19 innocent elementary school children, including 4th grader Ameri Jo Garza, were shot and killed in a school just outside of San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday morning, along with 2 teachers, in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
00:09:48.060I just, I mean, it's a strange thing that we've entered into this cycle.
00:09:54.760Someone at some point started doing this, and then there are people who have copied it.
00:09:59.200But it's not something that had occurred to human beings before a certain point.
00:10:03.980And I think the rest of us would never have invented it, even in a novel or a movie.
00:10:12.740So we don't really know how to think about it.
00:10:15.840And then you look at the shooter and you think, monster, absolute monster, who has four fourth graders barricaded in a room and looks at these terrified children and says,
00:10:25.440you're, you're about to die, and then starts killing them in front of one another.
00:10:30.140Like, how does that person exist on this earth for 18 years without everyone around him knowing this is a potential murderer?
00:10:49.720Last week with the buffalo shooter, we saw prior to his racial radicalization within the past 12 months before he went on his rampage, we saw signs.
00:10:59.900We saw the torture and killing of a cat that he seemed to enjoy that was especially brutal.
00:11:06.340And these sociopaths often start with animals.
00:11:09.540In this guy's case, maybe more will come out.
00:11:13.380But so far, it's more of a, he was bullied, he had a lisp, his dad wasn't in the picture, his mom was on drugs, he lived with the grandma.
00:11:23.980I mean, as much as I'd like to look at that, Charles, and say somebody should have found the signs, that's true of so many kids living in America who don't do this kind of thing.
00:11:33.020You know, I'm looking for lessons, too.
00:11:35.100I'm looking for things we can say, ah, that, we just won't do that again.
00:11:40.360And then the next one will be prevented.
00:11:41.780And so far, you know, I see a messed up family life, but not one that would have predicted this.
00:12:32.640And I do know we have to structure our society in some way to accept that really unpleasant fact.
00:12:38.520Trying to find them, though, is really difficult.
00:12:40.640And, you know, I am a classical liberal in my politics because I think that there are also a lot of risks in in trying to do that.
00:12:51.640You know, you want to find a balance between having police and prosecutors and a zero tolerance tolerance policy towards criminals and sort of catching up all sorts of people who haven't done anything in in a dragnet.
00:13:06.500And as you say, the characteristics that you just described are common to a lot of people who would never dream of doing this.
00:13:19.940And I suspect most of the people who say they know also don't know.
00:13:23.940And that makes this more scary, not less.
00:13:26.100See, I feel like I know on a guy who on the on the Buffalo shooter, on a guy who is displaying sociopathic tendencies and has expressed a desire to hurt a lot of people.
00:13:37.980You know, a year before that shooting, he said he wanted to shoot up his school and himself and got flagged and did a day or two inside of a mental health facility before he convinced them he'd been joking.
00:13:47.780But I do. I do feel like I know in that case, we really do need to have a facility into which we can send these people and they have to stay there and there will be an erosion of their civil liberties.
00:16:13.660He just give you another couple of things.
00:16:16.600The Daily Mail says he was described as nice but quiet.
00:16:21.000That those who knew him described him as growing, quote, increasingly violent as he became older, though I'm not exactly sure what that means.
00:16:27.660They said at one point, according to his friend, he showed up one time with cuts all over his face, initially claiming he was scratched by a cat before admitting he did it to himself with a knife.
00:17:09.680So, you know, there's nothing here that makes me think he would go into my imaginary facility, but there's also enough there that makes me say, where was his mother?
00:17:22.120Where was his where were the people who said we got to talk about this kid?
00:17:26.180Yeah, so I broadly agree with you on the need to commit more people than we do.
00:17:35.180I think we've gone too far in the other direction where we've come to see many mental health issues as a choice or an alternative way of looking at the world when they're not.
00:17:47.080But as you say, you know, perhaps that picks up the shooter in Buffalo, but it probably doesn't pick up this guy.
00:17:57.500And, you know, what he did is obviously evil, but it's also irrational.
00:18:04.620It's something of a non sequitur in that you wouldn't anticipate it.
00:18:13.460You could construct a circumstance in which he went after the person who had bullied him, but not a class full of unrelated 7 to 10-year-olds.
00:18:27.480If you look at, say, murder investigations, the first thing the police do is say, well, who do we think could have done this and what motive could we find?
00:18:36.100You know, were they angry with the victim?
00:18:40.320You know, was the victim cheating with their wife or, you know, had they stolen from them?
00:20:22.100He had moved in with his grandmother a few months ago.
00:20:24.740Um, she was apparently in the process, according to the Washington Post, of evicting the shooter's mother from a separate house, which the grandmother owned.
00:21:06.800I, this kid wouldn't have been red flagged for anything.
00:21:09.620He hadn't been, according to the cops today, he wasn't in trouble with law enforcement.
00:21:13.020They, they were aware of the family because there'd been so many domestic disturbances involving the house that he shared with his mother prior to all this.
00:21:19.820So they knew there was an issue there.
00:21:21.360But that's not the same as he's a would-be shooter.
00:23:00.780But, you know, as you start to reason through what that is, you realize that that's not a plan and that you need to do something far more concrete.
00:23:11.020And I tend to end up at the same place that I started.
00:23:17.320You know, let's accept the fact that this is the only country where this happens regularly.
00:23:24.960It's not the only country in which it happens, but it's certainly the only country in which it happens at this scale.
00:23:30.780Well, the question you then have to ask is, well, then what?
00:23:34.380You know, what is the difference between the United States and, say, Britain, where I'm from?
00:23:40.620Well, about 400 million privately owned guns is the answer and a constitutional right to bear them.
00:23:47.680I know people like to talk about the Supreme Court and they like to talk about the NRA.
00:23:51.900But that's not the reason that we have that many guns and that support for the right to keep and bear arms is where it is.
00:23:59.200It's not the reason that the people are the reason that it survives.
00:24:03.740There is no appetite for that in Britain.
00:24:31.920I think we all know that we're not going to do that.
00:24:34.040And so what we're going to do will be far more modest.
00:24:37.300And where I find this debate infuriating is that the more modest proposals that come up invariably have nothing to do with the problem that they are being suggested in response to.
00:25:03.040And then Chuck Schumer in the Senate introduced two background check bills that have absolutely nothing to do with this, that wouldn't have stopped this.
00:25:12.540And those two background check bills will now be sold by the Democratic Party and the press as a solution to what happened.
00:25:21.340And those who oppose them for whatever reason will be cast as the problem, as obstinate, as recalcitrant.
00:25:31.320And I think what so irritates me about this is that we end up having this false debate in which the people who are skeptical about passing more laws are told that they don't care about the underlying problem.
00:25:47.620And the people who are in favor of passing more laws, even if those laws have nothing to do with what happened, are cast as caring about it and as wanting to fix it.
00:25:57.600When, in fact, that's actually not what's happening at all.
00:26:03.000I think the people who say they don't know what to do are being admirably honest.
00:26:08.400And it's not, I'm afraid, it's not the easy position to take.
00:26:12.640It's actually terrifying to take that position.
00:26:16.860To say this horrible, devastating thing happens and I don't really know what to do about it.
00:26:26.420But I'm afraid that is the conclusion that I have come to and I find myself in despair, but that's not a reason to, you know, back measures that really have nothing to do with this.
00:26:40.560What's in the Schumer proposed background check bill and why is it not a good idea?
00:26:48.160The first one is to extend background checks to all transfers, even private transfers within the same state.
00:26:58.440The second is to extend the period that the federal government can block you from purchasing a firearm if you come up on the flag list.
00:27:10.560So on the first one, all commercial transfers of firearms and all transfers of firearms between two states are subject to a federal background check.
00:27:23.700So if you go to a gun store, you need a background check before you can buy a gun.
00:27:28.300Or if you live in Georgia and you sell a gun to someone in Florida, you need a federal background check before you can make that transfer.
00:27:35.500If you transfer a gun to someone in Florida, you don't need to involve a background check.
00:27:43.040Now, there are many states that have implemented their own background check rules.
00:27:46.880So California, Connecticut, New York, if the people in those states transfer a firearm, then they need to use a background check.
00:27:54.600But in most states, that is not the case.
00:28:03.880One is the federal government doesn't have the authority to regulate intrastate private transfers.
00:28:08.420Another is once you get into the details, and this is where the sticking point has been really with Toomey Manchin and its offshoots, it's quite difficult to determine what a transfer is.
00:28:18.460So, you know, is a transfer me lending someone a gun to go hunting?
00:28:22.880If it is, what does that do to families?
00:28:29.620The biggest objection is that if every single transfer in the United States is essentially recorded by the federal government, then we have a gun registry.
00:28:38.400And, you know, gun registries are outlawed.
00:28:41.040I'm not, you know, spitting at the mouth against this proposal.
00:28:44.080I just don't see the point of it, given that this hasn't done anything.
00:28:48.400No, name me one mass shooting where that was the origin of the gun.
00:28:53.940So you end up bureaucratizing an awful lot of American life in pursuit of a policy that actually doesn't intersect with mass shootings, but is being sold on their behalf.
00:29:10.300For example, you know, at the moment, if I go to a gun store and my name comes up on the flag list and they say, sorry, you can't have it, they have three days to investigate and confirm that I was not allowed to buy a gun.
00:30:18.880And that wasn't quite as neatly connected to this as the people who wrote this bill say.
00:30:26.260He said the allegation in that case is that that shooter who went into a predominantly African-American church and killed, I think it was 9, 10 people, that he had applied for the gun.
00:30:40.160They had done the background check on him.
00:30:43.040The three days went by and there had been no objection from the feds.
00:30:46.180So they gave him the gun after three days.
00:30:49.400Well, yeah, I mean, there are a number of problems in that.
00:30:51.340The first one is that he should have been in the system in a more concrete way.
00:30:55.520And he wasn't, which is a data entry problem.
00:30:57.960And Congress has actually tried to fix that.
00:31:00.420They passed this bill called the Fix NICS Act, which helps to plug that hole.
00:31:08.300But the other reason it's not that neat is that he went and committed his horrendous murder spree about two months after that whole process.
00:31:18.980So three days, 10 days, 20 days wouldn't have made a difference.
00:31:24.140But, you know, I can also see the argument for changing the amount of time police are allowed to hold suspects.
00:31:29.100I just would point out that after a certain point, we're not going to allow the indefinite detention of human beings.
00:31:35.820And we're not going to allow the indefinite suspension of their constitutional rights either.
00:31:41.440The broader point here is that nothing that Chuck Schumer has introduced or plans to introduce have anything to do with what happened in Texas.
00:35:23.400Back with me now, Charles C.W. Cook, senior writer at National Review.
00:35:27.220He said the grandmother who he revealed the shooter shot in the head, believed to be 66 years old, took the shooter for dinner to Applebee's to celebrate his 18th birthday.
00:35:39.180Anyway, they didn't, again, they didn't know he had weapons.
00:35:42.360The weapons were not allowed in the home, says the grandfather who had a past felony conviction and was not allowed to be in a home with firearms.
00:36:02.640So it was 375 rounds of ammunition, 5.56 ammunition, and this plate carrier, a kind of vest designed to carry bulletproof body armor, though there was no body armor inside of it, we're told, during the actual shooting.
00:36:17.760I mean, you know, most parents would know if their kid had something like that going on in the room.
00:36:33.740Meantime, you have Joe Biden, as he did after Buffalo, calling for the renewal of the assault weapons ban, which he's been pushing for years and years and years.
00:38:25.460The first thing I would say is that he did what I described earlier, which is imply that we all know secretly what to do, but that some of us refuse.
00:38:37.600And therefore, this is an issue, a debate between people who care about it and people who don't.
00:38:48.420I think that infuriates people, and rightly so.
00:38:51.480Whenever I hear him do that, I remember some of the excesses on the right after September 11th, where people would say, well, if you don't agree with our particular proposal as to what we need to do in foreign policy or counterterrorism or what you will, then you must not care about what happened in New York, which of course was not true and was deeply unfair.
00:39:17.040On the specifics, so I think in the interest of fairness, it's true that if there were a so-called assault weapon ban, it's a totally misleading term, but I assume that it means AR-15 ban in Texas or federally, that the shooter would not have been able to buy two of them.
00:39:44.260And let's also stipulate that if the same age rules applied to shotguns and rifles as applied to handguns, then he wouldn't have been able to buy any firearms.
00:39:55.040In the state of Florida, all firearms have a 21 age limit.
00:40:00.420In Texas, it's 18 for shotguns and rifles and 21 per federal law for handguns.
00:40:07.880The problem that I see with that, and the problem I think a lot of people, including many now within the gun control movement as well, have come to acknowledge, is that getting rid of a particular subset of semi-automatic weapons from the purchase point doesn't solve the issue because people will just substitute out the gun that they use.
00:40:29.720And we saw that, unfortunately, at one of the worst massacres in American history at Virginia Tech.
00:40:35.360And you said earlier, you can do precisely the same thing with a Glock, and there is just no appetite whatsoever to ban handguns.
00:40:45.240It has about 20% support in the United States.
00:40:48.080So why would we focus on this, especially when it is true that when it comes to mass shootings, that mass shooters seem to have a bit of a fetish for the AR-15.
00:41:02.280But it's not true that if you look at statistics in gun murders, that the AR-15, or indeed rifles, are much of a problem at all.
00:41:11.460In fact, there are so few murders committed every year with so-called assault rifles, the FBI doesn't keep statistics.
00:41:20.240There are actually more people in America killed every year with hands and fists and feet than with all rifles combined.
00:41:27.620If you want to look at the problem in suicides and in murders, it's handguns.
00:42:25.840I will just say for those people who are much more in favor of gun control than I am, it is obviously the case that the United States has a problem here in a way that many other countries don't because it is awash with guns.
00:42:52.700I just see no evidence that, you know, arbitrarily restricting which type you can buy, trying to ban the most commonly owned rifle in the United States.
00:43:02.960I don't think that is going to make much of a difference.
00:43:05.660It would if there were zero guns in the United States.
00:43:08.220We'd be having a completely different conversation then.
00:43:46.420And a lot of people who grow up or live like I do or have for most of my adult life in cities don't think it's necessary because they got a big police force.
00:43:54.980And if you call 911, they'll be there.
00:43:57.100And it's, you know, they just can't even imagine how people along the southern border or more rural communities are living genuinely worried about self-defense and the need to protect their families.
00:44:06.340You know, God forbid, crime should arrive at their doorstep.
00:44:09.540So there's all sorts of reasons why we are the way we are.
00:44:12.460And it's written right into the Constitution.
00:44:13.980And even if tomorrow there were a constitutional ban on all guns in America, good luck.
00:44:19.780Good luck getting 400 million guns back.
00:44:22.160So, yeah, I'm in I'm philosophically I'm in the same place.
00:44:25.720It's like this is the hand we've been dealt.
00:44:28.400And yet this is the one of the really disturbing cases because I just don't see what could have been done.
00:44:33.520Yes, it would have been nice if his parents and his grandparents had been better, more attentive.
00:44:37.000If his school had been better, more attentive, you know, if the community had red flagged him in some way, if the guy who sold him the AR-15s had said seems like a little off.
00:44:47.760You know, maybe there's some sort of a social media search that they do.
00:45:14.360In which conservatives broadly are strongly in favor of the Second Amendment and progressives are not,
00:45:23.400but are also increasingly worried about what they call the carceral state, what they see as over-incarceration, as overzealous prosecutors,
00:45:35.060as a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affects people, in their view, who aren't white.
00:45:44.600And I think the combination of those actually makes it very difficult to do anything.
00:45:49.220Because, you know, on the one hand, you have people who aren't particularly invested in the Second Amendment.
00:45:55.900They'll say, well, we need laws and laws and laws and laws to deal with this.
00:47:48.020And clearly any of the mass shootings or especially school shootings, it opens up a wound that never really healed.
00:47:57.380But this tragedy that happened yesterday, it really touched home or a little closer to the heart.
00:48:07.600Not that they all don't, being that it was an elementary school, young children, it just, it was, I heard about it in the afternoon.
00:48:22.080And then I, a little later in the evening, I heard more about it on the news and watching it on the news.
00:48:34.600It just, it just, it just, uh, completely reminded me of Sandy Hook and almost like an instant replay of it.
00:48:43.240Uh, the fact that the shooter, uh, killed his grandmother.
00:48:49.840And just being in elementary school and just being in elementary school and breaching the entry and, uh, watching the, the news coverage of the, uh, the school and the, the response, first responders, it just all opened up the, that whole wound again.
00:49:12.980And, uh, there's just no words for it, uh, these shootings, uh, and the school shootings that we, we come to expect, um, in society now.
00:49:24.520And it's an awful thing to say, but it's a true fact.
00:49:28.300They just keep happening over and over again.
00:49:30.820And the tragedy that happened in Buffalo last week, it's, it's something we know that's going to happen again.
00:49:39.500And, uh, I just want to say that my heart goes out to the families and the victims, uh, of the tragedy yesterday and, uh, also the community.
00:49:52.760Uh, I know so firsthand so well what they're going through and just, just watching the news last night, family members waiting to see if their, their loved ones were at the hospital.
00:50:07.780Or, uh, uh, that sense of not knowing it brought me back to the night at the firehouse, uh, in Sandy Hook that afternoon, not knowing if Jesse was a victim, uh, or if he was survived somehow.
00:50:43.100You know so well what I've been through and seen at first hand over the years, um, I just, uh, couldn't help but think, think about what these families are, have to deal with in the future to come.
00:50:59.500Um, um, I pray to God they, they won't have to endure what we from Sandy Hook have had to endure, um, being a public tragedy.
00:51:10.500Uh, my, my heart definitely goes out to them.
00:51:13.840My thoughts and prayers are with the families and the victims and, um, the community.
00:51:26.820I know Jesse's story well, but if you, if you don't mind, I would like to take the audience through it a bit because.
00:51:33.860I think there's some healing value to be had in understanding, uh, in what happened before to better understand what's happening now.
00:51:43.160And I know the morning of December 14th, 2012, you had Jesse, you, you're divorced from Jesse's, uh, mom, you know, we're not with Scarlett, but you had him with you and you took him to a diner.
00:55:07.940And, uh, I would guess in about a half, probably 40 minutes or so after, uh, after the shooting,
00:55:15.920I arrived back there at the firehouse and, uh, the only way to describe it, it was like a war zone with state police, law enforcement, FBI, um, swap team.
00:55:31.560Very chaotic, but very well organized on the responders' part.
00:55:38.600There were a lot of students that were in the, uh, shortly thereafter, uh, coming into the firehouse that were in the school that they escorted out.
00:55:49.300Uh, I don't recall what time that was exactly.
00:55:54.760Um, of course, we looked for Jesse and never found him.
00:56:01.220Um, but the, the information wasn't real clear.
00:56:05.700It was, um, as to how many victims there were or if there was, how many were injured, how many were wounded.
00:56:15.420I never gave up the hope that he would, uh, he would survive or he would, uh, he was, um, got out somehow.
00:56:30.520And, uh, about 1 a.m. when we were notified or I was notified, confirmed as he was one of the victims.
00:56:39.180Uh, but that was more, uh, less, uh, and it was a lot more to happen that day that sets to my mind, too.
00:56:47.520Uh, you know, I, I know the families went through that yesterday.
00:56:52.420I, I know, uh, I remember thinking a day, a day or two, the next day, I guess, was, uh, about having to plan a funeral for Jesse.
00:57:04.260And, uh, I remember going to the funeral home.
00:57:09.180Thinking to myself, how am I ever going to be able to afford this?
00:57:12.860You know, knowing I had a, had to bury him, uh, didn't matter.
00:57:47.420Um, I, I mean, it's just those little things that we, when we have these shootings or these tragedies, we never, people never share that with it.
00:57:58.980It's, it's, it's always, we jump onto the agenda of gun control, the agenda of mental health.
00:58:05.120Um, um, oh, these, these people's lives in this community are forever changed.
00:58:11.900The victims' families' lives are forever changed, uh, void that never can be refilled or replaced.
00:58:22.080And as, as time went on, you become a target for so many things.
00:58:28.460People come out of the woodwork to exploit the tragedy, to solicit off the tragedy for financial gain.
00:58:35.920And I, it breaks my heart to, to know that these families are gone.
00:58:42.720I, I, I pray to God they don't, don't endure that.
00:58:45.580And it doesn't happen, but it continuously happens over, over and over again.
00:58:53.340You know, when you lose a child in any circumstances, it's absolutely devastating.
00:58:57.140But to then have to have your pain exploited and have the situation compounded by bad actors, which it has happened now repeatedly since Newtown, takes it to a whole different level.
00:59:13.140And that's also sadly likely to be part of their story.
00:59:17.620Political operators trying to push through agendas that they've long been pushing and using this to do it.
00:59:22.700And also, you know, we have to talk about the insanity of yes, Alex Jones, who I know you are suing and want to default judgment against with some other Newtown parents, but just the community that's some bizarre fringe lunatic community that gets together to say, don't touch our guns.
00:59:45.020Because the desire to take our guns is so big that a group of parents got together and faked this, that the, that the Newtown families had to endure that.
00:59:54.620And other families since then have had to endure that by people who are so ardent in their fringe beliefs that they actually think a parent would do something like this.
01:00:06.220And I know you've dealt with that firsthand.
01:00:08.240I just saw all very true what you said, but you know, one of the things that really comes to light to me is within hours or days of the Sandy Hook tragedy, the United Way came forward and was raising funds and accommodating and collecting donations that came, were coming into the community.
01:00:34.060And as time went on, it became a big fight.
01:00:40.740People, donors thought that funds were going, would be going toward, to the families or directly needed in the community.
01:00:53.560And they weren't, that wasn't the plan with it.
01:00:58.320And it took a lot of fighting by the families.
01:01:02.180It took, uh, Ken Feinberg, an attorney, uh, come up with a plan as how to distribute those funds.
01:01:11.340And it never worked out the way it should.
01:01:14.060Um, but every, every tragedy and shooting that's happened after this, it has been the same thing.
01:01:22.280These organizations come in and capital, try to capitalize off of these tragedies.
01:01:30.920And yes, some of the funds do go to the victims and the community, but there's a large part of them that, that just never make it there.
01:01:39.560Um, there are, um, there are a few funds that are set up, um, that a hundred percent of those funds do go to the, uh, the victims and their, and the families and the people who need.
01:01:53.900One of them is the National Compassion Fund.
01:01:57.000Um, and that I believe is the one that's in handling the donations in, uh, Buffalo.
01:02:04.740Well, but, uh, that's good to know, that's good to know, because you don't, you never know your good hearted people want to help.
01:03:04.600And it's, uh, I know for a fact the National Compassion Fund is, it's, uh, 100% goes to the victims and the family and the ones in need.
01:03:15.860Um, you know, you mentioned how immediately we go to gun laws and we go to mental health and we do like our forensic analysis of what needs to change.
01:03:25.780And I think it is a coping mechanism, right?
01:03:28.000To make us feel like we can control it.
01:03:30.160We can make sure it doesn't happen again.
01:03:32.800Things that we have proven unable to do.
01:03:35.300So, you're in a unique position having lived this and the Newtown families have gone different ways and don't all feel uniformly about any one issue.
01:03:55.460And, you know, I'll, I can share that, uh, uh, shortly.
01:04:00.140But, you know, we, well, you have these shootings, whether these mass killings or murders, attacks, the weapon of choice always seems to be a gun.
01:04:13.800Reason being, it's the most effective weapon to carry out these, these crimes.
01:04:21.140Um, and most of them are semi-automatic, uh, weapons because they're most effective.
01:04:27.660I do have a second amendment in this country, and, uh, that should be protected, and we, we shouldn't infringe upon that.
01:04:38.060Um, the answer isn't to go and, and take all the guns away from people or ban, ban weapons.
01:04:46.000Uh, there's definitely is a lot of room for improvement, whether it be through background checks, uh, which I fully support.
01:04:54.800Um, you know, being more observant to, uh, red flag with people, I guess, uh, or individuals.
01:05:08.880But the problem with this shooter in Texas or with that is he was 18 years old.
01:05:17.280I, he probably did not have a criminal record, didn't show up, wouldn't show up on a criminal background check.
01:05:24.800Um, I don't know where, how he obtained the gun, whether it was legally, illegally, um, but if it was through illegal channels, um, he would have never shown up probably with a criminal background.
01:06:38.800Um, with the case with the schools, uh, how did this individual get in there?
01:06:45.700I, I did hear he overpowered the law officer that was there.
01:06:49.140I don't know if that was through a gunfight or how that happened.
01:06:54.140Uh, but we are, we are being told at this hour, Neil, that the teachers and staff were banned from carrying guns at this school, uh, yet to be confirmed.
01:07:04.080But that's the initial report as for the security officer.
01:07:07.540Uh, yeah, initial reports are that he, he, the gunman overtook him.
01:07:10.580Um, you know, he, he had a breach entry to get into the school.
01:07:15.440I, I think, uh, centralized entry point in the front door, um, the ballistic proof glass, uh, ballistic proof entryway.
01:07:26.180So those are all things that, uh, are very beneficial and a necessity.
01:07:33.460Um, but our, our resource officers at these schools are only as good, only as effective as the training they have and the equipment they have.
01:07:46.960Um, the presence, yes, it's a deterrent, but if you have an armed individual there,
01:07:56.180a security personnel resource officer, that's a bigger deterrent and a much stronger deterrent to an armed gunman than an unharmed resource officer.
01:08:08.780And you have a highly trained individual who is willing to engage with an active shooter or a, uh, an armed gunman.
01:08:18.720And that's a lot bigger deterrent than for a gunman, knowing that they're going to be shot at and fired, fired back at.
01:08:27.920Um, it's a whole different mindset when you're getting shot at and being, doing the shooting.
01:08:37.100Um, so I, I fully support, um, resource officers in the school.
01:09:14.760Well, cause I think, you know, one of the things I, I'd like to know, um, is whether, like what your message is to the parents who are suffering down there.
01:09:24.920You know, I, I know you didn't take down that Christmas tree that you and Jesse decorated together for four years.
01:09:32.920Um, I just wonder whether there's a message.
01:09:39.600The Christmas tree is, uh, the Christmas tree is down, um, uh, that, that I could take down after, uh, after so many years, five years, I guess, maybe a little more than five years.
01:09:55.720Um, but it's, it's probably the last thing they want to hear, but, um, you know, uh, he, every, but we all get through it.
01:10:05.920Uh, it's the worst thing in the world to lose a child.
01:11:48.820And I have, uh, hopefully I have a few good years left, but, uh, no, I want to, want to enjoy what time I have left.
01:11:58.600I, I don't want to quit feeling sorry for myself or feel like I'm feeling like I'm the victim.
01:12:06.480Uh, I, I have the, the strength now and the knowledge, the ability, the ability to, to be a, be a support for people who are going through what I went through 10 years ago.
01:12:21.760The other thing that happened in Sandy Hook, and hopefully it's not going to happen anymore, uh, is the conspiracy theories.
01:12:31.480And, uh, the hoaxters that, uh, had derived out of, uh, after Sandy Hook, the Wolfgang Halviks, uh, Jim Spetzer, the Alex Joneses.
01:12:46.900Um, and, you know, these people attack the victims' families and, and the dead, um, the victims, uh, at the weakest moment.
01:12:59.400Um, and, uh, you, you have no resource and I don't know how to handle it.
01:13:08.200Being called a liar for criminal intent and criminal purposes, uh, crisis actor.
01:13:18.300And, and, and, and when you, you, you've lost the most valuable thing in your life and then to be, have to deal with this harassment and it's just, it's an unspeakable sin and it's, it's, it's terrorism.
01:13:38.000It's, uh, it's, uh, and fortunately I, I found the strength and, uh, the guidance to, uh, to stand up and fight for my rights.
01:13:51.920And, uh, it seems like I've, I've made success with that.
01:13:58.160And I hope that's despite, uh, deter it from other tragedies.
01:14:22.180I share my experience, but, um, you know, I've had a lot of support, um, across the board from people.
01:14:31.720A lot of people reached out to me yesterday to see how I was handling this because they all saw the similarities of what happened in Sandy Hook.
01:14:39.420But, you know, I share my story and what, what happened to me, but, you know, the focus in the sport needs to be on the people.
01:14:50.180Of the community and the victims, families of the tragedy in Texas yesterday.
01:14:59.160Um, not about the past tragedies, but they're the ones that need the help now.
01:15:06.260And they're the ones that can use the help in the weeks and the months to come and years to come.
01:15:44.460And, uh, the message he left for his brother, uh, written on a piece of paper, was have a lot of fun.
01:15:51.400Um, he definitely, uh, I, I never looked at it the way you, you just shared that, Megan.
01:15:58.000But, uh, yeah, he did leave a roadwork, a roadmap for, for his message and, uh, say my, my roadmap wasn't quite that clear.
01:16:09.660But, uh, you know, I've definitely acquired the tools over the years to, um, I, I think make a change, um, and the strength to go with that.
01:16:22.600Uh, you know, I'm sure in the days, weeks, and months to come, we're going to see the gun control agenda ramp up.
01:16:32.760And, um, especially with the, the, um, you know, where we're at with the, uh, political side of it now.
01:16:46.340Um, um, I think you're going to be, she'd probably try to reintroduce bills for gun bans, a confiscation.
01:17:01.460Um, I don't think we'll, we'll see much change or much success, sadly, with that.
01:17:08.480Um, but I definitely support people who are out there to support their agendas and their beliefs.
01:17:19.680Um, but I hope we, you know, we could, uh, at least improve the laws we have, um, address, strongly address the mental health issue.
01:17:31.500Um, and, uh, improve the school security, uh, yeah, fortification.
01:17:41.360And when we have these tragedies, we, you know, we have to, whatever failed there on the, the end of security of, of, and not to blame, uh, and I'm putting blame on the school or a resource officer or anything, but what we need to look at.
01:18:01.500Because what failed that in this situation that enabled them to breach entry, um, we, we learned from, we have to learn from these tragedies.
01:18:13.420And we can't bring back the people we lost or, or Jesse, or, and we just got to try to come up with things to prevent these tragedies, uh, and shootings.
01:18:25.080In the meantime, I feel like we'll all do well, but especially the Texas families, nurturing, healing, love.
01:18:31.260If we follow Jesse's words, it's an amazing message for him to have left on Scarlett's chalkboard and for her to have found after his passing, nurturing, healing, love.