When Leftists Take Off the Mask

Seen on Twitter. Just wow.

If you are a MAGA or a 2A enthusiast, I legitimately do not care about your life/well-being or the lives/well-being of your family. I don't care if you can't defend yourselves against intruders or whatever. I just don't care if you live or die.

— 🏳️‍🌈Jenny "Lazangia" Trout (@Jenny_Trout) April 3, 2018

Nasim Aghdam Was Angry Over YouTube 'Apocalyspe'

At LAT, "Woman suspected of opening fire at YouTube had battled against platform":

So the San Bruno YouTube HQ shooter was Female, foreign, a Vegan animal activist, off the rails mentally ill, didn't use an AR-15, and shot up a building in the strictest gun control state in America....how fast do you think the mainstream media is going to bury this? pic.twitter.com/oHnkSiolGv

— Mindy Robinson (@iheartmindy) April 4, 2018

The website is a catalog of a woman's passion for animal rights and her anger at YouTube.

She complains of "close-minded" YouTube employees suppressing her page views and stifling her content. She gripes about a lack of revenue.

"Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!" she wrote on the site, which includes videos promoting veganism and photos of a woman in an array of outfits, including long gowns and a camouflage unitard. She speaks in Persian and Turkish.

"There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!"

It's the website investigators are looking at as they try to piece together the motive of a woman — identified as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, 39 — who stormed onto YouTube's sprawling San Bruno, Calif., campus with a 9-millimeter handgun and opened fire in a courtyard during lunchtime, wounding three people before turning the gun on herself.

The eruption of gun violence Tuesday in Silicon Valley hit a nation still reeling from recent mass shootings and gripped by a tense gun control debate.

"This is a terrible day in the United States, when once again we have a multiple-casualty situation," said Dr. Andre Campbell, a trauma surgeon at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which is treating victims.

The shooting left a 36-year-old man in critical condition, a 32-year-old woman with serious injuries and a 27-year-old woman in fair condition. A fourth person suffered an ankle injury while fleeing.

In a tweet, President Trump thanked law enforcement and first responders, and said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved."

Law enforcement sources told The Times they initially believed the shooting was a domestic incident, but San Bruno police said late Tuesday there's "no evidence" the shooter knew the victims or targeted specific people. Investigators are now focusing on the alleged shooter's grudge against YouTube.

The YouTube account tied to the website was shut down "due to multiple or severe violations" of the company's policies against spam, deceptive practices and misleading content. But it's unclear exactly when.

The website investigators are probing, titled "Nasime Sabz," translates in Persian to, "Nasim the green." YouTube videos created by an account of the same name can no longer be viewed, but the site also features videos from other sources criticizing YouTube's policies, as well as clips promoting animal rights and veganism. Instagram and Facebook accounts listed on the website were deactivated Tuesday.

Aghdam was quoted in the Los Angeles Times in 2009, speaking at an animal rights protest outside Camp Pendleton.

"For me animal rights equals human rights," said Aghdam, who at the time worked as a construction company office manager. "Just because they can't talk doesn't mean we should take advantage of them."

About two weeks ago, Aghdam vented to her family that YouTube stopped compensating her for her videos, her father told the Bay Area News Group.

Ismail Aghdam said that the family had called police to report his daughter missing Monday because she hadn't answered her phone for two days. He said he had told police she might be going to YouTube because she "hated" the company.

Police in Mountain View, Calif., say they spotted a woman who went by the name Nasim Aghdam asleep in a car in a city parking lot early Tuesday morning and notified her family.

The first reports of a shooting came in to San Mateo County dispatchers before 1 p.m.

Zach Vorhies, a senior software engineer, was sitting at his desk on YouTube's campus when he heard the fire alarm blaring.

He grabbed his electric skateboard and hurried toward an exit. Outside, he heard yelling. On a patio where tech workers often grab lunch, he saw a man lying motionless on his back, blood staining his shirt. As he stared, a police officer with an assault rifle popped through a nearby gate.

Vorhies skateboarded away.

He was one of hundreds of YouTube employees whose workday was thrown into chaos as panic spread across the technology hub south of San Francisco.

"I thought, 'This is a mass casualty event,'" said Vorhies, 37. "I was terrified."

Some employees in a meeting heard rumbling and thought there had been an earthquake. It seemed serious, not just a standard emergency drill. As they moved toward an exit, they heard that someone had a gun.

"I looked down and saw blood drips on the floor and stairs," Todd Sherman, a product manager for YouTube tweeted. After peeking around for threats, he headed down the stairs and out the front of the building.

Police in tactical vests, helmets and rifles swarmed the campus soon after, coming upon a chaotic scene as workers ran from the area. Television footage showed people filing away with their hands up...

Still more.

YouTube Shooter Nasim Aghdam Was Mentally Ill

That's my main conclusion after seeing so many tweets about this woman last night. She was a no-talent Internet wannabe who became enraged when her videos were demonetized by YouTube. Folks were mocking the hell out of her, but this woman needed help and bad.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, the Other McCain, and other tweets:

.@PatriarchTree The YouTube HQ shooting is a sad, dark twist in a long-running saga about 'demonetization': 😢 https://t.co/jZ8YUQcthR #NasimAghdam #YouTubeShooting #YouTube #SanBruno

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 4, 2018

After all that YouTube has done to suppress conservative videos, how ironic is it that an Iranian-American animal-rights activist resorted to terroristic violence against the company?  https://t.co/EH0mP0eWH7... https://t.co/di9t7Xt3ko

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) April 4, 2018

The YouTube shooter described herself on her now-banned YouTube page as a "vegan bodybuilder and animal rights activist,"

And yet - someone, somewhere, is almost certainly trying to figure out how to portray her as a right-winger. pic.twitter.com/Ws1UIv4U3u

— Allum Bokhari (@LibertarianBlue) April 4, 2018

YouTube shooting suspect Nasim Aghdam, who describes herself as a vegan artist, bodybuilder, and animal rights activist, often lashed out at the video platform for censoring and demonetizing her content pic.twitter.com/AsQiCz3SHB

— Brianna Sacks (@bri_sacks) April 4, 2018

Long term, without delicately balanced nutrition and extreme care, Vegans lose their mental health as their bodies use up stores of certain nutrients that are mostly only found in meat protein.

In over twenty years of practice, I saw one healthy vegan and even she supplemented.

— Melissa Mackenzie 🌐 (@MelissaTweets) April 4, 2018

I am not being flippant here, either. YouTube's demonetization policies are capricious and devastate individuals and brands who make their money there. This woman wasn't a great content producer, but others were/are and have seen their businesses ruined by them.

— Melissa Mackenzie 🌐 (@MelissaTweets) April 4, 2018

Facebook and Google have unbelievable power to destroy businesses and can do it with a stroke of an algorithm.

The only other organizations who have that kind of power and wield it equally capriciously is the government.

— Melissa Mackenzie 🌐 (@MelissaTweets) April 4, 2018

The only bigger reality the Left refuses to face than facts about guns is facts about mental health.

There is never an answer about these unstable individuals. In so many cases, family warn law enforcement and are helpless to protecting the community.

— Melissa Mackenzie 🌐 (@MelissaTweets) April 4, 2018

So, Second Amendment Repeal is the New Ragin' Big Thing

It's not going to happen. I doubt it will ever happen. But that's not stopping some idiots from speaking out in favor of repeal.

Not least among these is former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens. And also, Jonathan Turley below. I think such folks should just GTFO.

John Paul Stevens: Repealing the Second Amendment would move Saturday’s marchers closer to their objective than any other possible reform https://t.co/6USnyIMMDq

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) March 27, 2018

From @JonathanTurley: A full repeal of the #SecondAmendment is hard work, but it is the only way #MarchforOurLives won't be hijacked by political figures wanting to harness energy and votes more than save lives. https://t.co/iQrqPHPSmI

— USA TODAY Opinion (@usatodayopinion) March 28, 2018

Rep. Steve King's Campaign Ties Parkland Gun Control Activist Emma González to 'Communist' Cuba

Well, she sure dresses the part. I tweeted Saturday, "She’s looks like a militant communist lesbian lol."

And at the Washington Post, "Rep. Steve King's campaign ties Parkland's Emma Gonzalez to 'communist' Cuba."

Rep. Steve King’s campaign ties Parkland’s Emma González to ‘communist’ Cuba https://t.co/DSauujUDsF

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 26, 2018

ICYMI, @Emma4Change was proudly wearing a Cuban flag in support of an oppressive communist regime at the #MarchForOurLives. pic.twitter.com/4J8oP9xKjP

— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) March 25, 2018

In one of the most publicized moments at Saturday's March for Our Lives, 18-year-old Emma González stood on the stage in complete silence, weeping. She marked the six minutes and 20 seconds that claimed the lives of 17 people at her high school in Parkland, Florida. And on her olive-green jacket, she wore several sewn-on patches, including a Cuban flag.

That flag, representing González's Cuban heritage, became the subject of attacks from some conservatives online over the weekend. And on Sunday afternoon, one of those critical messages appeared on the Facebook page for the campaign of a U.S. congressman — Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.

"This is how you look when you claim Cuban heritage yet don't speak Spanish and ignore the fact that your ancestors fled the island when the dictatorship turned Cuba into a prison camp, after removing all weapons from its citizens; hence their right to self defense," said the post, which also included a photo of González at the podium Saturday.

The meme, which was posted by King's campaign team, prompted hundreds of comments, many of them criticizing the congressman and defending González.

"Are you SERIOUSLY mocking a school shooting survivor for her ethnic identity?!" wrote Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. "When it was my community, where were you? When it was Sandy Hook? Columbine? Were you on the sideline mocking those communities too? Did you question someone identifying as a mother? Did you question whether people like me were crisis actors?

"Emma stood for 6 mins and 20 seconds to honor the lives of 17 gone too soon," Wolf added. "The least you could do is shut your privileged, ineffective trap for 6 seconds to hear someone else's perspective."

King's campaign team promptly and defiantly fired back at individual comments, creating a heated exchange on the Facebook post.

"Pointing out the irony of someone wearing the flag of a communist country while simultaneously calling for gun control isn't 'picking' on anyone," the campaign team responded to Wolf's comment. "It's calling attention to the truth, but we understand that lefties find that offensive."

Reached for comment early Monday by The Washington Post, a spokesman for King's campaign said that the King for Congress Facebook page is managed by the campaign team, not the congressman himself.

"And the meme in question obviously isn't an attack on her 'heritage' in any way," the spokesman wrote in an email. "It merely points out the irony of someone pushing gun control while wearing the flag of a country that was oppressed by a communist, anti-gun regime. Pretty simple, really."

González has become a prominent face of the student-led movement against gun violence since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And she has not been shy about explaining her various identities.

"My Name is Emma González. I'm 18 years old, Cuban and bisexual," she wrote in an essay in Harper's Bazaar last month. "But none of this matters anymore. What matters is that the majority of American people have become complacent in a senseless injustice that occurs all around them."

Her father immigrated to New York from Cuba in 1968, Univision has reported. Emma was born in the United States. As Univision wrote, González does not speak Spanish, "but her voice reveals the heritage of the communicative passion of mixed Hispanics with oratory skills perfected at school."

Other images attacking the teenager's Cuban heritage circulated in conservative circles online...

More.

She's vile.

Dana Loesch Discusses 'March for Our Lives' (VIDEO)

On Fox News yesterday:

March for Our Lives

I'm not going to be too hard on them. They're young. Perhaps they haven't had good parenting. No traditional patriotic role models to teach them common sense about what it means to be an American. Gun rights are American. None of the signs I've seen on social media are attacking the "Broward Cowards" of the sheriff's department. Who's got a sign attacking the nameless bureaucrats from the schools and social welfare offices for failing their charges? Deputies visited Nicholas Cruz's house dozens of times. School officials even recommended involuntary psychiatric hospitalization.

None of these things will be fixed with more gun control. It's sad.

Whatever.

At LAT, "Sensing their moment, Florida students balance school and activism planning the March for Our Lives":

A self-confessed "secret huge nerd," Jaclyn Corin admits she is freaking out on the inside as she tries to balance political activism with schoolwork.

The 17-year-old junior class president has six essays to write for her advanced-placement language and composition class. But after a gunman rampaged through her high school, killing 14 students and three staff members, she is mostly focused on Saturday's March for Our Lives.

"It's very hard to juggle," Jaclyn said one evening last week as she slipped into a booth at Panera with fellow activists David Hogg and Sarah Chadwick and sipped a strawberry banana smoothie.

"We're teenagers and we're leading a national movement," said David, also 17, a wiry, intense senior who has put on the back burner memorizing his 50 psychology vocab words and his environmental science project on mammals. "That's a lot of stress."

The goal of the student-led march in Washington is simple: to demand that Congress pass a comprehensive bill to address gun violence.

While the House last week passed the STOP School Violence Act, which authorizes $50 million a year to bolster school security, students say it does nothing to restrict gun access. It does not even mention the word "gun."

"We need a mass mobilization of the American public on a huge scale," said David, a budding filmmaker who became a key voice of the movement after recording video of his classmates huddling in a small dark closet during the Feb. 14 shooting.

About 1,000 students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland — and hundreds of thousands of supporters from across the country — plan to march on the nation's Capitol. More than 800 marches are planned worldwide — in Los Angeles and Paris; Buenos Aires and Tokyo; Sydney, Australia, and Mumbai, India.

"In the period of one month, we have shaken up the world," said Jaclyn, a small blonde with a chirpy, singsong voice. "But I feel like the adults keep pressing the snooze button. At some point they're going to have to wake up."

Trying to persuade politicians to enact gun legislation, David said, is about as frustrating as instructing adults how to use smartphones.

"You know, when they're like, 'I can't figure out how to take a selfie…,'" he said dryly. "And then five minutes later, you finally take the phone and you just press the button… You just need to go into the settings!"

"That's perfect," Jaclyn said, giggling.

"That's what we're doing with our government," David continued. "'Goddammit, just give it to me!'"

Already, the students have raised more than $3.3 million via GoFundMe to stage the event, bringing in major donations from celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and George and Amal Clooney. A string of pop stars — Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Hudson and Demi Lovato — agreed to perform at their rally.

For the organizers, the march is a way to channel their grief and anger as well as send a strong message to President Trump and Congress.

"We know this is what's going to help us heal," said Delaney Tarr, a 17-year-old senior. "But it's also bigger than us.… I think everybody, they want to make the world a different place, and that's what we're working on right now — we have an opportunity to do something."

The students feel a sense of urgency in getting their message out, a fear that the public will lose interest...

Laura Ingraham on Parkland Massacre and Stupid Student Gun Control Walkout (VIDEO)

At Fox News:

National Student Walkout

So lame.

The real patriots are those students who stayed behind, in the classroom, resisting the idiots gun control activists.

Elementary school walkout in Alexandria, Virginia. More than 65 kids, and they are totally silent. Look at those faces. pic.twitter.com/ThyzDtyGo5

— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) March 14, 2018

Yes, look at them. These are the faces of exploited children who are being made afraid by adults. https://t.co/DOOrz7hoJG

— Melissa Mackenzie 🌐 (@MelissaTweets) March 15, 2018

How Progressives Win the Culture War

From David Brooks, at the New York Times:

What’s happening today is that certain ideas about gun rights, and maybe gun ownership itself, are being cast in the realm of the morally illegitimate and socially unacceptable https://t.co/2mXNbOi04X

— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) March 2, 2018

I wonder if I’m wrong on the subject of guns. I started this latest round of the debate with the presumption that supporters of moderate gun restrictions are popularly strong but legislatively weak. Since Sandy Hook in 2012, more than two dozen states have passed gun laws and almost all of those laws have LOOSENED gun restrictions. Roughly 360 gun bills have been introduced in Congress, and they have all failed but one, which also loosened gun use.

The blunt fact is that Republicans control most legislatures. To get anything passed, I thought, it would be necessary to separate some Republicans from the absolutist N.R.A. position. To do that you have to depolarize the issue: show gun owners some respect, put red state figures at the head and make the gun discussion look more like the opioid discussion. The tribalists in this country have little interest in the opioid issue. As a result, a lot of pragmatic things are being done across partisan lines.

The people pushing for gun restrictions have basically done the exact opposite of what I thought was wise. Instead of depolarizing the issue they have massively polarized it. The students from Parkland are being assisted by all the usual hyper-polarizing left-wing groups: Planned Parenthood, Move On and the Women’s March. The rhetoric has been extreme. Marco Rubio has been likened to a mass murderer while the N.R.A. has been called a terrorist organization.

The early results would seem to completely vindicate my position. The Florida Legislature turned aside gun restrictions. New gun measures in Congress have been quickly shelved. Democrats are more likely to lose House and Senate seats in the key 2018 pro-gun states. The losing streak continues.

Yet I have to admit that something bigger is going on. It could be that progressives understood something I didn’t. It could be that you can win more important victories through an aggressive cultural crusade than you can through legislation. Progressives could be on the verge of delegitimizing their foes, on guns but also much else, rendering them untouchable for anybody who wants to stay in polite society. That would produce social changes far vaster than limiting assault rifles...

More.

Florida Shooter Nickolas Cruz Left 180 Rounds of Ammunition Inside the School Along With His Rifle (VIDEO)

Earlier entries on Parkland are here.

Release the Florida School Shooting Surveillance Video

From the irrepressible Michelle Malkin:

Open government isn’t just good government. It’s the public’s right.

In Florida, the Broward County Sheriff’s office and Broward County school district are fighting to keep exterior surveillance video from the day of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hidden from view. As journalists and citizens who’ve waged uphill battles against secrecy well know, government agencies too often invoke broad disclosure exemptions in the name of protecting public safety when they’re really just trying to protect their own jobs.

Feckless Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel and media-luvin’ school Superintendent Robert Runcie are defendants in an open records lawsuit filed Tuesday by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Miami Herald and CNN.

Here is the lawsuit petition...

Click through to read the petition and the rest of the post.

By More Than 2-1 (63-29 Percent), Public Says Semi-Automatic Weapons Like the AR-15 Should Be Banned

From Susan Page, at USA Today, "Poll: Americans support tougher gun laws, don't expect Congress to act."

Just posted: President Trump's job-approval rating drops to a new low, 38%, in the USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, and the intensity of feeling is hardening against him. https://t.co/h38qKTGlRs via @usatoday

— Susan Page (@SusanPage) February 25, 2018

The USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll of 1,000 registered voters nationwide, taken Tuesday through Saturday, has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

On guns, a nation that is often divided on issues is remarkably united:

* By almost 2-1, 61%-33%, they say tightening gun-control laws and background checks would prevent more mass shootings in the United States.
* By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, they say semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15, used by the Florida shooter, should be banned.
* By more than 6-1, 76%-12%, they say people who have been treated for mental illness should be banned from owning a firearm.

Even gun owners are inclined to support those three measures. But a majority of Republicans say tighter gun laws wouldn't prevent more mass shootings, and they oppose banning semi-automatic weapons.

Easy test. Run on it. Every single one of you. Run. On. It. Dispense with the euphemisms. Primary everyone who won’t submit. https://t.co/Rdc2m4FnWd

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 26, 2018

Also, Republicans & @NRA say *real* agenda of gun control advocates is to ban all semi-automatic weapons. This is supposed to scare the public, but would it?

Majority favors the idea, 44% "very strongly" in new @YouGov @TheEconomist poll. https://t.co/HqldiyPZXk pic.twitter.com/QiCPCUpZnX

— Jonathan Cohn (@CitizenCohn) February 26, 2018

RUN. ON. IT.

— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 26, 2018

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel with Jake Tapper on CNN's 'State of the Union' (VIDEO)

The sheriff actually claims "I've given amazing leadership to this agency..."

I can't believe he hasn't been fired yet.

At Hot Air, "The Brutal Waterboarding, Er… Interview of the Broward County Sheriff.

The Gun-Control Debate Could Break America (VIDEO)

From David French, at National Review, and with Michael Smerconish below:

I was just making this argument from @davidafrench to @SethAMandel and of course, David already wrote it and better than I ever could. https://t.co/EZPVRxEEsb

— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) February 25, 2018

Dana Loesch on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos' (VIDEO)

At Twitchy, "Tough as NAILS: WATCH Dana Loesch SCHOOL George Stephanopoulos while BLASTING Sheriff Israel."

And at ABC News:

The Gun Debate: Another Shooting, But Different This Time (VIDEO)

At the New York Times, "Another Shooting, Another Gun Debate. Will the Outcome Be the Same?":

WASHINGTON — Around 2:30 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, President Trump was in the study off the Oval Office when John F. Kelly, his chief of staff, arrived with news of a school shooting in Florida. Mr. Trump shook his head, according to an aide, and muttered, “Again.”

Mark Barden was visiting a playground named for his 7-year-old son killed in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School when a friend texted him: Be careful watching television. It’s happening. Again.

His senator, Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, heard about the Florida shooting while he was on his way to the Senate floor and ripped up his speech to declare that through inaction, “we are responsible” for a mass atrocity. Again.

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the Republican whip and gun rights supporter who was himself grievously wounded last year when a man opened fire at a congressional baseball practice, huddled with colleagues on the House floor, reliving his horror. He knew what was coming: the activists who in his view would exploit tragedies like his to advance their anti-gun agenda. Again.

Within hours of the blood bath in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and adults were killed on Feb. 14, the machinery of the American gun debate began grinding into motion.

By evening, one anti-gun group had mobilized and already sent out its first email: “RESOURCES + EXPERTS AVAILABLE: Florida High School Shooting.” Another group, Everytown for Gun Safety, founded and financed by Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor, activated the 1,500 members of its “survivors network,” and soon paid $230,000 for an advertisement in The New York Times shaming pro-gun lawmakers.

The National Rifle Association followed its own playbook: remaining silent for several days — a recognition that its message might be unwelcome during the initial burst of grief. But it used its NRATV channel to argue to its members that more guns in schools could prevent massacres. Sales of so-called bump stocks, which can make a semiautomatic weapon fire like an automatic, rose out of fear that they would be banned.

The battles waged after shootings in Newtown, Conn.; Orlando, Fla.; Las Vegas; and Sutherland Springs, Tex., began playing out all over, presumably heading toward the same stalemate.

But this time, a few things are different: The gun control side has developed a well-financed infrastructure that did not exist when Mr. Barden’s son Daniel and other schoolchildren were fatally shot at Sandy Hook. Within days of the Parkland shooting, one anti-gun group flooded Florida lawmakers with 2,500 calls and 1,700 emails opposing a bill allowing guns in schools.

Another difference is an unpredictable president who belongs to the National Rifle Association and promotes the N.R.A.-favored solution of arming trained teachers but has also embraced a couple of modest gun control measures opposed by gun rights groups.

And perhaps most dramatically, the We-Call-B.S. teenagers of Florida have injected a passionate new energy into a stale debate, organizing demonstrations, flooding the Statehouse in Tallahassee, composing songs, creating protest signs, confronting politicians and taking to TV airwaves with an intensity and composure and power rarely seen in recent years.

“The initial reaction was the same kind of sickened resignation — this is one of the worst ever, and this probably won’t be enough either,” said Matt Bennett, a founder of Third Way, a center-left advocacy group in Washington.

“What has changed since then is the kids and the extraordinary, galvanizing force they have become,” he added, interrupting an interview to take a call from his 17-year-old son, whose class was leaving school to march to the White House. “No one knows when we are going to hit a tipping point on this issue. We may have hit it — we don’t know. But if we did, it’s because of them.”

Still, veterans of both sides said the fundamental dynamics of Washington have not changed. If President Barack Obama could not pass gun control in a Democratic-majority Senate in 2013, months after Sandy Hook, they said, it was unlikely that Mr. Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress would.

The N.R.A. remains as potent as ever, and the debate resumes as Republicans head into a primary election season when many worry about challenges from the right. In December, the House passed a bill to bolster criminal background checks before gun purchases, but Republicans paired it with a provision requiring states to allow anyone to carry a concealed weapon if they are allowed to carry one in their home state, essentially making it a national right, anathema to Democrats, who have their own liberal base to satisfy.

Gun rights advocates also plan to focus on the failure of the F.B.I. to pursue tips about the suspected Florida gunman, arguing that blame should be on the federal authorities, not the firearms.

“We have seen breakdowns in existing laws,” Mr. Scalise said. “Before people talk about putting new laws on the books, when we find out that multiple laws on the books were not followed, that should be the first thing we figure out.”

The rapid mobilization of the anti-gun movement is a phenomenon that has evolved with the emergence of lobbying groups filled with veteran political operatives and growing lists of supporters. By now they are used to it...

More.

'Ratings Gold': Dana Loesch Slams News Networks' Exploitation of Mass Shootings (VIDEO)

Following up, "Dana Loesch Talks to Sean Hannity at CPAC 2018 (VIDEO)."

Here she is with CNN's Alisyn Camerota:

Dana Loesch Talks to Sean Hannity at CPAC 2018 (VIDEO)

Following up, "Dana Loesch at #CNNTownHall."

Parkland Sheriff's Deputy 'Never Went In' During Shooting (VIDEO)

Following-up from last night, "Broward County Deputy Sheriff Scot Peterson 'Never Went In' During Florida Shooting."

At CBS This Morning: