Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel appears to be in a hole and he may wish to stop digging as the revelations pile up about how his agency may have botched the response to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland.
Monday morning, at the far corner of the country, KVI morning host John Carlson unloaded on the sheriff, not only for the possible poor performance of his subordinates, but also for the way Israel tried to shift the blame to guns and the National Rifle Association during a CNN “Town Hall” appearance opposite NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch last week.
Quoted by the New York Daily News following the CNN program, Israel said this:
“An 18-year-old kid should not have a rifle…They’re in high school. These kids should not have a rifle. Bump stocks should be illegal. They should be outlawed forever. Automatic rifles should be outlawed forever.
“And anybody who says different, I don’t know about other people, but (student) Emma (Fernandez) and I, we’re calling BS on that.”
That is a discussion Israel may wish to have with the Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, which issue real “assault rifles” to young adults who seem to have enough responsibility to enter a battlefield and perhaps lose their lives defending the nation.
Carlson’s take:
“This had nothing to do with AR15s, this had to do with a complete breakdown of law enforcement at the local and federal level.” – John Carlson, KVI Seattle
Over this past weekend, WTSP News reported that “Thousands of gun enthusiasts — more so than ever — flocked to the Florida State Fairgrounds for the Florida Gun Show event. Organizers say they had a record number of people attend the event on Saturday, Feb. 24, almost 7,000, and expected more Sunday. The manager for the Florida Gun Show, George Fernandez, says they’ve never seen such a big crowd.”
It was much the same scenario at the weekend gun show of the Washington Arms Collectors at the Puyallup Fairgrounds. A big Saturday crowd materialized and there was lots of interest in semi-auto rifles, magazines and ammunition. They were also talking about elections this fall.
Veteran Seattle P-I. columnist Joel Connelly wrote the other day that “gun reform has become a voting issue.” It’s actually “gun control” but he was correct. Elections can go either way, as Hillary Rodham Clinton could confirm.
The gun prohibition lobby seems unable to figure out that every time the talk goes to gun control, Americans flock to gun stores and gun shows to stock up. Lots of people buy their first gun at such times.
Still, according to a recent Quinnipiac Poll, “American voters support stricter gun laws 66 – 31 percent, the highest level of support ever measured…with 50 – 44 percent support among gun owners and 62 – 35 percent support from white voters with no college degree and 58 – 38 percent support among white men.”
It is not clear why the survey specifically identified what white voters and even more specifically, white male attitudes, since gun ownership crosses all races and genders.
Carlson’s discussion Monday morning covered the backstory regarding the alleged killer, and how school and Broward County authorities and the FBI all failed despite multiple “red flag” warnings the 19-year-old raised.
Liberty Park Press has reported on this previously. Additional information continues to emerge about the tragic Valentine’s Day shooting. Mother Jones quoted Sheriff Israel’s bizarre response to CNN’s Jake Tapper about whether things could have been handled differently, the sheriff replied, “If its and buts were candy and nuts, OJ Simpson would still be in the record books.”
Carlson called that a “flip response.” It is actually the kind of remark about which someone should – in Israel’s vernacular – “call BS.”
