The Morning Briefing: NRA Public Enemy #1 and Much, Much More

Good Monday morning.

Here’s what is on the president’s agenda today:

President Trump hosts the 2018 White House Business Session with our nation’s governors
The president receives his daily intelligence briefing
President Trump has lunch with Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt
The president meets with credit union representatives
President Trump meets with Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady

Florida school shooting

The Florida school shooting continued to dominate the headlines and social media this weekend. The more information that comes out about events leading up to the shooting, the worse this looks for the law enforcement system. Florida lawmakers have called on Governor Rick Scott to suspend the Broward sheriff. I agree, this clown needs to go.

“Sheriff Israel failed to maintain a culture of alertness, vigilance, and thoroughness amongst his deputies. Sheriff Israel failed to fulfill his duty to ensure that all of his deputies have the necessary active shooter tactical training. As a result of Sheriff Israel’s failures, students and teachers died,” the letter states.

Especially alarming was the revelation that the armed school resource officer spent four minutes outside the school listening to a maniac shoot up school children. David Hogg, a student who survived the school shooting, is defending the resource officer’s decision to shirk his responsibility: “Who wants to go down the barrel of an AR-15, even with a Glock? And I know that’s what these police officers are supposed to do, but they’re people too.”

Well, David, that’s actually his job and why he is the only one at the school with a gun. If he didn’t think he could confront a violent, armed malefactor then he should have taken up another career with a different job description. In fact, people like this resource officer and the incompetent law enforcement system on display this last week are why a large number of Americans would prefer to be armed and will #resist your attempt to leave them as helpless victims. One big takeaway from this entire tragedy is that we cannot depend on the “the system” to protect our lives.

There are two ways to approach this tragedy. One is to ask how we can we fortify our systems to make sure bad people do not acquire firearms thereby respecting the right to keep and bear arms. The other is to simply restrict firearms for everybody on behalf of the bad apples. The gun control crowd prefers the latter. I prefer the former because the bad apples are never confined by the rule of law.

Public enemy #1 the NRA

Lather, rinse repeat. It’s always the NRA’s fault. Not the FBI, which failed to inform local authorities they received two! tips the Florida maniac was going to shoot up his school. Not the local police, who were called or notified almost 50 times about this monster. Not the school system, which saw fit to kick him out for violent behavior but felt fine releasing him to menace the general public. And most importantly, not the actual maniac who brought a firearm to a gun-free zone and killed 17 people. No, there’s no blame there, just blame for the millions and millions of people (voters) who make up the NRA.

So now, the gun control industry is going after the NRA and have successfully pressured numerous companies to sever their relationship with gun rights group. People don’t join the NRA for discounts, so this is just a PR stunt that will come back and bite these companies in the ass. (The NRA responds.) The tens of millions of gun owners now know exactly who is willing to turn on them. And nothing, and I mean nothing, will energize the center-right to come to the ballot box in November like the shrill call for gun control.

Much of the narrative from the “Blame the NRA” circuit paints the group as some ominous third party that acts against the will of the American people by throwing money to thirsty politicians. Nothing could be further from the truth. The NRA is a formidable political player because they represent millions and millions of voters. No politician is going to take money to advocate for a policy that will get them voted out of office. It’s the voters who direct the NRA, not the other way around.eee

Here’s some more from David Hogg.

But there’s a much bigger problem in Washington where they say that they want a — they want — here’s what Dana’s been saying as a spokesperson for the NRA. She says that she wants to continue to pass laws, she wants people in Congress to pass laws that help out with mental health and things like that, and she says she can’t do that. Are you kidding me? You own these politicians. You’ve passed legislation that enables these bump stocks, which by the way aren’t allowed at NRA shooting ranges because they’re too dangerous. That’s how bad they are. But continuing on with my point, she wants Congress to take action and says that they won’t. Are you kidding me? She owns these congressmen. She can get them to do things. It’s just she doesn’t care about these children’s lives.

The above remark is from the transcript from CNN’s “Reliable Sources.” I will not link the transcript because it’s from a site I don’t want to send traffic to.

First, it’s very hard to have a conversation about firearms with people who know nothing about guns and know nothing about the firearm industry or firearm policy. Congress did NOT pass a law to approve bump stocks; that was an ATF determination and that decision is currently under review. (Are bump stocks frequently used in gun violence crimes?) The NRA doesn’t own congressmen, THE VOTERS DO. If their protection of the Second Amendment was not what the voters wanted, they would be voted out of office. Why should I, or anyone, listen to this new gun control spokeschild when he doesn’t even possess a cursory knowledge of firearm policy?

Here’s some more from Hogg:

“Look at Dana. Look at what she’s saying. Is she actually saying anything, or is that just a tone to distract the American public and distract her NRA members from the fact that she’s not serving them? She is serving the gun manufacturers,” Hogg said. “She’s not serving the people of the NRA, because the people that are joining the NRA, 99.9% of them are amazing people that just want to be safe, responsible gun owners. And I fully can support that.”

Then I guess this kid supports the NRA because the group is doing exactly what it’s membership wants and by the way, the NRA doesn’t represent gun manufacturers. That’s a different organization. Like I said, they don’t know anything about firearms, the firearms industry, or firearms policy and yet I am expected to take policy direction from them.

Related:

Sheriff: Of course I won’t resign

LOL Sheriff slams state rep’s calls for his removal over handling of school shooting: It’s ‘disingenuous political grandstanding’

Florida sheriff’s ‘dereliction of duty’ around shooting should be focus, not ‘law-abiding gun owners:’ NRA

Florida to launch probe into police response to school shooting

Father of girl killed in Florida shooting eviscerates the media for pushing gun control narrative

IDIOT Broward County Sheriff Won’t Issue His Deputies Long Guns To Defend Public

Broward County Sheriff No Stranger To Criticism For Past Handling Of A Mass Shooting

Businesses are going to love this! Teen Parkland survivor David Hogg calls for Spring Break boycott of Florida until gun laws change

Florida students return to school for first time after shooting

Must read: EMS first responder shares harrowing account of how botched Florida shooting response was

Students in Louisiana thought this math symbol looked like a gun. Police were called

FINALLY: The Schiff memo is released

On Saturday, the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) finally released their response to the HPSCI majority memo that was circulated a few weeks ago. I can’t do a better job than Andy McCarthy over at the National Review, so check out his analysis of the memo. Byron York at the Washington Examiner also has an insightful look the new memo.

Fortuitously, the memo was released on Saturday, just in time for the Sunday spin shows. Minority HPSCI members Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calf.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) hit the Sunday circuit.

“I was in the room. Devin Nunes was not in the room when Andrew McCabe was interviewed, and I will tell you that he did not say that,” Himes (D-Conn.) said on “Fox News Sunday. “He did not say that a FISA warrant would not have been requested but for the Steele information.”

And “Again I was in the room, Andrew McCabe did not say that the FISA warrant would not have been sought,” Himes repeated. I wonder if the HPSCI minority would approve of the release of the FISA application and McCabe’s testimony so everyone can see for themselves what exactly went down.

Schiff appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” to defend his memo.

“But it’s important for the public to see the facts, that the FBI acted appropriately in seeking a warrant on Carter Page,” Schiff told Jake Tapper. “They’re not part of some deep state, as the president apparently would like the public to believe,” he added.

Obviously, this story is developing. Stay tuned. I hear the DOJ IG report will be released next month and there will be fireworks.

Historical picture of the day: