Gun Control

“For more than a year, the state of Florida failed to conduct national background checks on tens of thousands of applications for concealed weapons permits, potentially allowing drug addicts or people with a mental illness to carry firearms in public,” the Tampa Bay Times reports.

“The employee in charge of the background checks could not log into the system… The problem went unresolved until discovered by another worker in March 2017 — meaning that for more than a year applications got approved without the required background check.”

“Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam (R) has made it a priority to speed up the issuing of concealed weapons permits since he was elected in 2010… Now running for Florida governor as a Republican, Putnam’s campaign touts his expansion of concealed carry permits as one of his top accomplishments.”

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said that the federal school safety commission set up after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will not examine the role of guns in school violence, the AP reports.

Said DeVos: “That is not part of the commission’s charge per se. We are actually studying school safety and how we can ensure our students are safe at school.”

“Y’all been sending thoughts and prayers for two freaking decades now. Time to try something new.”

— Texas state Rep. Gene Wu (D), quoted by the Houston Chronicle, after 10 students were killed in yesterday’s school shooting.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) suggested the existence of “too many entrances and too many exits” in schools may lead to such shootings, the Daily Beast reports.

Said Patrick: “We have to look at the design of our schools moving forward and retrofitting schools that are already built… there are too many entrances and too many exits to our over 8,000 campuses in Texas. There aren’t enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit…maybe we need to look at limiting the entrance and exits into our schools so that we can have law enforcement looking at the people coming in through one or two entrances.”

He added: “We’re gonna have to be creative. We’re gonna have to think out of the box.”

At least eight people were killed in gunfire at a Houston high school, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Washington Post: “An assistant principal at Santa Fe High School told ABC-13 in Houston that a shooter had been ‘arrested and secured.’ The television station reported that law enforcement sources said the shooter appeared to be a student.”

“Attendees at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas can carry their firearms — except during the forum where President Trump and Vice President Pence speak Friday,” the AP reports.

“The NRA posted a notice on its website saying that the arena will be under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Secret Service during the leadership forum. It’s standard for the Secret Service to bar firearms from being carried into places visited by the people they protect, regardless of state laws. Other prohibited items include toy guns and knives, according to the NRA posting.”

President Trump “is expected to speak at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting later this week in Dallas,” CNN reports..

“The trip would be Trump’s third consecutive address to the NRA’s annual meeting. But this year, Trump is set to speak to the gun lobby just two months after he drew concerns from conservatives after urging lawmakers to not fear the NRA and suggesting law enforcement officials should take guns away from dangerous individuals without due process.”

“I’m not a hero. I’m just a regular person.”

— James Shaw Jr, quoted by the New York Times, a day after he wrested an assault rifle from a man who opened fire at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville.

“The National Rifle Association has accepted contributions from about 23 Russians, or Americans living in Russia, since 2015, the gun rights group acknowledged to Congress,” NPR reports.

“The NRA said in a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) that the sum it received from those people was just over $2,500 and most of that was ‘routine payments’ for membership dues or magazine subscriptions.”