MJ national affairs editor, author, dad. My book TRIGGER POINTS is the story of expert teams who are preventing mass shootings, from K-12 schools to the FBI ⤵️
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Aug 12, 2024 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
NEW: Most media have gone totally asleep on this, but Trump's ugly incitement is only growing more dangerous according to threat assessment and law enforcement sources I've spoken with in recent weeks 👉 motherjones.com/politics/2024/…
Five years to the day after a mass shooter targeting migrants gunned down dozens of people in Texas, Trump railed in a speech about hordes of murderous foreigners overrunning America.
That mass shooter had denied being influenced by Trump—then cited Trump’s "fake news" rhetoric
Dec 5, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
In new filing, Jack Smith alleges Trump "sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification" washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Trump "has openly and proudly supported individuals who criminally participated in obstructing the congressional certification, including by suggesting that he will pardon them if re-elected, even as he has conceded he had the ability to influence their actions during the attack"
Sep 10, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
An engrossing, tragic story. “Trump deserves life in prison if my father is in prison for this long,” said a daughter of the first Jan. 6 defendant who stood trial washingtonpost.com/politics/inter…
more details here on her father, Guy Reffitt, who was among the Trump supporters who brought guns to the Capitol on January 6 motherjones.com/crime-justice/…
May 23, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: One year after the Uvalde massacre, my latest reporting includes new details on the ongoing investigations, the shooter’s long trail of warning signs, and how this horrific tragedy could have been prevented from ever happening motherjones.com/politics/2023/… 🧵
The police meltdown in Uvalde demands further scrutiny. But what about the guns that got in the hands of a profoundly troubled 18-year-old? How could he so easily—and legally—acquire a highly lethal arsenal? An astonishing amount of firepower motherjones.com/politics/2023/…#Uvalde 2/x
Apr 1, 2023 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
I’ve spent a decade investigating mass shootings and how to stop them. These are the fresh cold facts: From Sandy Hook in 2012 to a Nashville school this week, many more mass shooters now use AR-15s—a weapon of war—to devastating effect. My new piece: motherjones.com/politics/2023/… 🧵
This chilling trend connects to how shooters emulate previous attackers, one of multiple common warning behaviors I examine in Trigger Points, my book about preventing mass shootings. It coincides with marketing tactics long used by the gun industry... amazon.com/dp/0062973533/ 2/x
Mar 20, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
A big reason Uvalde police failed to confront the shooter at Robb Elementary was because they feared the firepower of his AR-15, according to this important new investigation from @TexasTribune reporter @zachdesparttexastribune.org/2023/03/20/uva…
"A comprehensive and scathing report of law enforcement’s response to the shooting, released by a Texas House committee chaired by Republican Rep. Dustin Burrows in July, made no mention of the comments by law enforcement officers that illustrated trepidation about the AR-15."
Feb 26, 2023 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Misleading, irresponsible headline by @WSJ with this covid lab leak story. Many people won’t read past it to learn that the Energy Department holds a minority view among US agencies and rated this conclusion as “low confidence” wsj.com/articles/covid…
The US government apparently still has no clarity as to how the pandemic originated, and news reporting should make that clear at the top. A big reason the US response was such a failure in the early going was because Covid was quickly politicized. WSJ is inviting that again here
Jan 6, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Trump and his GOP allies have tried for two years to cover up the horror of January 6.
"Peaceful patriots," they say.
"No guns," they say.
These are lies.
Now, yet more evidence shows that many Trump extremists were armed and dangerous that day motherjones.com/politics/2023/… 🧵
Many brought guns or other weapons. In the area of Trump's speech, the Secret Service confiscated "269 knives or blades, 242 canisters of pepper spray, 18 brass knuckles, 18 tasers, 6 pieces of body armor, 3 gas masks, 30 batons or blunt instruments" motherjones.com/politics/2023/… 2/x
Dec 14, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This is jaw-dropping and should be a much, much bigger story. How DHS had specific, highly alarming intel well in advance but failed to sound the alarm about January 6 news.yahoo.com/exclusive-an-i…
“On the morning of January 6th, 2021,” the DHS analyst wrote, “I made one more phone call begging for us to be given the intelligence reporting that we needed desperately which could have been used to inform those on the ground of the full kinetic threat"
Dec 14, 2022 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Ever since Sandy Hook, experts have learned a lot more about how to intervene with disturbed and suicidal young men — before they get their hands on AR-15s and body armor. Threat assessment, red flag laws, higher age limits for guns. motherjones.com/crime-justice/…#SandyHook10YearsLater2/ This pattern with assault rifles and tactical gear used in the grim spate of mass shootings in 2022 is telling. It's an escalation of a trend over the past decade. motherjones.com/crime-justice/…#SandyHook10YearsLater
Oct 28, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Regarding the awful attack on Paul Pelosi: it's important not to get ahead of verified facts. We know little yet about the suspect's circumstances & motive. That said, it's worth highlighting again more broadly the dangers of #StochasticTerrorism that I’ve long written about. 1/x
We’re in an era in which the Trump-dominated GOP has more openly accepted—and participated in—dangerous political incitement. It will cause further bloodshed. And let's be clear: There is little if any equivalent behavior from the Democratic Party. motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 2/x
Oct 27, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
THREAD: Trump is continuing to spew rhetoric that could easily incite more bloodshed motherjones.com/politics/2022/…#MassShootings#StochasticTerrorism2/ I know many are sick of this and just want to tune him out, but many millions of Americans still back Trump—including partisan extremists who think political violence is justified. What happens when “armed citizens” patrol polling places on November 8? motherjones.com/politics/2022/…
Oct 21, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: Trump's ongoing incitement is feeding into a growing appetite for political violence in America, new research shows motherjones.com/politics/2022/…#January6th#StochasticTerrorism
"12 percent of 'strong' Republicans indicated support for violence to 'return Trump to the presidency this year,' and 17 percent indicated the same to 'stop an election from being stolen.' They were also more likely to agree that 'armed citizens should patrol polling places'" 2/x
Sep 23, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Trump continues to escalate his dangerous incitement. My latest reporting on this disturbing pattern of behavior from the ex-president motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 1/x
Trump declares on Fox News that a top elected law enforcement official really “hates” America. At a rally, he calls the FBI “vicious monsters”—knowing a Truth Social user tried to attack FBI agents with an AR-15.
NEW: Trump has spread incitement of violence throughout the GOP. Here's my latest reporting on the growing danger from one of the ex-president’s darkest legacies motherjones.com/politics/2022/…#StochasticTerrorism
The temperature has risen ever since Trump and his allies went ballistic over the seizure of highly classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, with various GOP figures helping fuel the fire. Violence experts told me they’re deeply worried about the incitement motherjones.com/politics/2022/… 2/x
May 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
It seems clear here that Dan Crenshaw does not actually understand what a ‘red flag’ law is. It’s not a criminal procedure—it’s a civil one. A judge determines whether to remove a gun temporarily from a person based on evidence that person poses a danger to himself and/or others
Shouldn’t a member of Congress first actually understand what a law is before taking a stand against it? @DanCrenshawTX
May 12, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: What are the warning signs of a potential mass shooter?
In this @WSJ essay adapted from my new book TRIGGER POINTS, I detail eight areas that prevention experts use to assess troubled people who may be turning dangerous wsj.com/articles/how-w… 🧵 1/x
Rage targeting women is a growing factor in mass shootings, as I further document in TRIGGER POINTS. Domestic abuse, "incel" ideology and other violent misogyny and extremism are rising concerns for threat assessment experts. [🎙️: Mark Deakins] 2/x
May 4, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
A growing method today for preventing mass shootings traces back in part to shocking violence by anti-abortion extremists and a little-known attack on a US Supreme Court justice. I reveal that story for the first time in my new book, TRIGGER POINTS harpercollins.com/products/trigg… 🧵 1/x
Supreme Court justice Harry Blackmun—who authored the 1973 opinion in #RoeVWade legalizing abortion—was targeted by violent extremists his whole career. On a quiet night in 1985, a bullet smashed through his living room window. Its impact would be fateful. [🎙️: Mark Deakins] 2/x
Apr 20, 2022 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
“School shootings season.”
That’s what some threat assessment experts call this time of year, as I detail in TRIGGER POINTS. The heightened danger is fueled by the "copycat" effect—and #Columbine, 23 years ago today, remains a big part of the problem harpercollins.com/products/trigg… 1/x
The extent of it is sobering: I documented more than 100 Columbine-inspired plots and attacks in the US in the two decades since the massacre.
“I’m thinking about doing my school the same way,” said one teen who planned an attack for April 20. “Everybody will know my name.” 2/x
Apr 5, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
BOOK NEWS: My debut, TRIGGER POINTS, is out today. It’s the first ever to go inside specialized teams of experts who are preventing mass shootings, from K-12 schools to the FBI. Here’s a 🧵 about what you’ll find in the book hc.com/TriggerPoints 1/x
My work behind Trigger Points spans nearly a decade. I first began to dive deep into the field of behavioral threat assessment, whose core mission is to prevent mass shootings and other targeted violence, in a rather surreal setting: Disneyland. (🎙️: Mark Deakins) 2/x
Jan 21, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Chilling details continue to emerge in court documents about Oath Keepers' alleged violent plot around January 6. These guys had a lot of guns, and they were ready to use them in support of Donald Trump motherjones.com/crime-justice/…2/ According to court documents, Oath Keepers spoke of having "inside information" for January 6 and called it “a do or die situation,” suggesting that a failure by Congress to throw the election to Trump could lead to “the declaration of a guerrilla war" motherjones.com/crime-justice/…
