FBI Agent Robert Lasky (courtesy youtube.com)
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I’d like to say I was shocked to discover the FBI had specific, credible information about the Parkland, Florida spree killer’s plans to commit mass murder — and did nothing. I wasn’t. As for why the Fibbies dropped the ball I turn to Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Be that as it may, the feds’ failure highlights an important truth . . .

You can’t rely on anyone to save you, your friends or your family from a violent attack, whether it originates with a criminal, crazy, terrorist or the government. (Yes, there is that.) Your safety and security ultimately depends on you.

The antis scoff at the idea that a lone [white] citizen can defend him or herself, their family and/or community against a violent attack by force of arms. And in certain circumstances, I’m sure that’s right. But so what?

If push comes to shove, I’d rather die with a gun in my hand than not. I’d rather do something to stop a threat rather than wait and hope that some government worker will come to my rescue.

That’s not a new idea for me, but the FBI’s incompetence stiffens my resolve. What’s your takeaway from their failure to stop the Parkland, Florida spree killer?

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82 COMMENTS

    • If the person that called the tip line had not stopped with the FBI and had called state and local police, maybe someone would have done something before that crazy killed all those kids.

      • True; but how far is it reasonable for a third party to take it? The threat wasn’t against the YouTuber.

        If calling the FBI isn’t enough, then the problem lies with the FBI, not the person who tried to do the right thing by letting them know. In my opinion, anyway.

        • I agree with the sentiment but just fyi we’re not talking about the one youtube comment here. This is something separate- someone “close” to the killed who called the FBI and told them a great deal about the nut, including his armaments and that he sounded like he was planning to shoot up the school.

      • Given the evidence that existed at the time of the tip to the FBI, what is the “something” that you would have had someone do?

        As for state or local police, the locals had been to his house on various violence and disturbance calls 39 times already. Are you suggesting the 40th time is the charm, or are 39 visits enough to inform themselves that this guy is trouble?

    • “No reasonable prosecutor would try to make that case.”

      I don’t know what you expect of an agency as completely corrupt, inept, and politicized as the Five Big Idiots. J. Edgar Hoover would never have let this happen, but he hasn’t been seen around DC for a while.

      I submit that your faith in the State is misplaced.

  1. I’m glad an overreaching govt agency is incompetent, really. Cops are not suppose to act before the fact.

    Dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery any day.

    • There’s acting before the fact and there’s investigating before the fact. No one is suggesting- well, no one here- that they arrest the guy for thought crime. But you can damn well investigate whether he is planning a crime and then intercept him before he actually blows someone away.

      The antis may be nuts, but we have our own brand of cashews.

  2. It pretty much confirms what I already thought: background checks are little more than security theater. Because no matter how many laws or layers of regulation they impose upon us the agents of the government often won’t even bother to go out there and take care of known threats.

  3. That the FBI is another waste of government money and will do more to ensure they keep their jobs and big pensions than defend truth, justice, and the American way.

    Time for the FBI to be disbanded.

      • It took 150 agents to cover up killary’s treason. Anybody else would be in jail right now just for putting classified materials somewhere that the weren’t supposed to be. Hell, there’s a squid doing hard time for taking a selfie in a sub and managing to catch a sonar station in the background.

    • Word. I say we immediately abolish the FBI and fund a national concealed carry training program for teachers and staff instead.

      Let’s give school shooters less media attention and more bullet holes.

  4. My low level of confidence in the government to keep me from harm has been affirmed while my high level of confidence in the government’s ability to do me harm remains.

    If you want it done right, do it yourself applies to self defense as well.

    • Exactly.

      If I or my family ever need saving from imminent violence, the chances are just about even between the government jumping in to stop the threat and the government being the source of it. I’d rather rely on myself.

  5. Anyone who has ever believed the FBI or any government agency is looking out for your best interest is a damn fool. Bureaucrats regardless of department are in it for their own welfare. It wouldn’t surprise me if the FBI intentionally dropped the ball on this to further the anti gun agenda they have been supporting for decades. Unless a lot of heads at the top are chopped and soon. This whole affair will simple dry up a blow away in the breeze of the next event.

    • Don’t assign to malfeasance that which can be more easily described as incompetence, this is especially true of government bureaucracy.

      • That is retarded. Using that logic, all of the bad criminals (the stupid ones who are easily caught) never had any malice. Furthermore the strange pattern of mass shooters being known to/having prior contact with the feds is an anomaly that shouldn’t be discounted by any independent thinker over some ignorant razor philosophy.

    • Once maybe. Two is too much. Clear the Pulse shooter? Don’t attempt anything about Cruz? Perception becomes that inaction is for a purpose ….

  6. If the FBI would spend no time in political deep state, maybe they would have more time to investigate real criminals. The only Agents I knew over the years who were competent, were Agents who had prior law enforcement experience. Those I knew who came to the bureau right out of getting their 4 year college degree were pretty much educated idiots.

  7. What does the FBI have to do with any of it? How does this crime fall under FBI jurisdiction? Why is this not simply a matter for local police? Why is anyone looking to national police to “save” them? Why does the governor think the FBI has any duty to prevent any crimes? (any governor who does not understand his/her own jurisdiction, his/her law enforcement obligations and the Supreme Court limits on law enforcement obligation should be summarily dismissed from offece – like forcefully removed by the state police)

    • Isn’t the FBI supposed to investigate terrorist threats?
      Or is that only if the tip comes from the CIA, or involves an office-building or airliner?!

      DrDKW

      • Didn’t consider “terrorism” because “terrorism” has intent beyond just killing. The Florida shooter seems like the run-of-the-mill warped individual with a specific grievance. Someone who wants to “get even”, or punish perceived personal enemies. If crazed individuals with no political agenda are “terrorists”, then we have a serious problem with law enforcement. Where are the jurisdictional lines? If all threats of shooting up a location are “terrorism” then we end up with no one responsible, no one sure who should do what and when, an environment where no one does anything because “the other agency” is responsible.

        • When someone seeks to commit mass murder you can’t always be sure of their motives. Investigation is a ‘free action’ and does not require a burden of evidence. If a federal investigation reveals no federal crime but does show evidence of crimes against the local jurisdiction, they can pass that evidence along and it remains fully admissible.

          Even so, the STATE of Florida specifically gives arrest power to all federal law enforcement for felonious crimes of violence.

          I don’t know why you’re trying so hard to make a federalist point on this topic, you do not have the high ground.

        • You completely missed the point. The FBI is not the federal/national police force. They are not empowered to enforce local laws, everywhere. LEOs have all the responsibility for local law enforcement, whether they delegate some actions to the FBI, or not. The FBI is not to blame for the Florida event. But anyone thinking somehow the FBI is a superpolice is reinforcing the notion that the federal government should, can and will prevent crimes and protect the citizenry. Or just someone wanting to throw off personal or agency blame for failing to do the job they want the FBI to be responsible for.

          And this doesn’t even come near addressing the problem of what we want to do about pre-crime police involvement. The same cohort that shouts we can’t put mentally unstable people in institutions also is screaming that something must be done to keep guns out of the hands of the same unstable people.

        • “The FBI is not the federal/national police force. They are not empowered to enforce local laws”

          The Gun Free School Zone Law is Federal.

        • “The Gun Free School Zone Law is Federal.”

          Yes, it is. Are there any states that do not have the same law? In those states, the state has primary.

          The FBI does not investigate or enforce every federal law. The US Attorneys have investigators and arrest authority. Each federal agency charged with protecting anything has a law enforcement division. Park Rangers enforce laws and regulations of parks; Fish and Game wardens enforce (investigate and arrest) violations of hunting and fishing laws. The FBI is not the national police.

          In the Florida incident, the local law enforcement has sufficient information to work toward a non-pre crime solution, and did not. Blaming the FBI for failures at the local level only serves to put stilts under the notion that somehow federal agents must be in charge of, or involved in, every imaginable crime. Which is something POTG should find repugnant, but also dangerous.

        • Those arguing the FBI had no jurisdiction in a State of Fla Public School so that there was no reason for them to pass on the information they were given miss something rather obvious here. What the hell were they doing on site shortly after the shooting with a task force if they had no jurisdiction? Covering their collective a$$es?? They were on site before FDLE had anything set up. How does that happen? They had multiple agents and a specially equipped vehicle for crime scene investigations!

        • Good question. Might be interesting to query the FBI.

          BTW, if the SC declared that police (any police) have no duty to prevent, protect, save the public from danger, why does action/inaction by FBI in Florida matter a whit?

    • Sam I Am,

      This situation did not directly fall under the purview of the FBI. And that does not matter. Anyone who works in law enforcement must forward credible information of an upcoming attack to the relevant jurisdiction. We are talking about a 5 minute phone call and sending an e-mail with the details.

      For that matter, I expect ANYONE (including you and me) who receives such detailed information to forward it to the local police or county Sheriff. If someone called my phone by mistake and left all of the information in a voice message, I would immediately drop everything I was doing, look up the phone number for the Broward County Sheriff, and call them.

      • “I am going to be a professional school shooter” is NOT a specific threat as to a particular school at a particular point in time, it is not a “plan” anymore than a five year old saying “when I grow up I am going to be a fireman.” It is a nothing burger, it is not a crime, which is why the FBI expended no resources on it. The internet is full of such crap every single day. And to call for the Director’s resignation because the lowest of the low level employee didn’t think an internet posting warranted an investigation? Give me a break! You don’t get rid of the head of a department because someone makes a mistake, you get rid of them only when the mistake was due to institutional policies that the head established. or knew about and failed to change.

        • I understand that someone close to the killer called the FBI with concrete info about this guy, who while being unstable, violent and armed, made threats about killing bunch of kids. It’s not just about some anonymous internet comment.

        • History clearly indicates otherwise. If some a$$hole says they are going to be a professional school shooter, that is a threat. It isn’t a direct, specific threat, but it was clearly a threat.

          If you don’t think those words are a threat, go ahead and post them on your own social media and see the response.

        • Mark N.,

          I am not saying that the FBI should have pulled out all the stops because of a single sentence under someone’s YouTube video. What I am saying: when someone calls the FBI and says that John Doe purchased a rifle, magazines, ammunition, kills lots of animals, expressed a desire to kill people, and expressed his intention to shoot a bunch of people in a school, THAT is something that the FBI should have forwarded to the Broward County Sheriff.

          Now, whether or not the Broward County Sheriff could have prosecuted the Florida school attacker with that information (or with additional evidence from an investigation) I have no idea and that is a different debate. Regardless, the FBI should have contacted the Broward County Sheriff.

        • To say that the FBI wasn’t given enough info to track down the shooter is a crock. They were able to track down all of Hillary’s emails and with the help of the NSA spy on people all the time. They have previously served warrants on Google and Facebook for information. The IP address for the poster of the comment could have been had in minutes and then the local authorities could have been notified! We the people use technology so we are ‘t As stupid as you Federal a$$holes think we are!! Your freaking arrogance is really pissing everybody outside the Beltway and other liber shitholes off and we are tired of it.

          Bottom line is you didn’t look into it because you disn’t Give a crap!!plus it served your gun control agenda!!

      • I understand about notifications going up, down, sideways, and over and out. Question, why is anyone concerned the FBI protocols didn’t work? How was perfect coordination going to result in the FBI taking jurisdiction over a potential murder suspect? To my knowledge, there is no federal superiority for law enforcement is someone wakes up and takes out the neighbors on either side. Are we saying that if somebody wipes out their left and right neighbors, but is not considered “odd” then local police have jurisdiction, but if someone acts odd before an attack on neighbors, the feds have jurisdiction? (I realize I do not know all the federal/local jurisdiction rules).

        The implications of the media, and even the FBI, is that somehow the FBI should have stepped-in before a crime was committed (a true “lone wolf” like the Florida guy cannot be charged with federal conspiracy crimes). That somehow, the FBI failed to protect people they are not chartered to protect. It is not like the LEOs did not already know the shooter was a problem.

  8. To me? well……The FBI screwed the pooch on cruz, so next time They’ll over react to a meaningless comment and then we’ll have another “Swatting” accident or a Ruby Ridge RailRoading of an innocentt person.

  9. One of the things I would like to know is how many similar reports come into the Fibbies on a daily basis?

    If they’re getting hundreds (or more) of reports, it might just take a long time to get to them; kinda like the ATF and suppressor paperwork.

    • According to the statement by the FBI, the protocol they were supposed to use was not followed and the issue was not one of being overworked or understaffed.

      That tells me someone fucked up. That someone should not be drawing a paycheck.

  10. My takeaway from their failure to stop the Parkland, Florida spree killer:

    Exhibit this FRONT AND CENTER to people who have put their faith in government to save them — and use it to show those people that we all have to save ourselves.

    This is an important element in our collective effort to gain popular support. How many times have we heard gun-grabbers claim that banning firearms will not endanger us because we can count on government to save us? This total failure is the latest proof-positive that we cannot count on government to save us.

    Combine this failure at the FBI with the FACT that Broward County Sheriff visited the Florida school killer’s home 39 times in 7 years and we have a winning platform. And for the coup de grâce: restate the FACT that local police waited several HOURS to go in and rescue the wounded at the Pulse Nightclub attack.

    Government law enforcement agencies have handed us the win on a silver platter. It is high time that we take it and run with it.

  11. To quote Ronald Reagan: “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Since the ’90s the FBI leadership and most rank-and-file has consisted of mainly lawyers and accountants. Elliott Ness retired decades ago. Comey (Lawyer, white collar crime), Mueller (USMC Vet, Lawyer, white collar crime), Freeh (Lawyer, organized crime), Session (Lawyer, US Attorney, Judge). Not the sort to get their hands dirty. They encouraged TV studios to create shows that embellish their street image. Since at least the the first WTC bombing in 1993 the FBI has demonstrated inadequacies. The agency is spread too wide and thin and there are better-suited, tougher federal LE agencies to engage in the types of enforcement activities needed to prevent the criminal actions of crazies and terrorists.

  12. It confirms how inept and lazy .gov is…hey we had an Iraq war over pretty much NOTHING. Honestly there’s a lot of crazy internet talk(like on FB and “here”. This was local failure of FloriDUH…

    • Neither Iraq war was “over nothing”. THE WORLD, thru the UN, and Kuwait asked us to get Saddam’s forces out of Kuwait, the UN asked us not to do ARMISTICE, Saddam didn’t live up to that, and after 8 years of do fv<k-all meToo perp Bill Clinton, we went into Iraq to enforce the terms of Armistice. Gulf War I is still an "open" and ongoing conflict on our books with no resolution, we can still enforce that Armistice and no fly zones. The UN can stop us, but they would have to pass resolutions terminating their previous authorizations.

      There's a lot of whiners that said 'there's no WMDs" and they are both wrong, and broke-d1<k for needing another reason anyway.

      • The only weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were old, neglected, of little practical use and said “Propriety of the United States Government” on the casing courtesy of the Messiah Ronnie himself. Remnants of these “WMD’s” (mustard and sarin artillery shells from the 70’s) were lose in the wild of Iraq for years; testament to the nonsense belief that even if we had conducted OIF I properly we could have found and contained them, never mind the tons of conventional weapons we knowing allowed to go unsecured. These WMD’s were lose in Iraq for years and yet there is not one verified causality resulting from there use against coalition or locals. If your willing to destabilize entire continents and sacrifice thousands of lives over such pretenses then your belief system is the true WMD

  13. FBI inaction?….sounds typical.

    The day the shooting broke I predicted to the wife that the shooter was going to be known by the FBI prior to the incident.

    It wasn’t a risky prediction due to a bunch of previous examples.

  14. J Edgar Hoover, the man who dressed in high heels and wore woman’s clothing. The Clinton Foundation, and all the rest. No wonder I wear a double layer tin foil hat and drive a silver Ford Escape with baby Groot wearing ear phones and a Sig sticker

  15. Mueller needs to be fired and the investigation shut down. The millions per week that we save needs to go to allowing more training and agents to handle these calls.

    • “It means we should all give up our guns because the authorities will protect us, obviously.”

      Does vigilantly guarding your chalk outline count?

  16. *THE SHOCKING TRUTH*
    There is NOTHING you can do to prevent crimes like this!!!!!
    This has gone on and will go on forever!
    The week of Sandyhook a man in China stabbed 21 to death. You can take up all the guns and they’ll just blow you up with a bomb or run you over with a truck. You can only lesson the damage if you are armed!

    • Incorrect. 22 children were injured, none were killed. 33 Chinese were killed in a train station in 2015. That attack was carried out but 5 assailants and most of those killed were elderly (slow). A knife does not possess the same lethality as an AR-15 as much as some purport, such a claim is simply false on it’s face.

  17. this goes all the way back to ft hood

    the lesson of ft hood was anything can happen now at anytime for any reason

    the lesson of parkland is see something say something is now a proven abject failure and we absolutely cannot depend on any government agency or department to protect us

    “whereas the right to self protection and self defense is a NATURAL LAW let it be declared and recognized by all that it is now and always has been and always will be an undeniable and particularly heinous violation of human rights to declare a gun free zone ANYWHERE”

  18. Before we jump on the “blame the FBI” bandwagon, there are a couple of things to consider.

    1. “Communicating a threat” when done in a state, to someone else in the same state, is not within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI.
    2. A school shooting is not within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI.
    3. Not only did the FBI not have any obligation to investigate the threat, but they are legally and procedural prohibited from enforcing state laws, except under very rare circumstances.
    4. The FBI receives tens of thousands of tips each year. Let that sink in. How could they react to every single one of them?

    See more here: https://www.fbi.gov/about/faqs/where-is-the-fbis-authority-written-down

    I will grant that the FBI should have passed the tip to local law enforcement, but I’m not even sure it was seen in time. I don’t recall reading anything about when they first saw the tip.

    In any case, let’s not Monday morning quarterback a law enforcement agency. Believe me when I say, as a former Federal Agent, they have more restrictions to their duties than authorities.

    • This is a crock. If you learn about Columbine, there may have been a couple jocks that Klebold and Harris wanted to kill, but their primary objective was terrorism. This Cruz guy explicitly said he wanted to do IT better than the other mass murdering school shooters. What do you think IT is??

      If Tim McVeigh had bombed a multiplex movie theater instead, would you say “Oh gee, it’s not the Feeb’s jurisdiction! Just a local crime here.”

      If you know of a threat to a foreign US embassy call the CIA. But the FBI is THE primary agency to deal with domestic terrorism. And that does not preclude the heavy involvement of local law enforcement. The NYPD probably has as good or better counter-terrorism abilities as the FBI does.

      Is this what SSA’s do all day? Sit around and think up excuses for inaction?

      • “Is this what SSA’s do all day? Sit around and think up excuses for inaction?”

        Discussing the notion that somehow the FBI is a national police force, responsible for whatever local LEO don’t want responsibility for is not an excuse. The commentary seems split here between those who think somehow the FBI is THE failsafe for every foul-up, oversight, error made by local LEO, and poiting out that the real problem lay with local school and police leadership.

        And it would be interesting to learn from you what action the FBI should have taken (beyond collecting information in a single fusion center).

      • Discuss that NY /NYC created their own terrorist target, and throw billions of good dollars after bad of taxpayers money to ‘protect’ themselves. Their a first round KO in their wet paper bag too.

  19. I believe there is a deeper reason why the Feds refuse (yes I said refuse) to respond to information like what they received here is that they want to wait until after the deed is done is because the FBI has taken on Obama’s personality as well as the liberal democrat view on personal gun ownership. The only way to disarm the civilian population is through horrible events like this which they hope will push the Federal Government to pass draconian gun laws in spite of the 2nd Amendment. The FBI in general most likely hates the 2nd Amendment just like their democrat masters.

    • I was waiting for this one. It is the one reason other than apathy or negligence that unfortunately could be right. Nationally we don’t care about Chicago or Baltimore but the nation mourns every school shooting and the call for gun confiscation is getting louder with each tragedy. For many reasons we need to change our focus from the guns to the culture. We’re too focused on violence. We need to change the culture to offer other choices and support for those considering violence or suicide. Maintain your situational awareness and put your efforts towards peace and non violent outcomes.

    • Unfortunately, I have to agree with you. After 8 years of obummer politicizing all the federal agencies, this is now what we have. Of course I’m referring to the agency upper tier, not most of the working agents. Although in my experience, I’ve found more anti gun federal agents then most local and state law enforcement officers.

      • The “upper tier” Comey, Wray, Mueller, McCabe are all self avowed Republicans that have served under multiple administrations. Mueller was a USMC combat vet, McCabe was on the New York office S.W.A.T. team, Comey is the grand son of an Irish New York cop and majored in theology for under grad. Most the lawyers at the F.B.I. were prosecutors. Yup sure sounds like a pack of hippie liberals to me. This may be difficult to comprehend but the FBI is full of highly educated people from mostly upper middle class / suburban back grounds, largely ex-military,… over whelming,… Republican. Guess what a Law or Accounting degree takes?, way more money, intelligence and drive then most people have. Nixon, Reagan and both Bush’s’ were all pro-gun control to one degree or another. Charlton Heston despised “Modern Sporting Rifles” (ar’s, ak’s). It’s a good thing most Detectives, FBI agents and Prosecutors don’t have the level of confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance as most gun enthusiasts / conspiracy theorists.

        • “The “upper tier” Comey, Wray, Mueller, McCabe are all self avowed Republicans”

          As if a label has some sort of immutable, clear, concise meaning. When someone claims to be Republican and holds the same intentions as the Demoncrats, what does a label indicate? The idea of “conservative Democrats” and “liberal Republicans” seems to have no counterpart in the political alignments is the rest of the countries in the UN. It is unfortunate that we do not have party labels that align with either those who believe the masses are to be controlled, or those who believe the masses should suffer the least amount of government intrusion possible. Perhaps we could get people more properly sorted if we could force them to declare as “Masters” or “Liberators”.

        • Yea, right. Your “Republican” Mueller brought in a 95% killery and obummer supporting, donating crew. Gees, I wonder what results he was expecting. And why would his ancestors make a big deal. My father was a New York liberal who supported obummer for both elections. I am obviously a conservative (not a Republican), but a conservative. McCabe should have been fired years ago. Wasn’t one of his cases overturned 9-0 by the US Supreme Court, I believe for withholding evidence from the court? I believe he also had a case overturned by the 5th Court of Appeals by a vote of 6-3. Now let’s talk about Comey. He also should be brought up on charges for perjury when (several times) he lied to Congress while under oath.
          Every one of these folks were total obummer/killery supporters. That’s the reason killery was not indicted for numerous felonys. Comey wrote an exoneration letter months before he even interviewed her or several other key witnesses. He allowed the most important interviews to be off tape, without admonishment. How in the hell is this even possible. I’ll tell you how, corruption thru and thru. All of these corrupt idiots thought for sure killery was going to win so all the corruption would simply be swept under the rug. If in fact as you say these phony’s are republicans, they are RINO all the way.

        • …and they wrote the letter exonerating Clinton before they even spoke to her. They granted her people immunity from prosecution as well!!!! What does that say about independence?

  20. ” “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” ”

    Never dicount malice, nor fail to turn your head enough to see the proper target.

    1) The upper tier of the FBI did things so bad that it’s not inappropriate to consider that they were trying to bring the whole FBI down.

    2) McCabe’s wife got $1.2 Million from the Clinton foundation at the height of the email scandal. https://youtu.be/Pq02XG7s3Pg the rest of the uper echelon are just have likely to have received funds, to include Comey and Mueller.

    3) the big ticket item yet to be exposed is the Uranium One issue, with Hillary selling off 20% of U.S. Uranium holdings (and whatever else the Clinton foundation sold from the US to raise cash [like two US islands in the Bering Strait?]). People got paid for that, and people got paid to cover it up, and our House and Senate owe us to go to the mat and uncover all of it, and f-up, then fix, the FBI for us, and that they don’t just means they’re complicit and on-the-take too.

  21. The Deep State FBI is too busy chasing after Trump and Tea Party members to worry about real threats. Move on. Nothing to see here.

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