On Wednesday, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch slammed Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel during an overtly one-sided and allegedly “scripted” CNN town hall event on gun control, citing the numerous failures of law enforcement agencies that had made contact with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School gunman.
Israel argued that police need more power to detain individuals, have their firearms taken away, and to have them committed to mental institutions for evaluation to prevent tragedies, at which point Loesch interjected.
“Thirty-nine visits did not meet that standard? Thirty-nine visits, assaulting students, assaulting parents, taking bullets and knives to school, did that not meet that standard?” Loesch questioned.
Israel immediately got defensive, trying to shift attention off of the question by questioning Loesch’s knowledge of the incidents in which they were called to the gunman’s home.
“They were threatened with death. They were threatened that they were going to … bleed. They were threatened that they were going to be killed,” Loesch told Israel. “He had already taken bullets and knives to school. He had already assaulted people. He had assaulted his parent. He had assaulted other students. 39 visits. And this was known to the intelligence and law enforcement community.”
Israel then got nasty with Loesch, telling her that she was not the “litmus test” for law enforcement and then accusing her of spreading false information about the number of times police were called to the shooter’s home.
“You’re wrong. There weren’t 39 visits, some of them … were GOAs, some of them calls from other states, to say there were 39 visits, I don’t know where you got those facts, but you are completely wrong,” Israel said.
Israel was wrong, not Loesch.
