17 children are dead because the state failed to protect them. This isn’t about “assault weapons,” the NRA, or Donald Trump. This situation is a grim litany of apathy, ineptitude, and ultimately cowardice.
The FBI was explicitly warned. They never acted. The Broward County Sheriff’s department was called to the shooter’s home 39 times but never saw fit to take action. The deputy charged with protecting the school hid from the shooter. The first officers to respond to the scene chose not to intervene.
So, we should launch immediate and urgent inquiries into this situation, right? Wrong. Instead, we’re told by politicians and the media that the solution is to ban the tools the shooter used. That’s how little sense we make as a society.
It’s a morbid bit of irony that Sheriff Scott Israel, whose department investigated the shooter’s home more than 3 dozen times and whose deputies showed cowardice throughout the shooting, is leading the charge to advocate for gun control. Continued...