February 16, 2018
WHO HE IS; WHAT HE DOES:
Trump blames grieving classmates for not stopping Florida shooter (Matthew Chapman, FEBRUARY 15, 2018, ShareBlue)
Thursday morning, Trump criticized the people of Parkland for not "reporting" the gunman to the authorities."So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior," he wrote. "Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!"This degree of victim-blaming is particularly galling, because this was a case in which many people suspected he was a risk and took action to keep others safe.As even Trump noted, Nikolas Cruz, the suspect, has a social media profile that fetishizes guns and killing. He was expelled for disciplinary issues, including threatening students.School administrators warned teachers to "keep an eye" out for him, and he was banned from carrying a backpack onto the premises. Cruz even boasted in a YouTube comment that he was going to be a "professional school shooter," prompting a fellow user to file a report with the FBI, but nothing came of it.The problem is not, as Trump claims, that people didn't do anything. They did. It didn't prevent Cruz from obtaining a deadly weapon and murdering his former classmates.According to law enforcement, Cruz purchased his AR-15 legally a year ago, in a state where gun laws are relatively lax.
White House refuses to release photo of Trump signing bill to weaken gun law (LAURA STRICKLER, 2/15/18, CBS NEWS)
A little over a month after his inauguration, on Feb. 28, 2017, President Trump signed HJ Resolution 40, a bill that made it easier for people with mental illness to obtain guns. CBS News then asked the White House to release the photograph of Mr. Trump signing the bill, making the request a total of 12 times.White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders finally responded to repeated emails and phone calls with a one-line note on April 19, 2017, writing to CBS News, "We don't plan to release the picture at this time."A White House photographer confirmed to CBS News that there are photos of the bill signing. Those photos won't be seen unless the Trump administration releases them, though, because the White House is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Posted by Orrin Judd at February 16, 2018 3:23 AM