mass murder&#8221; has been defined generally as a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered, within one event, and in one or more locations in close geographical proximity. Based on this definition, for the purposes of this report, &#8220;mass shooting&#8221; is defined as a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms, within one event, and in one or more locations in close proximity.
Similarly, a &#8220;mass public shooting&#8221; is defined to mean a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms, within one event, in at least one or more public locations, such as, a workplace, school, restaurant, house of worship, neighborhood, or other public setting.</blockquote>
There is no formal definition of &#8220;mass shooting.&#8221; However, in the minds of many Americans, a &#8220;mass shooting&#8221; is an incident in which one or more active shooters open fire in a school, church, or public space with the express and singular intent of killing as many innocent people as possible.
This unconsciously understood &#8220;definition,&#8221; which lines up closely with the Mother Jones data set, as well as mainstream media coverage, often conjures images of shootings with high fatality rates such as Sandy Hook, Aurora, Parkland, Orlando, or El Paso (to name just a few), which can lead to confusion when someone uses a different definition without offering clarification.
Andrew Yang might not even realize that this confusion exists, and may simply be using the data from GVA because it appears comprehensive. However, the connotations of his statement regarding the alleged &#8220;255 mass shootings in 2019&#8221; might frighten people unnecessarily, and lead to their being misinformed on a critical issue facing the United States.

Misleading Claim From Dem Candidate Andrew Yang: ‘There Have Been 255 Mass Shootings In 2019’

Anyone looking forward to seeing a bunch of MAGA &#8220;deplorables&#8221; fight back against blood-thirsty liberal elites will have to wait. After massive uproar on social media against &#8220;The Hunt,&#8221; Universal Pictures has decided to scrap the film&#8217;s release.
&#8220;Universal has decided to scrap the release of &#8216;The Hunt&#8217; — an R-rated satire in which elites hunt &#8216;deplorables&#8217; for sport — following a series of mass shootings across the country,&#8221; reports <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/universal-scraps-hunt-release-gun-violence-uproar-1230716">The Hollywood Reporter</a> (THR).
The move comes after NBC Universal Pictures decided to pull several ads for &#8220;The Hunt&#8221; from TV following the horrific mass shootings last weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Following that, the controversy over the movie then erupted into a maelstrom when it was revealed that the storyline will focus on elite coastal liberals rounding up Trump supporters to hunt them down like wild animals. Though the plot description sounded grotesque on paper, the trailer indicated something more nuanced by actually depicting the Trump supporters as heroes. Despite that, people argued the movie will simply cause more divisions and will do little for the sake of unity. President Trump even weighed in, arguing that the film would &#8220;inflame and cause chaos.&#8221;
&#8220;Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate!&#8221; President Trump tweeted. &#8220;They like to call themselves &#8216;Elite,&#8217; but they are not Elite. In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite. The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country!&#8221;
Conservative commentator Mark Steyn simultaneously <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/mark-steyn-the-hunt-film">referred to the film</a> as a &#8220;liberal tweetstorm fantasy taken to the next level.&#8221;
&#8220;I actually approve of making films telling stories about the way we live now — we live in an increasingly fractious 50-50 nation,&#8221; said Steyn. &#8220;It is actually the liberal Twitterstorm fantasy taken to the next level. On Twitter, they just destroy your career, get you fired, close down your restaurant — but this so-called satire actually wants to take it to the next level &#8230; take the cold civil war and make it a hot civil war.&#8221;
In a statement issued Saturday, the studio said that the film will be made available at a future time but will be on hold until further notice.
&#8220;While Universal Pictures had already paused the marketing campaign for The Hunt, after thoughtful consideration, the studio has decided to cancel our plans to release the film,&#8221; said the statement. &#8220;We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller, but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.&#8221;
A source inside the studio also told THR that the company approached the decision with caution but ultimately felt that shelving it for a while was the right call.
&#8220;This was a decision that the studio came to with The Hunt filmmaking team, but ultimately it was about making the right decision, right now,&#8221; the source said. &#8220;It was a tough call for the company, but studio leadership, led by Donna Langley, all agreed that this film could wait.&#8221;

The Hunt

Hollywood Pulls ‘The Hunt’ Movie In Light Of Gun Violence Controversy

Censorship

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.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<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;

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