1) #BoycottNRA is possibly the DUMBEST hashtag on Twitter right now. Let me explain why.
2) The school shooting was caused in part by a fail cascade of personal responsibility within the local government, the school, and law enforcement.
3) The sherriff's office had multiple warnings, including one in November, about the possibility of him becoming a school shooter. miamiherald.com/news/local/com…
4) The CCTVs on campus had a 30 minute tape delay to specifically destroy evidence of student criminality, to protect the school from having students arrested. As a result, the shooter was almost able to escape by BLENDING IN WITH OTHER STUDENTS. theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/02/23/bro…
5) Because of the tape delay police that responded couldn't track the shooter; they were watching old footage.
6) "Since the Columbine school shooting that left 12 dead in 1999, cops have been trained not to wait for heavily armed SWAT officers but to enter buildings to find and kill the threat." miamiherald.com/news/local/com…
7) The on campus officer specifically went against his training and instead took a defensive position and waited until the shooting stopped.
8) A defensive position OUTSIDE THE BUILDING I might add.
9) The school itself had established policies to prevent students from getting arrested, and prevented the shooter from having been arrested on multiple occasions as a result.
10) "While other districts have amended their discipline codes, prohibited arrests in some circumstances, and developed alternatives to suspension, Broward was able to do all these things at once" prospect.org/article/revers…
11) Nicholas Cruz was shown to have been repeatedly very violent at home when 911 was called. cnn.com/2018/02/16/us/…
12) So violent, that the school that was doing everything it can to avoid having him arrested expelled him and banned him from coming on campus.
13) Florida's assault and battery laws; note how easy it would be to go to felony level, which would disqualify someone from buying a gun. statelaws.findlaw.com/florida-law/fl…
14) "the host family who had taken him in... warned local law enforcement that the 19-year-old had "used a gun against people before" and "has put the gun to others' heads in the past," according to records obtained by CNN." cnn.com/2018/02/16/us/…
15) He should have been charged with a felony multiple times, in incidents law enforcement was informed about. He should not have been allowed to own guns.
16) That's BEFORE we talk about mental health. That's BEFORE we talk about the fact that the police never arrested and charged him with anything, that the school specifically had policies to prevent the police from doing this that the local sheriff's office were complicit in.
17) Want to know who is NOT involved in any of this? The @NRA
18) The school wouldn't let him get arrested for the multiple at minimum misdemeanors he committed to get expelled. The police wouldn't arrest him. The police never responded to reports of felony-level assaults and intents to commit the school shooting.
19) The FBI didn't bother investigating the desperate reports of his behavior and threats to others, the officer at school waited outside the building for the shooting to stop instead of following through on his training to respond to the threat.
20) But, #BoycottNRA is trending. Which is stupid on an even more BASIC level. To BOYCOTT something, you have to be a customer of them. Gun control advocates aren't NRA members. They don't pay NRA membership fees. They cannot, by definition, boycott the NRA.
21) Instead, they're attacking NRA corporate sponsors, sponsors who give discounts to NRA members. Because what better way to get gun control's point across than to annoy and punish people who probably would have refused to let that kid have any guns if they had a say.
22) Because when the schools refused to let the police arrest the kid on campus for violent outbursts, when the police refused to arrest the kid at his multiple homes for his violent outbursts and the reports of his threats with guns, when the SRO WAITED OUTSIDE
ADDENDUM: He wasn't wearing a mask. He knew there was an armed officer present. He had presented suicidal tendencies in the past, cutting his arm, etc. This was intended to be suicide by cop. And then NO ONE STOPPED HIM. He had no intention of escaping, and he WALKED RIGHT OUT.
But sure, blame the NRA for that. yeah. Good job @HouseDemocrats @SenateDems, go with THAT. See how well THAT works out for you in the midterms. /end
