gun and won't even open the damn door to help children? that's why the guy is there. >> devastated. sick to my stomach. there are no words. these families lost their children. >> disturbing new details about repeated warnings to police about the killer's violent behavior. >> we have to harden our schools, not soften them. >> the elites don't care, not one wit, about america's schoolchildren. >> he doesn't want to talk about the blood that has spilled all over his hands because of the lax policies that he's pushing. >> we don't expect to agree with the nra on every issue. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to our newer day. chris is off. john berman joins me. we have a big two hours ahead. a major development in the investigation of the florida high school massacre. broward county sheriff said he's, quote, devastated and sick to his stomach after learning the only armed deputy failed to act by never going into the

building to stop the gunman. this comes after the stunning admission last night that it failed to investigate a very specific threat about the killer. we're also learning police had repeated warnings about this gunman for years. his family, his guardians, counselor, even strangers who saw his posts online tried to alert authorities that he was violent and he was a threat, and that he was a potential school shooter. >> is failure after failure after failure. nearly every step of the way. will the president address this at a conservative conference hours from now. president trump has proposed giving bonuses to teachers who carry guns. the nra likes that but doesn't like the president's plan to raise the age level to buy a gun. does the president have the courage to fight them? it's interesting. we heard from matt schlapp. he doesn't know what the president intends to do here or where he stands. political ire on the fbi and, yes, the media.

let's begin our coverage with rosa flores live in parkland, florida with these new developments, these infuriating revelations about just how much was known and how much was not done right up until the very end. >> reporter: you know, which probably leaves parents thinking what if? because the trail of evidence, john, is clear. the warning signs that this killer had violent tendencies were there, and they were there for years. and then of course we learned a week ago that a tip to the fbi was not investigated. and now this morning we've learned from the sheriff that he is sick to his stomach because the one resource officer that was there at the school when the shots rang out, who had a weapon, stayed outside and didn't go inside that building. what i saw was a deputy

arrive, and he never went in. >> the only armed police officer stationed in marjory stoneman douglas high school resigned amid revelations that he waited outside as the massacre unfolded. >> what should he have done? >> went in. addressed the killer. killed the killer. >> reporter: he is telling reporters that surveillance shows the deputy, scot peterson, taking a position outside the building for four minutes as gunshots rang out but failed to stop the attacker. >> devastated. sick to my stomach. there are no words. these families lost their children. >> reporter: peterson retiring thursday after being suspended without pay. >> i've been a police officer for 30 years. >> reporter: seen here speaking at a school board meeting in broward county in 2015. he was recently nominated twice for deputy of the year. two other deputies now on restricted duty. they are being investigated for how they handled tips warning

about the killer. authorities announcing that they have received 23 calls involving the killer and his family starting in 2008 when the killer was just nine years old. the most serious warnings began two years ago when an anonymous caller alerted police that the killer threatened to shoot up the school on instagram and posted pictures of himself with the gun. the miami herald said seven months later, a peer counselor reported that the killer possibly ingested gasoline, wanted to buy a gun, and wanted to commit suicide by cutting himself. days later, an investigator for florida department of children and families determined that he was low risk. later that month, the family that initially took the killer in after his mother's death called police to report a fight. >> 911 emergency. how can i help you? >> yeah. there was a fight in my house with a kid and my son. >> okay. >> punching him and that's when he left the house, but i need somebody here because i'm afraid

he comes back and he has a lot of weapons. >> what kind of weapons, ma'am? >> let me ask my son. what kind of weapon did he get? that he's going to get? >> a remington. >> a remington. >> the family also revealing this disturbing detail. >> he also dug in the backyard because he knew he was not allowed to bring it here and we found that he did (inaudible) he was going to bury the gun there. >> the next day, a tipster from massachusetts called the sheriff's office to report that the killer was collecting guns and knives. telling them he will kill himself one day and believes he could be a school shooter in the making. if you look behind me, you see there is a growing memorial, but we're not at the school. that's because staff and teachers will be returning to school today. orientation is scheduled for

sunday. and students are expected to return on wednesday. john? >> yeah. rosa flores in parkland. i have spoken to so many students and teachers who say they're not ready, they're just not ready to go back just yet. a president to make clear where he stands on this issue. he holds a press conference today with the australian prime minister at the cpac conference. abby phillip live at the white house with what we can expect. abby? >> reporter: well, good morning, john. president trump appears to be determined to answering this question of what to do about these school shootings his own way. he is calling it an offensive posture versus a defensive posture. and the centerpiece of his proposal appears to be a controversial one, arming teachers inside of their schools. after an early morning tweet storm yesterday, he expounded on it in a meeting. take a listen at what he had to say.

>> i think a concealed permit for having teachers and letting people know there are people in the building with a gun, in my opinion you won't have these shooting. these people are cowards. they're not going to walk into a school if 20% of the teachers have guns. the people that do carry, we give them a bonus. we give them a little bit of a bonus. >> reporter: there are a lot of people on both sides of the aisle who say that is not just a good idea. the white house has not detailed anything about how it would be paid for or how all of this would work. on the other hand, the president has been talking about another issue on his mind, these active shooter drills, something that students and teachers about what to do if there is a shooter in their school. he says it can be scary to young children. he's not exactly sure that they are a good idea. the white house later had to walk that back. a deputy press secretary raj shah from the podium yesterday said the president was talking about the branding of the drills not exactly about the idea. as he goes over to maryland later today to talk to the conservative political action

conference, it will be a big question about how far is he willing to go on the issues before that audience. they got so much red meat from wayne la pierre. it will be interesting to see whether the president goes that far when he is in front of the group today, john and alisyn. >> yes, it will abby. thank you for previewing that. we have david gregory and james gagliano. james, let's start with all the developments. the relentless red flags about this gunman that were missed. i think it just bears us repeating, putting it up on the screen again. there are dates where there could have been some intervention. there were anonymous calls that this kid was going to shoot up the school. a peer counselor reported this kid was suicidal. his mother said he wrote a racial slur on his bookbag. there were youtube comments that he posted that he wanted to be a professional school shooter. his cousin asked police to take his weapons after his mother

died. there were threats that he was going to go get his gun and show back up during a fight and shoot somebody. there was a caller to the call center that he could be a school shooter in the making. but listen, james, where could he have beenk through all of these, and we say something has to change, if your mother says you write a racial slur on your bookbag, you're not getting locked up. if you say i'm come canning back with my gun, you're not getting locked up. would in this litany, this laundry list could something have happened to incarcerate him. >> you never come to me to sugar coat things and i'm not going to do it here. it is fallible human beings and systems that were supposed to be

interconnected and they weren't. we need to go to the root of this, which is the national in standpoint criminal background check system. many states still to this point do not report all of these mental health issues or conditions for these folks who never should get their hand on a gun. >> it's crazy. >> aoeupb insane. >> we are not looking at this in a vacuum. i get a sense of revulsion every time i hear this. i know the sheriff in broward county is doing a deep dive of what happened. but that was another colossal collapse in the system. you know the line from the godfather, this is the business that we have chosen. those of us in this profession, we don't view this as a job. we accept additional risks when we put that uniform on, pin the badge on, and strap on the sidearm. to know that there was somebody mere feet or yards away from the slaughter of children, i can tell you i have not recovered

from that news yesterday, and i don't know when i will. >> again, it bears repeating. we don't know what would have happened, had he tried. the protocol is the best thinking on this. we have had too many instances to study. is that confronting the killer is the best way. >> right. >> to stop them in process right now. david gregory, if you look at that, that was the end. that was the last chance to keep this from happening. >> why have an officer there if you are not going to confront a shooter. that's the whole point. what's disturbing about the president frankly popping off with his psychological read on what the sociopaths are going to do when they come into a school is not helpful to have the president of the united states saying these are cowards. there was an officer there who failed to confront the shooter. again, you don't know what motivates. but in so many is cases these sociopaths, may be ill, they will see a sheriffs deputy or

armed teachers that will dissuade them. come on. let's attack this a little more rigoro rigorously. the question from alisyn was the right one. it is very easy to put up a list of all of these missed signs. but if you're the parent of this child and you're going through all of these difficulties, he's not going to be incarcerated because of some of these tips or because of wraoug a slur on a ba writing a slur on a backpack. >> does that have been to the standard? >> here's my point. no, i'm not is saying that has to be the standard. but i think we have to realize from a law enforcement perspective, you can act on it. the question, john, i think you're right, the question is how do we get to a place where there are enough flags for a person that is not a criminal record but that there's enough flags because there's enough professionals who have been able

to speak to each other that the point at which someone goes in and wants to buy a firearm, there is some way to flag this individual. and i don't think it's -- look, it's a legal gun purchase that he made. the gun seller can be in the business of putting all of these pieces together. other people have to do that. that's the challenge here. >> james, i want to talk about arming teachers. i want to do it as dispassionately way as possible. obviously the gun conversation raises passions pretty quickly. but for the teachers who want this, okay, so we have heard from the teachers, some teachers at parkland, some at newtown who say i could never do this. i just want to educate kids. but for the teachers who want this, and there are already schools in texas where staffers are armed, unfortunately we don't have a lot of data about whether this actually works. let's just talk about what's effective. do you think this would be an effective way to cut down on school shootings?

>> i'm going to show you the complete opposite ends of the spectrum here. we will let the viewers choose. on one hand is this, trained law enforcement professionals khewh i was on 25 years, on a clear day, shooting at paper on a range generally hit their targets between 80%, 85% of the time. that's under perfect conditions with no rounds incoming. now, when you add stress to this mix, and there have been studies shown, law enforcement officers, generally hit their target 18% of time when they're in an adversarial confrontation with a bad guy. that is one out of five discharged. if we think arming teachers, having them go through safety course and giving them time on the on range is going to change that, it's not. now, the opposite end of the continuum is this. i'm adjunct professor at st. john's university, retired law enforcement, former s.w.a.t. team leader. when i go to st. john's, it's a

gun-free campus. i'm not allowed to carry a weapon to have the privilege of the concealed carry that i have as a retirement law enforcement officer. if i had been in parkland that day i would have been unarmed as any of the students there. we need to look at this, the insanity of arming teachers. if you had teachers that were prior law enforcement or prior military, would it not be a bad deterrent to say in certain cases we will make an exception. >> number one, david, would teachers ever want to do this. number two, will it work? and number three is, is the discussion now going to shift exclusively to arming teachers instead of them focusing on the other things which might also help at least a little. >> it would be a mistake if it just goes to that. i talk to my 15-year-old son. i think that would be unsettleing to students to know a teacher is armed.

it parent part said if my kid was at parkland, would i want a teacher to be armed and take our chances? i might want to consider that. but i think the other thing to add to this, and i wonder what james's take is. just like if we're evaluating terror threats, if you have a threat matrix for a school and you have an individual who actually has a tie to the school, who was expelled to the school and you have information as law enforcement to say, well, there's been a specific threat against the school, can you on a case-by-case basis harden that target and say, look, we have a guy out here we are worried about. there may be a legitimate threat against the school. we're going to surveil, harden this particular school. does it make sense to think about it that way and could parkland have is thought about it that way working closely with the sheriff's office? >> that's a good question, david. it goes, again, to resources. we're talking funding and mechanism resources.

we have 335 million people in this country. and i think there's 1.2 million sworn law enforcement officers. so when you look at it like this, the amount of threats that get called into the fbi and the amount of threats that get called to the local police departments, it is mind numbing. now, again, this is one in hindsight we look at and think how could the red flags have been missed. again, it speaks to resources. are we going to commit ourselves to making sure schools are safe is. once we harden every school in the united states, the bad guys will find another soft target where people are gathered, where more than one or two people are gathered to focus their ire on and focus their attack. >> maybe we could slow it down, james. >> what's wrong with making it harder to walk into is a school? >> james, david, thank you both very much. ahead on "new day", we will be speaking with the nra spokeswoman dana loesch about all of this, about gun violence,

what their suggestions are. that's coming up in the next hour. all right. up next, taking action. states coming together to fight gun violence. they're not waiting for the federal government. these states taking matters into their own hands. three governors join us next. and 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d. boost high protein be up for it dial your binge-watching up to eleven. for a limited time, get four unlimited lines for thirty-five bucks each. woah. and with netflix included, you can watch on any screen. prrrrrrr... ...at t-mobile.

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four democratic governors from the northeast not waiting for the president or congress to come up with solutions for gun violence. they are forming a coalition on gun control the. the goal to create a multistate task force that will trace and intercept guns in the region. three governors, malloy, romando and murphy. we can't get a cuomo on this show. i want to start with you and what you are all doing. more coordination is great. conversations are great. streamlining is great. but would any of your talking about right now have stopped this horrible massacre in florida? >> i think it would have helped, i do. you know what we are saying as governors, we're not waiting for congress and the federal government to take action.

having said that, there's no substitute for that. and we are like the kids who we have seen this week, we as governors are demanding action from the federal government, and we need them to take action. but in the meantime, we have decided to take a regional approach, sharing information about guns across our state lines, sharing a database, and for the first time that i know of, having a regional research center which studies gun violence and the impact on public health. so what we are saying here at the end of the day, it's time to take action. that's what governors do. we take action all the time. you know, we see in our children telling us enough is enough. and i want to be able -- when my daughter says to me, mom, what are you doing about it, i want to be able to say we're taking action that will make your schools and our community safer. that's what this is about. >> that's what we all want, to say we're doing everything we can. sharing information is one

thing. but taking action is another. information, it turns out, not the problem in florida. there was too much information on this, repeated warnings that this young man could be a school shooter. so how do you turn that information, even if you have it, into action? >> well, we think that the more coordinated we can be the better we can be. this is not just laterally across states. this is deepening the engagement. new jersey has strong gun laws. we think they should be stronger. we're in the process of doing just that. as the governor said, in the absence of federal action, we have a reality in our state where over 80% of gun crimes are committed with guns that come from outside of north carolina. the notion of forming a coalition with other like minded states. by the way, you mentioned the four states. we're hoping the list gross and

that relationship can be deepened, coordination can be better across the state lines. it's not that we are going to stop trying and pounding a way to get federal action. we must get that. but this is at a minimum a smart first step, we think. >> governor malloy, i came to you last because you have the most experience here, sadly. you were governor during the sandy hook massacre in newtown, connecticut. when you hear some of what is being discussed right now, the president is now discussing arming teachers, giving bonuses to teachers who carry concealed weapons. do you think that might help? >> well, i think we're going to have to do that with waiters and bus boys in restaurants and we are going to have to arm the priests and ministers and rabbis in churches. you know, i think at movie theaters, ushers will be armed. this idea that we will be safer because we have more arms doesn't work very well in syria. it doesn't work very well in iraq, and probably won't work very well here. what we really need to do is

have sane laws in this country. what we really need to do is limit access to these weapons of mass destruction. i know it's hard because of our culture here. but we are the most violent society at least amongst the industrialized nations. shouldn't we do something about that? i have an idea for you. why not build a memorial to every child who has been killed in school. why not just add names week after week, month after month, year after year. we shouldn't just go back to sandy hook. go back to when this all started. we are a very violent society, and we need to change. >> governor, i can hear the frustration in your voice. i really can. you have seen it firsthand. governor malloy, president trump said he is not suggesting every teacher should have a weapon, arming every person in the school. would a school benefit from two, three, four trained armed people. is that worthy of discussion? >> let me go back to another question you asked a governor

this morning. that might not have prevented this particular killing in florida. nothing we do will prevent killings in schools, including arming teachers, who, by the way, didn't sign up for that. they didn't sign up to be security guards. that's a whole different profession. we could stop selling these guns. if we outlawed these types of weapons in the 1930s in the united states, why are we selling them today? why does that make any sense in this world? you can't buy that weapon -- you didn't ask me what we could have done to prevent it from happening. you can't buy the weapons in connecticut anymore. since we passed our better gun legislation following sandy hook, we have the largest drop in violent crime in any state in the nation by a third. having good laws does change behaviors. having the discussion that we need to have as a nation about

making our children safer -- and let me say this. we have children, grandchildren. do you really want to send them to a school that you don't know who is armed? do you really want to be a police officer, by the way, who responds to a school shooting or a problem at a school and not know who the gunman is because now there's people with guns all over the place? it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. but it is right from the nra playbook. what the nra says is we shouldn't have fewer guns, we should have more guns. we lose 33,000 people a year to gun violence. >> governors, i think one thing is clear, you know, based on history, you can't necessarily wait for the federal government to take any action or address this head on. i'm glad states are looking at this and taking it into their own hands. thanks very much for being with us. alisyn. cnn is reporting that general h.r. mcmaster could be on his way out. why the former head of the cia says we owe the general a debt

of gratitude for what he's done there, next. how long have you been here? i've been here a couple days. (avo) get the best unlimited on the most awarded network. buy iphone 8, and get one on us with no trade-in required.

sources tell cnn that h.r. mcmaster may soon be out of his current role and return to the military. sources in the administration also say tensions are flaring between mcmast ser and presiden trump. hayden is former director of the cia and nsa. >> good morning, alisyn. >> why do you think h.r. mcmaster is leaving or possibly leaving, and does it worry you? >> well, i mean, we see these reports periodically. so that suggests very strongly that the magic simply is isn't working in the relationship between the general and the president. alisyn, i look at this on two levels. one is personal, one is structural. on the personal level, that's n got to be a bond of trust. it is an intimate relationship. they move in the direction of a shared world view.

and i simply don't think that's happening. the president's tweet over the weekend after h.r. laid out the case against the russians at the munich security conference, that tweet didn't just contradict the general, it publicly humiliated him. so you get a sense that the personal relationship may not be where it needs to be. structurally, the national security adviser is there to create a process that is methodical and disciplined on behalf of a president who is neither methodical nor disciplined. so my fear is no matter who gets that job, there is still going to be a stress point there. >> about the tweet that under cut h.r. mcmaster's efforts to vocalize that it was incontrovertible that russia had meddled, here's the tweet. general mcmaster forget to say the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the russians and that the only collusion was between russia and

crooked h, the dnc and the dems. remember the dirty dossier, uranium, speeches, e-mails and podesta company. that sounds like he was angry. >> you know, i don't know that he was angry about what h.r. said. but he was indifferent to h.r. and the president. it seemed as if he didn't care that he was going to create serious collateral damage here. alisyn, you suggested earlier, why would be we concerned if h.r. would leave. let me do a venn diagram here. this is the universe of the people want that job, the people the president would accept that job, and the universe of people who would be good at that job. we're getting to a really small

number inside where those three circles overlap. so i don't know who would follow in that task. >> in that venn diagram, it shows only one h.r. mcmaster, that is going to be a problem. next topic. the administration is asked time and again, sarah sanders fields the question all the time. what are you doing about russian meddling? midterms are coming up. what are you doing about it? intel chiefs said they haven't been directed to do anything in particular. so our reporting from pam brown yesterday is that the administration responded to cnn's questions about this. and i'll just read portions of it. u.s. officials on wednesday tried to as swaeupblg concerns about the white house's stance on russia telling reporters that the administration has taken, quote, direct action, to address moscow's election meddling under the trump administration, including delivering, quote, a direct warning to putin.

he has been warned, one senior administration said. the official declined to detail any specifics about those actions that the administration is taking, citing concerns, including the classified nature of some of this information. so are we just supposed to accept that putin has been warned and he will back off? >> you know, i would not personally. look, i really hope that what they report sd is factually correct and beneath the surface we're really going after this. but i don't see evidence of that. frankly, al sip, you take the president's tweets, you take other things the president has said. he certainly is not publicly building the intellectual foundation for pushing back against the russians. i'm fairly skeptical. as you point out, you ask all the intelligence chiefs, have you been specifically directed by the president to do anything here. they all say they are doing their jobs but they have not gotten that specific direction. now, look, we're doing some good

things with protecting the voters roles to prevent the actual manipulation of the vote tally. that's great. but you know, alisyn, that's not what happened in 2016. what happened was the russians messing with our minds and our political processes by affecting the flow of news inside the american information space. and i don't see any action with regard to that coming out of the government. >> all right. general michael hayden, thank you very much for your expertise on all of this. >> thank you. >> john? >> all right, alisyn. ivanka trump in south korea for the closing is ceremony at the olympics. so is a former spy to represent north korea. what do we know about him and whether the two will meet, next.

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the agency in charge of u.s. immigration services updating its mission statement to no longer include the phrase nation of immigrants. the new statement for u.s. citizenship and immigration services emphasizes safeguarding america's integrity and securing the homeland. the agency says the statement reflects the guiding principles focusing of fairness, lawfulness to protect american workers. president trump is threat epping to pull enforcement agents out of california. the president says the state is doing a lousy management job.

it is not clear how serious he is. senator dianne feinstein said they are not only mean spirited but patently false. ivanka trump is heading up the u.s. el gas station for the closing ceremony of the olympic games sunday as north korea is sending a controversial figure to represent them at the end of the games. cnn's many ripley live in seoul with the latest. what do we know about this, will? >> reporter: well, john, ivanka's face has been plastered everywhere in south korea. she is at the blue house having a meal with moon jae-in. they are five minutes from where i am. the u.s. still doesn't have an ambassador here in south korea. president moon gave president trump a lot of credit for the resumption of interkorean talks. he said president trump has been asking about the ticket sales at the olympics which have been

pretty good, not entirely meeting expectations. also releasing new pictures overnight of a photo that president trump signed for president moon jae-in wishing good luxe at the olympics saying we will win, mr. president. but of course there is a controversy here as well. north korea is sending former spy master, the man widely believed to have orchestrated an attack in 2010 on a south korean naval ship that killed 46 south korean sailors. now he will be coming to south korea, presumably sitting in the same vip box with the south korean president and eye kapbg qaa trump. a lot of people are wondering why kim jong-un would bring him to an event dubbed as the peace olympics. >> that is controversial. thank you for letting us know. so these kids survived the shooting at their school. now they are spearheading a mission for tighter gun laws. but what happens when these

students head back to class next week? we talk with two florida shooting survivors about the suggestions that they're hearing from the president and other leaders and what they think, next.

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beyond the call of duty, brought to you by ihop, america's favorite pancake. >> there are troubling stories overnight, but there were heroes among the responds r first responders who arrived. our rosa flores spoke with some of them who went beyond the call of duty. >> you're anticipating you're going to take gunfire. you're looking for it. >> the first responders were among the first to enter marjory stoneman douglas high school after a gunman fired indiscriminately at students and teachers. >> first thing we saw, was a victim outside the west doors. that victim was deceased. >> at that moment i actually felt sick, but i know i have a

job to do. >> the building, they say, riddled with bullet holes. inside, a chilling silence. >> we'd think there would be smoke alarms and screaming. it was eerily silent. >> spent shell casings all over the ground. you could see multiple victims in the hallway immediately that were beyond assistance. >> inside classrooms, students and teachers taking cover and calling this 911 center. dispatchers say victims were afraid to speak, so they listened for breathing as a sign of life. >> you just have to be quiet, that's okay. as long as i hear you breathing. >> white male, burgundy shirt. >> they're monitoring the subject right now. >> the sergeant was on the second floor when this came over the radio. >> he went from the third floor to the second floor. >> we anticipated engaging him.

>> turns out the video was not live, it was on delay. they advanced to the third floor. >> i'm standing on top of the rifle. his rifle is there, his vest is there. >> and then a faint call for help. >> opened up the door again -- i'm sorry. the kid deserves a lot of credit. >> i had a firefighter texting me the whole time, i'm looking for my friend's daughter that's on the third floor. >> as for these heroes who respond to the unthinkable, they felt blessed to hug their own children. >> he goes, daddy, i love you. that was tough for me. >> even though they hope it never happens again. >> if it does, i'm going to make sure i'm there. >> rosa flores, cnn, parkland, florida. >> boy, that's hard to hear them have to process all this. so the students from marjory stoneman douglas high school are

expected to return to school next week. how do they feel about that in light of all the developments in just the past 24 hours. let's bring in two students who survived, christine yared and connor deitrich. thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us. i want to start with some of the developments we learned in the past 24 hours and get your response to that. what do you think of what happened with the armed guard at your school who we now know didn't follow his protocol to go into the building and confront the gunman somehow but stayed outside? >> i think it's very disappointing that he didn't go into the building. it's his job as our school officer to protect the children and that make sure we're safe. he was armed, he was prepared. he had a gun and he could have fought against the killer. while, meanwhile, everyone else in the building had nothing to protect themselves. teachers and students were

throwing themselves in front of each other trying to save lives while he sat outside armed and did nothing to help them for four minutes. >> connor, did you know that deputy? was he a visible, well-known presence around your school? >> basically we only ever saw him when he was directing traffic. if you were close to where he was on campus, which i never really was, you might have seen him. i don't even know his name. i saw him rarely. >> let's talk about some of the suggestions now to make schools safer. some of the things the president is suggesting as well as various lawmakers. what do you think about arming teachers? obviously the teachers that would be willing to do this, not just any teacher who doesn't think they can handle this, a teacher who is willing to get the training. would that make you feel safer, christine? >> personally, no. i think that, one, if there were a situation where there was a skol shooting and police had to

come in and they see adults with guns, they wouldn't be able to tell who was the teacher and who was the killer. it could lead to more distraction which could lead to more tragedy. add in more guns is not a good idea. the teacher could potentially injury themselves or a student. someone could steal the gun. teachers already have to go through so much and they have so much hard work, they shouldn't have to be put through extra training. >> connor, what do you think? >> we don't really want anymore guns in our school. it's hard -- all of our friends are dead because of one single gun. our teachers would have to lock their guns away. so this all happened in the matter of a few minutes. for them to have to go to their drawer, unlock the drawer, while someone is shooting into the room, there's reaction time and they wouldn't be able to get to it in time. >> what about having extra armed

deputies in the school? is that a good suggestion to you both? >> i was actually just in tallahassee with the group that went to talk to the house of representatives. we talked about bringing in more sro rs, per student ratio. having them stationed around school would be easier for us. then again, we had an officer who stood outside the building and did nothing while all of us students were in grave danger. >> from where you did, is there an answer? what are you calling for? >> i think we should have stricter gun laws, more reform on our gun control, better background checks, making sure people with mental issues don't have access to gun, raising the age at which one can buy a gun, additional things like that i think could play a big difference in shootings. >> connor, your thoughts? >> we discussed a lot about

implementing more mental health programs. we have psychologists on campus that can talk to us if we're ever feeling like we're going through something hard, which i feel like in nikolas' case, but if we had someone available for him to talk to, he might have had a different outlook on what was going on. >> christine, how are you feeling with the word that your school is expected to reopen on wednesday? >> i'm okay with it. i would like to go back to school and see my friends and teachers and make sure they're doing okay. i want to get back to some semblance of normalcy, although it's not going to be that normal. we're missing a building, teachers, classmates. it would be nice to get back to school. of course, we or not going to give up this fight even if we're back in school.

>> connor, how are you feeling about having to go back to school? >> i'm genuinely very scared. we have to trust the school that this doesn't happen again, we have to make sure we have enough security to make sure we're all safe. we have to go back to class and look at those empty chairs where our friends used to sit and know what happened to them. we're all here, not going to fight until we get what we want out of this. to go back to school, it's going to be scary, but if we don't go back, it's almost like nikolas wins. >> do you feel like you have the safety at school that you need? have your teachers and administrators and principal told you you'll be safe? what have they changed? >> well, i don't feel like we have the safety we could have, seeing how our sro didn't do his job. our security guards, i won't lie to you, did a fantastic job. i got stuck out in the hallway and security actually hid me and a couple other students. they got a room that we could go into fairly quickly.

i feel happy with the way security handled it. we needed someone with a gun who could have actually helped the situation at hand. >> connor and christine, we know that you all say you're not quitting. we won't quit following you and talking to you throughout all of this every step of the way. thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we're following a lot of news. let's get to it. >> what i saw was a deputy arrive, and he never went in. it's another gut bpunch. >> they're not going to walk into a school if 20% of the teachers have guns. >> the sro officer did not do his job. >> a teacher, how they react to that? >> crying white mothers are ratings gold. >> i think the nra wants to do what's right. >> young people are acting like adult leaders and the adult leaders have been acting like children. >> the whole idea that armed security makes us less safe is

completely ridiculous. >> as long as we allow the nra leadership to dictate policy, we're going to have this issue. >> this is "new day" with chris qom ma and alisyn camerota. >> good morning everyone. welcome to your "new day." it's friday, february 23rd. chris is off, john berman joins me. great to have you. >> a bunch of new developments overnight. >> here is the investigation into the florida high school massacre. broward county sheriff says he's devastated and sick to his stomach after learning that the only armed deputy at the school failed to act by never going into the building to even try to stop the gunman. we or also learning authorities have many repeated warnings about the gunman for years. his family, his guardians, counselor, they all tried to alert authorities that he was violent and that he posed a threat and that he was a potential school shooter. >> will the president address this systemic failure when he speaks to his staunchest

supporters this morning. president trump proposed giving bonuses to teachers. give teachers guns, he says. the nra likes that, but doesn't like the president's plan to raise the age level to buy a gun. the nra is focusing most of its eyre and political power on the fbi and media. i want to bring in cnn political analyst john avlon and cnn's chris cillizza. john avlon, what we see with the news overnight that the deputy sat outside that building for several minutes without acting, it shows the level of the systemic failure here all the way up to the very end. >> it shows the level of the systemic failure. i think it also shows the fallacy of believing that more armed officers at schools will inherently solve the problem. you can write this off to a failure of