Hey BillOReilly.com Premium Members, Welcome to the No Spin News Thursday, February, 15th 2018. Take Your Country Back.

Now we have a very important broadcast for you today. So I'm going to be very methodical in how I go through this because we have to do something in America about innocent people being gunned down. 

Although, I'm going to give you facts tonight that are going to startle you. And this is going to separate us from everything you're hearing on cable TV, network news really doesn't cover it, you know in-depth they just give you the basics but we're going to go way, way in-depth here and explain what happened in Florida yesterday where 17 innocent people were killed, including a coach who gave up his life protecting students in that school. So I'm going to go through this in a very methodical way. 

The first thing is, I tried to watch the morning coverage of this stuff on cable TV and I could not watch it again because so much of it was disingenuous. The commentators and anchors were posturing for what they think their bosses want to hear whether it be gun control or nationalist movement or whatever it may be criticizing President Trump, you know lax gun control. It was just so annoying, I wanted to know about the shooter. I wanted to know why this happened. And so I put my staff on it and we have put together a pretty good profile and then we're going to talk to a guy who was there Dr. Daniel Bober who's a very good guest and he was actually there in Broward County yesterday on the scene after the crime happened. 

All right so let's walk through it. We've got this guy 19 year old Nikolas Cruz. He's a ne'er-do-well. All right. Why is he a ne'er-do-well. Well his father died. He's adopted. His mother died. I mean this kid had it rough, so he was adopted. He and his sibling on Long Island where I am right now. They moved to Florida. The adopted family Linda and Roger Kruse. All right. And then about 2005 Roger Kruse died of a heart attack. So no father in the home. And then last November the mother Linda dies of pneumonia. 

Now this seems to have set Nikolas off, the death of his mother. So therefore he had to then move around, the State didn't know what to do with him, 19 years old. And he winds up living in a home of one of his friends, a classmate. All right, at Margory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County. The boy was expelled from the high school. But here's what's interesting, before that, before the expulsion, and it was for fighting we understand. He had done OK in an ROTC program. So it looks like once his mother died he went off the rails. That's what it looks like now. People in the school obviously you get expelled. Everybody knows and some kids commented on Nikolas, here's what they said: 

"Yeah. I've known him since sixth grade. We've been together since middle school. He wasn't really a friend he was kind of. An outlier kid that was like always wanting friends but he would just know he would never get in a group of friends. He was always like a juvenile delinquent type of kid and I know that his. When he was younger his mom died. So he moved in with his grandma and his grandma died. So he had to go to a foster home. And he's been living there before this happened."

"There was multiple times he's been just like he's always just been so destructive and like not all there like I was never mean to him. Every time I would see him I would say hi to him. But at the same time like the thought of me like being around that kid like it's kind of scary." 

So the boy there misspoke, what I gave you the narrative that I gave you is is correct. Now Nikolas Cruz gave off all kinds of signals all right after he was expelled. He went to some kind of what they call opportunity school. I used to teach high school in south Florida. You get expelled from a public school, you go to another school for kids who are trouble. I don't know what his status at that school was but they tried to get him in there. He was working at a dollar store but he was a troubled kid there's no doubt about it. And he was acting out on social media postings under his name said quote, "I want to shoot people with an AR 15. I want to die fighting killing." "I am going to kill law enforcement one day they go after the good people. You know I mean there were a lot of flags on this kid and the FBI was told about him. We don't really know the status of what happened after that. OK. But the FBI was told about him. 

Now in Florida you can buy a rifle. All right. An AR 15 in this case A.R. stands for Armalite. It's not assault rifle it's Armalite it's a semiautomatic. It takes 30 rounds but you can customize it to 100 rounds. If you're 18 years old in Florida you can buy this weapon and you don't need a license, training anything like that. All right if you buy from a licensed dealer they'll do a background check but if you buy from somebody without a license they won't. But Nikolas obtained the weapon legally. All right so he bought the rifle he had the rifle, people knew he had the rifle. And then he had them flash grenades and things like that on him. So Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms investigating that. Florida has very liberal gun laws. All right. In order to buy a pistol you have to be 21 but a rifle. Anybody can pick that up, if you're over 18. Remember you can't buy cigarettes unless you're 21 so and you don't have to register. You don't have to register, you don't really do anything. It's a liberal state in that regard. But what else can I tell you about this kid. 

You know there's some neo nazis saying that he was involved with them. We don't know that, to be a fact. So I'm not going to report that. There's a lot of that stuff floating around. OK.

So when the commentators got a hold of this story there was the usual hysteria and I want to give you some very interesting stats starting with Columbine. 

The mass shooting in Colorado in 1999 to this day 227 people have been killed in fatal school shootings, 227. All right, that's a lot 23 of those elementary kids, that was in Connecticut. However, in 1999 there were 28,874 shooting deaths in America. 28,874 shooting deaths in 1999. In 2017, 15,590 that's almost cut in half. So when the commentators tell you this is out of control. Guns are everywhere People can be undone. It's not true. That in this country. All right these kinds of crimes, shooting crimes are going down.

Here's the most startling fact of all. In 1999 there were 641,000 victims of gunshots wounds. Last year., 2017, 70,000 from 641,000 to 70,000. So authorities are making progress on solving this problem. No doubt about it. All right. We are not becoming more violent as far as guns are concerned, we're becoming less violent here in America. You'll never hear that. You will never hear that in the national media. 

Now here are my solutions and then I'm going to get to Dr. Bober who has been patiently waiting and we really appreciate it. 

All public schools. Let me start with this. States are primarily responsible for gun laws not the federal government. The Federal Government has to enforce the Constitution which is, we the people have a right to bear arms. That means you can't ban all guns. We have a right to protect ourselves. But the individual states have a right to define how that's carried out. And that's the way it should be. There are different standards here in New York City than there would be for Alabama. You don't want California law imposing itself on Texas or Florida. It's a different mindset. The people in the states should have the right to regulate firearms for the public good, public safety the way they want to. 

Now if I'm the governor of any state and I pass a law that says all public schools should have armed guards on campus. There was an armed guard at the school in Broward County. But for some reason we don't know why the armed guard never caught up with the shooter though, we'll find out why. I don't want to demonize the man but there was one armed guard. But all schools, public schools in this country armed guards on campus. And I'd say at least two or three you got to have, now in this day and age. 

There should be watch lists like you know the no-fly lists that the federal government has, they don't let the terrorists on planes because they are afraid they'll blow up the planes. They've got to be gun watch lists in each state. So if you're expelled from school as this boy was and we think it's for fighting, you go on a watch list. If you're involved in an altercation even though you're not charged. But it's a violent altercation, you go on a watch list, in your state. And that list is published for any gun dealer, unlicensed or license. If your names on that list you don't get a gun. Now you can get off the list. You can appeal it, I don't think that's a lifetime ban. But there has got to be watch lists of people who are demonstrating bizarre behavior, mental deficiencies. That's what President Trump said today. Now he's going to have a big summit meeting, the President is, to bring in everybody. I'll tell you right now you're expelled from school, you're involved in a violent altercation, anything like that. You don't have to be charged and convicted. You go on a watch list and you can appeal it. But the authorities got to know. All right. 

So that's two, three. Nobody can buy a gun, unless you're 21 years old. I mean it just makes sense, give the maturation process a chance though. No way this kid should have been able to buy a semiautomatic rifle and nobody knew about it. 21. You've got plenty of loons at 21 be you know public safety demands it and then the mental health guidelines in each state have got to be explicitly passed by the legislators. 

The Sheriff of Broward County, Israel is his name. OK. Said look we need the power when we get a report of a guy or gal is acting very strangely to go in and interview that person. So we can ascertain if the person is a danger to the neighborhood. All right. Those laws have to be very, very well spelled out. Because if you look, if you go back to all of the shootings, every one of them. Tt's always a strange kid, young person, trouble, everybody knew he was trouble. Well the cops have got to be aware of that. This isn't a fascist state is you you've got have common sense, And the states have got to define it. 

Let's see if I left anything out here. I think that's reasonable. I think that what I put forth today and what I've told me, you know why the kid did it. The kid didn't have anybody. All right the school threw him out he was expelled. He didn't have any friends and any parents and anybody looking out for him. He just snapped and here he got a big gun, I'm going to go out and I'm going to take a lot of people with me. 

Let's bring in Dr. Daniel Bober. He is a mental illness and addiction specialist, forensic psychiatrist as well. Member of the Broward County Sheriff's Office community response team which is why he was on the crime scene yesterday. Very impressive resume. 

All right. Have I done anything false in your opinion or, or irresponsible in my analysis of this situation? 

"Well I just want to make a few comments. Number one I just want to say thank you to the men and women of the Broward Sheriff's Office. They've done a tremendous job. They're just real heroes and they're heroes every day. Number two I want to say that I think that was a really detailed and thorough analysis and I actually haven't heard anything that detailed any of the other networks so I think that was really, really done well." 

Thank you. 

"Point one I do think that we should raise the gun age because as you said the brain doesn't really finish maturing until about age 25 and we know that the part, the last part of the brain to develop is something called the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for things like controlling your impulses and decision making. And so I think an older gun age would be something that would certainly benefit society. 

"But what I don't agree with is having a watch list because here's the reason, Bill, I think you're going to get a lot of false positives. You know there are so many kids out there who are disillusioned who feel marginalized who are posting negative propaganda on social media but aren't going to be killing 17 people at schools so I think you're going to get a lot of people who..." 

Let me just clarify. I agree with you. You would have to have a piece of information that wasn't an opinion like an expulsion, like a civil lawsuit for battery, like a domestic problem that wound its way into the court. You don't have to be arrested. But it would have to be something that was documented, not an opinion. Go ahead. 

"So in the state of Florida currently you could not purchase a firearm if you have what's called a Baker Act or an involuntary commitment. So if you had been committed to a psychiatric hospital by either a police officer or a psychiatrist you are not allowed to purchase a firearm. So there are already safeguards in place to prevent people from obtaining firearms."

What about the unlicensed gun dealers in Florida. How would they know if you had been committed? 

"Are you talking about like the gun, at the gun show exception where people sort of get around the background for that. 

"Well that's certainly true but I'm going to point something else out to you in the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut. Adam Lanza got the firearm from his mother." 

Yeah. 

"The firearm was in his house so you know and this kid in Florida passed a legal background check. So the bottom line is the following, if people are determined and they're hell bent on killing a lot of people there's little you can do to stop them." 

I agree. But, but if you had a watch list in Florida based on expulsions for violent acts in high school then he wouldn't pass a background check. 

"It's true. But you know again if he wanted to get a gun, he would have gotten a gun. It would've slowed him down but he would have still gotten a gun. 

All society can do, Dr. is put in as many safeguards as possible, which is why the gun incidents, killings and woundings have dropped so dramatically since 1999. Because we have done that in many, many places. That's why it's dropped. 

"Right, only 4 percent of homicides are committed by people with mental illness. The majority of people who are mentally ill are not violent and the majority of gun owners are not violent people."

Of course not.

"This was simply a perfect storm that came together very, very beautifully illustrated. This kid's background as I said in a way that no one has on any network I've heard. And so you see that this was a kid who again felt like he was on the fringes. He had no one. No one cared about him. He had very low self-esteem and that he was going to go out and finally feel powerful by taking out all these people in eruptive violence. And that's exactly what happened, like you said." 

When his mother died, that was almost like that snapped him. He had nowhere to live. Nobody was paying attention to him and he just said I'm going to go out and I'm going to tell you. And that's what all of them do. I'm going to. They know they're going to look this kid. He's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Doesn't care you know is like me is meaningless to him but society's obligation. 

And I know you agree with this doctor because you're a brilliant man. Suppose to protect as many people as possible. All right. Now these charlatans on TV who say all we have to ban the guns and this and that you are absolutely correct. Somebody wants to kill people in a mass way, they're going to find a way to do there's more than 100 million guns on the streets of America because our development as a nation depended on firearms. You couldn't move west unless you had one. That's our tradition. It's not like Finland. So it just drives me crazy when I hear this grandstanding, I'm not going to mention any names but if you watch cable and even network this morning, you know who the grandstanders are. When they have no and they never give you the stat that the United States is making very very, very good progress in protecting its citizenry. But you're right we're never going to stop it entirely. 

Now here's my last question for you. This kid was empowered by social media, Nikolas Cruz. All right. He got on their braggadocio. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that with my guns. Posted Pictures of him with guns. Does social media, all right act as a stimulant for these kinds of homicidal people? 

"Absolutely Bill after Columbine particularly, in the mid to late 90s, there was a 24 hour news cycle and there's been a mass proliferation of social media. We are living in this generation now with millennials, who in my opinion many are very self obsessed, very narcissistic as you've spoken about on previous shows. And they are looking for any recognition. And they are so desperate to be recognized that many of them will act in this way especially if they are troubled like this young man was to get attention. This is something that you didn't see 20 or 30 years ago when you didn't have the social media presence, that you had. So the social media is really like fuel on the fire for these events." 

When a person sees on Facebook or Instagram or anything, a troubling photograph and troubling rhetoric. Should the person then call the FBI. Is that what our obligation is as a citizen? 

"Again, it's one of those things where unless they make a specific threat there's really not much the FBI is going to do about it. I don't really fault the FBI. I think the FBI did the best job they could. What if they went to this kid's house and they spoke to him and he admitted doing all this. It's still not enough not to make an arrest. Not a crime, right it's free speech." 

Unless it's a specific person. If he says I'm going to try to kill Mr. So-and-so than it would.

"Right exactly." 

All right. Anyway, look Doc you're really performing a service down there in South Florida. We really appreciate it. We're going to ask you to come back as we're following this story and I think that all Americans want to protect their fellow citizens particularly children. And we've got to go about it a methodical fact-based way. And that's all we can do. Thanks again Doc we appreciate it very much. 

"Thanks for having me. Thank you." 

So I will look forward to hearing your comments on our analysis and reporting and interview with the doctor. You can get us on the message boards when you're a premium member of course. Bill.BillOReilly.com are or e-mail Bill@billoreilly.com in an e-mail. I tweet @BillOReilly, we did a whole bunch of stuff. We'll tweet more tonight. 

I'm torn whether to out these terrible people on television who exploit these kinds of situations for their own gain. I haven't done it so far. You know I'm debating it. All right. 

A couple of other stories you should know about. Mitt Romney going to run for the Senate in Utah. That matters because I believe Mr. Romney is setting himself up for a primary challenge to Donald Trump in 2020. All right, so he needs a seat in Utah as his base of operations. And I think that Romney will go against Trump and Romney will win that election in Utah. That's important. 

DOJ official Bruce Ohr, big trouble. He was an Associate Attorney General. His wife worked for Fusion GPS, which was the firm that got the phony dossier on President Trump. It was financed by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC. Well Mr. Ohr, Bruce Ohr never told his superiors that his wife was working for Fusion GPS. Even though he was involved with the dossier. It's just another example of corruption and chaos in this whole Russian collusion thing. 

All right let's read some letters. 

Mary. Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. 

"After the mass shooting in Florida I have to ask why do we allow rapid fire guns in our country. The manufacturer for no other use in killing people hunting can be done with other type." 

Look that is the crux of the of the gun control debate, Mary but people have a right to arm themselves. Now, each state as I said can put their own standards up. You can't have a mortar, you can't have a bazooka. So if the state of New York wants to say no AK 15s they have the right to do it. But if the state of Florida wants to say we believe that our people should have the right to defend themselves with that weapon. Florida has a right to do it. It's a local issue. 

Chuck Coveney. Ashton, Idaho. 

"In the latest school shooting, why don't people look at the real cause instead of going after gun owners. Kids today are exposed to highly graphic movies that use guns to resolve issues. Plus, online games where kids shoot and kill people and things to win the game. Hollywood and gaming industries exploit gun violence." 

Sure they do. But you can't do anything about it because it's freedom. You want to buy violent gun game on your internet. You can, a warning on it and everything else. But you know that's kind of, I always said our freedoms are what makes this country great but it also the downside is, it hurts people. 

John Colar. Vale, Arizona. 

"What do you think about gun free zones. I spent 38 years in law enforcement and work in security now for high school. I believe gun free zones allow bad people to carry guns and good people will obey the law to abstain from being armed." 

Look the gun free zones, are a local issue. I think it's solved by my suggestion that all governors mandate that two or three or more armed guards be in every public school. It's just you know it's just another salary, you got to pay it. I think that solves that problem. 

Tom Scotty. Springhill, Florida. 

"As a retired law enforcement officer, we have crime watches in our neighborhoods, security at airports, Guardian Angels in the subways. Yet one cop cannot cover a school especially that large. I would gladly volunteer, no pay to patrol schools." 

Look neighborhood watch watches on school grounds. Absolutely, absolutely. This is how citizens can get involved. But there's got to be a core. Can't have everybody with guns, can have neighborhood watches protecting the school property. But there's got to be the guys inside or the gals. 

Edwin Holmes. Western Australia.

"Bill can't think of why the Trump administration would not want to take up your idea of a unit to fight the hate Trump campaign seems very sensible to me. I know you quite often give out advice on the No Spin News podcast. Has the White House ever taken any of your advice." 

I don't know. I mean I think that the Justice Department has followed my guidelines in how they deal with sanctuary cities. All right, a cracking down on people who run the sanctuary cities. So I think that was heard. We almost got Jessica's Law passed. I was on TV at that time and I was Harry Reid the despicable Senator ex-Senator from Nevada that kill that. 

Michael Sullivan. Reynoldsburg, Ohio. 

"You're exactly right when you say Trump needs an effective response team. But sadly, I doubt, he will take that advice. I don't know Mueller’s final plan but you can bet he'll stay front and center until the midterm elections are over." 

He will. I don't think Mueller will wrap up his investigation before that but I could be wrong. 

Thomas Paolillo. Roseland, New Jersey. 

"Cop is an acronym from the past it stands for a constable on patrol. It is not disrespectful to police officers." 

I didn't know that. Thank you for that Thomas. Constable on patrol. I did not know that, I should have. 

Robert. Salt Lake City. 

"The comment that Joy Behar made about Vice President Pence and Jesus is out of bounds not the first time she's made terrible and false comments. ABC should cancel The View." 

They're not going to cancel The View. I mean everybody knows who Joy Behar is. She's a nasty, nasty person. ABC knows that, they want her. They got her. 

Jane Walpole. Massachusetts.

"Bill you're absolutely right about the White House sending a team to handle daily attacks. So to help them along I'm thinking about taking advantage of your wonderful promotional offer of three Premium Membership gift certificates and I get four books and my gift certificate and my gift membership extended. So I'm going to take the three gift certificates that I buy and send it to President Trump, General Kelly and Vice President Pence." 

Way to go, Jane. Do that, send it to them. 

James in Suffolk, Virginia. 

"The Israeli wall has worked for them, but there's one thing you need to be aware of Bill when someone tries to come across the wall. They use deadly force to halt and that's something we don't do." 

Not in all cases. It's not shoot to kill, James but it is very punitive if you violate Israeli security. There's no doubt about it and I think it should be punitive here as well, if you try to sneak in this country. 

OK that's it. That was a, I think one of our best analysis today in a very complicated subject on the shooting business. 

I have a Word of the Day, I don't want you to be a jackanapes when writing to BillOReilly.com. I really appreciate you guys being Premium Members. 

I'm going to open up this, this analysis today with the doctor for everybody to see tonight. I think it's that important. I don't think you guys will mind. Everybody can see it. And I want you to call your friends and say look go to BillOReilly.com it's free tonight. Check out what he's doing on very important stories we need to get this word out. You know people are distracted these days. So I hope you'll do that for us.

And on Monday I'm going to be in New Orleans. So I won't be able to do the podcast but we're going to have a very special one for you that you're going to want to see. We put together very, very interesting bunch of interviews that are worth your time. So have a great weekend and we'll see you again soon.

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