Free Republic

Corporate America is taking on the country’s most powerful gun lobby group. In the wake of the mass shooting in a Florida high school last week, companies are dropping their partnerships with the National Rifle Association (NRA), which touts 5 million members. According to a list compiled by ThinkProgress, an advocacy organization, there are at least 22 corporations, including car-rental companies and financial institutions that have been offering discounts to NRA members. As the #BoycottNRA movement picks up steam, some companies have cut ties.

When Coral Springs police officers arrived at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14 in the midst of the school shooting crisis, many officers were surprised to find not only that Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, the armed school resource officer, had not entered the building, but that three other Broward County Sheriff's deputies were also outside the school and had not entered, Coral Springs sources tell CNN. The deputies had their pistols drawn and were behind their vehicles, the sources said, and not one of them had gone into the school.

FULL TITLE: When Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel Was Accused of Corruption, He Responded: 'Lions Don't Care About the Opinions of Sheep' Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel—the man whose agency failed to prevent the Parkland massacre despite having received a tip last November that Nikolas Cruz was plotting a mass shooting—has been accused of public corruption. Two years ago, the Sun Sentinel reported that Israel was rewarding top political supporters by giving them and their family members cushy jobs doing public relations and community outreach for the Broward County Sheriff's Office. One such position, outreach manager, paid out a salary...

In the wake of this month’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Detroit Police Chief James Craig said he is open to the idea of some teachers being armed with guns in classrooms. “Certainly, there should be a very thorough vetting process,” ... “When I talk about vetting, I mean someone who is trained, someone who is responsible, the rigors associated with someone in a school environment. It could be an ex-military, ex-police officer; some of those folks are teachers, as an example.” Craig likened the vetting process to that of airlines following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, in that...

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that it’s time to discuss what the Second Amendment “means in the modern world” in light of last week’s mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Ms. Rice, who served under President George W. Bush, said that while the Second Amendment remains “indivisible,” she doesn’t think civilians should have access to guns like the AR-15, which was used by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz to fatally shoot 17 students and teachers on Valentine’s Day. “I think it is time to have a conversation about what the right to bear arms means in the modern world,”...

RUSH: Hey, quick question for those of you just tuning in to the program today: How many of you saw Trump’s CPAC speech? He went about an hour and 20 minutes. It was very raucous. But how many of you saw it? I, of course, watched it here. And you know, folks, I have to tell you. It was so great — and there’s about a thousand of ’em in there. It was so great seeing a bunch of young people cheering the president at a conference instead of watching him on CNN. It was just so much more pleasant...

A report released Friday claims four of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel’s deputies waited outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School while the attack was occurring. On February 22 Breitbart News reported that one deputy resigned after it was learned that he was on scene but failed to control Nikolas Cruz. Sheriff Israel told ABC 13 that video shows the deputy, Scott Peterson, “arrive at the west side of Building 12” and “take a position” outside the school — but never go inside. The sheriff’s office moved to suspend Peterson, who resigned before the suspension could take place. Now CNN reports...

Dr. John Lott from the Crime Prevention Research Center and Igor Volsky with the Center for American Progress debated how to stop mass public shootings and the role of gun control. The discussion took place on Laura Ingraham’s show.

U.S.—Sources across the United States confirmed Friday that the cross-section of citizenry which has been comparing President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler for two years has begun to demand that he take guns away from all citizens at once. Passionate protests and rallies recently all demanded the “dangerous madman” confiscate everybody’s firearms. “Trump is a dangerous tyrant, so he should be the only one with deadly weapons!” one woman screamed at an anti-gun protest. “People obviously can’t be trusted with them. Instead, we need to entrust them only to the most powerful man on the planet, who has proven time...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she is not intimated by the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre after he singled her and other liberal Democrats out in a speech Thursday smearing the tide of "socialism." Furthermore, in the Massachusetts senator's tweet rager Thursday evening, she pledged to fight the NRA "at every turn" in advocating for stricter gun control measures and also plugged a fundraising link to her re-election campaign. "Wayne LaPierre can call me whatever he wants. He doesn't scare me," Warren said hours after LaPierre's speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. "You know what scares Wayne LaPierre? That...

Speaking at a press conference, Florida Governor Rick Scott has unveiled his plan to prevent another school attack like the one that claimed 17 lives in Parkland, Florida. Governor Scott pledged his support for a “gun violence restraining order,” raising the minimum age to purchase any type of firearm to 21, banning bump fire stocks and putting a police officer in every school.

With stunning poise and steely confidence, Cameron Kasky, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, confronted U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., live on CNN on Wednesday evening. “Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the (National Rifle Association)?” he demanded. In the arena where the town hall event was held, the crowd of some 7,000 — most of them connected to the school community that was shattered when a gunman killed 17 during a Feb. 14 rampage — stood and cheered for more than 20 seconds. After a bit of back-and-forth,...

It’s technically FLOTUS Friday.  But Melania has wisely chosen to stay below the radar as Big Media and the Left (but I repeat myself) are loaded for bear – metaphorically speaking, as we all know how they feel about the right to bear arms – and have her husband in the cross hairs. I note there will be no lefty uproar about saying that as “cross hairs” are only “inflammatory political rhetoric” when talking about liberals. To say the media has behaved reprehensibly during the past week in their attempt to advance their gun control “debate” is a given. But...

The mass shooting that killed 17 students and staff members at a Florida high school thrusts the Broward County school system into a hornet's nest of legal issues including the complexities of a crime scene, the privacy of student records, and the threat of liability. And it's fueling what could become a national debate over the proper response by school and mental health professionals for those deemed at risk of violence. (Read more at the link)

I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue - I hope! 8:13 AM - 22 Feb 2018

One week after a mass shooter Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, Broward's top cop on Thursday revealed a stunning series of failures by the sheriff’s department. A school campus cop heard the gunfire, rushed to the building but never went inside – instead waiting outside for another four agonizing minutes as Cruz continued the slaughter.

RUSH: No, I wanted to make a point. The media early on was portraying Nikolas Cruz as a victim of bullying. He was portrayed as being bullied — that he was mocked, that he was laughed at — and then the media dropped that. That characterization of the shooter being bullied and mocked, laughed at, humiliated? That didn’t last in the Drive-By Media very long, because the media realized, “That’s not gonna help us here, ’cause somebody had to be doing the bullying. Somebody had to be doing the laughing. Somebody had to be making fun of the guy.” I...

President Trump on Thursday warned about the influence of violence in movies while discussing school safety and mass shootings, suggesting it could be a contributing factor to recent mass shootings. Trump made the comments during a meeting at the White House on school safety attended by lawmakers and top administration officials, where the president addressed a number of issues in addition to gun violence. "We have to look at the internet, because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed, and we have to do something about maybe what...

"...Although there is a lack of clarity on what Trump means by “comprehensive background checks,” as to whether he is referencing an overhaul of our current system or is pushing the universal background checks lauded by Democrats, it is important to note that this represents a turning point which opens the door to a national gun registry. This is so because universal background checks are not enforceable without a gun registry.

Eight people were killed and at least 30 others have been wounded in Presidents Day weekend shootings across Chicago. The most recent fatal shooting...