Fitton Blasts Anti-Gun Protesters: ‘Hey Publix, Facts Show that Police Failures Contributed to Parkland Massacre!’

Gun control activists are being used by leftist politicians to promote “irrelevant gun measures,” when they should be focused on the whether law enforcement are trained adequately to confront shooters, warns the president of the government watch dog Judicial Watch.

Following David Hogg, dozens of anti-gun protesters staged “die ins” at two locations of the Florida’s grocery store chain Publix. The demonstrators laid down and the floor of the grocery store, blocking customers from shopping.

Infringing on the Second Amend rights of law abiding citizens will not stop mass shootings, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton explained in a video posted Saturday.

“Those kids that were out there this week, skipping school, protesting, being used by these leftist politicians to promote irrelevant gun measures – those kids aren’t going to be more safe by the policies that left is using them to promote,” he said. “We had all these demonstrations the other day, but all directed at taking guns away from law abiding Americans, as best I can tell, not dealing with the security failures of a government agency in protecting those children and ensuring those security failures don’t take place in the future.”

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that armed school resource officer Deputy Scot Peterson was first on the scene of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Peterson stood outside the building rather than entering the school to confront shooter Nikolas Cruz.

Either the deputy completely disregarded the Broward County’s sheriff department’s operating manual and their training materials, which explicitly details how police can most effectively respond to active shooter incidences, or the deputy was not properly trained, Fitton asserted.

“You’re going to be really upset when you learn what the actual training is for handling active shooters,”he said. “I read these documents, and I was pretty upset by them, knowing what happened in Parkland because either this training was not given to everyone,  or the training was not followed through by the deputy or deputies on the scene. Where is the accountability for the sheriff as a result of this training failure? It’s a training failure in the least. The deputy was essentially forced out, resigned in disgrace. But was he trained? And why did he think he could do the wrong thing? ”

via Judicial Watch:

The lesson plan instructs officers to immediately confront a shooter:

History shows when a suspect is confronted by any armed individual (police, security, concealed carry person) they either shoot it out with that person or kill themselves. Either way, the shooting of innocent bystanders must stop. Now, the first officer or two officers on scene will immediately go to confront the shooter. Military tactics work well in this situation. The two man “bounding overwatch” is our response.

Using lessons learned from Columbine (the 1999 high school massacre where officers waited for a SWAT team and allowed two shooters to continue) the first four responding officers are directed to form a “Quad” and approach from all directions:

During Columbine, the response to an ongoing shooting situation was to contain the suspect. After Columbine the International Chiefs of Police addressed the problem with the response and came up with the “Quad” or diamond formation. With the quad, the first four officers to respond entered the building with coverage in all directions. This was critical to address the concerns of officers who previously would not enter and just wait for SWAT.

The lesson plan clearly states: “If you are on scene or in the area and hear gunshots, you should immediately access what you have and prepare to respond. Remember, every time you hear a gunshot in an active shooter incident; you have to believe that is another victim being killed.”

The training materials also state that the first officers on the scene will “engage the suspect,” which Peterson did not do. “There are now three teams during Active Shooter Incident [Contact, Extraction and Rescue Task Force]: Contact Team: Is first on scene, 1-4 deputies, they will be actively engaging/searching for suspect (HOT ZONE).”

The lesson plan lists “priorities of life” as: 1) Hostages/victims; 2) Innocent Bystanders; 3) Police/deputies; and 4) Suspects. “If in doubt about going through the door after a suspect, think about the victims and where they stand on the list.”

An exercise designed for a lone deputy on the scene of an active shooting is intended to “get the deputy moving towards the gunfire, passing dead students and others running by him.” However, “there is no reason to give up a good position of cover” if the shooting has stopped. “Remember the cavalry is on their way, so it’s better to hold, than to expose yourself to unknown threats.”

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office Standard Operating Procedure states: “If real time intelligence exists the sole deputy or a team of deputies may enter the area and/or structure to preserve life. A supervisor’s approval or on-site observation is not required for this decision…. If the situation turns to a barricade or hostage situation the response team will contain, isolate, communicate and wait for SWAT.”

“We’re in the discussions about gun control that the anti-second amendment types are using – they are using Parkland to promote gun control. What does this have to do with the documents? Get this press release and share it with your elected officials and tell them ‘this is what we need to be focusing on.’” he said. “The gun control debate is politics, it doesn’t have much to do with public safety and those of you who follow Second Amendment issues understand that.”

He continued: “They are not talking about this. Are law enforcement personnel trained adequately? And will they behave adequately given pressured situations like the active shooter in Parkland? Are there armed and trained individuals in the schools that can also confront shooters? This is what can be done to save lives: confront the shooter as quickly as possible with an armed response and get him to stop killing people.”

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Alicia is an investigative journalist and multimedia reporter. Alicia's work is featured on numerous outlets including the Gateway Pundit, Project Veritas, Red Voice Media, World Net Daily, Townhall and Media Research Center, where she uncovers fraud and abuse in government, media, Big Tech, Big Pharma and public corruption. Alicia has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She served in the Correspondence Department of the George W. Bush administration and as a War Room analyst for the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee.

You can email Alicia Powe here, and read more of Alicia Powe's articles here.

 

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