democracynow.org 05/21/18 05/21/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> you would never think it would happen to your school, but it would. ago, the were popping noises and we went on lockdown. that is the closest thing we had to a drill. so as you can tell, knowing now it is real -- amy: another mass shooting at a school in the united states, this time in texas when a high school student entered santa fe high school friday wearing a trench coat and shot dead 10 people -- eight fellow students and two teachers.

17-year-old dimitrios pagourtzis used a shotgun and a .38 revolver taken from his father to carry out the attack. 2018 has been deadlier for schoolchildren than service members. incoming president national rifle association president, oliver north, blamed ritalin for school shootings. texas lt. gov. dan patrick said the attack may have been enabled by texas schools having too many entrances and exits, not enough security and blamed it on abortion. have devalued life, whether it is through abortion, whether it is the breakup of families, through violent movies and particularly violent video games. amy: we will host a round table discussion with the texas observer's kolten parker and texas gun sense's ed scruggs, along with the intercept's murtaza hussain on the pakistani exchange student who was among

the dead and the first funeral. we will also talk to soraya chemaly of women's media center speech project about how the high school shooter may have targeted a student who had pursuedd aggressively for months. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in santa fe, texas, funerals have begun for the victims of friday's school shooting massacre at santa fe high school, where eight students and two teachers were killed in the friday morning rampage. the killings began just after 7:30 texas time in the morning when when 17-year-old dimitrios pagourtzis entered the school armed with a shotgun and a .38 revolver and began to open fire. ahead of the attack, he posted on his facebook page a t-shirt that read "born to kill" as well as images of his trench coat and -- xplanation noting

students who survived the massacre say the first classroom the shooter entered was an art classroom where he fatally shot 16 world including shana fisher. her mother said her daughter have repeatedly turned down the shooter's advances in recent months. "the washington post" reports 2018 has been deadlier for schoolchildren than service members. this is in part because of the 17 people killed in february in the mass shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida. march for our lives, the group founded by parkland students who organizenationwi protestin mah,weeted sport forhe -nta fe high school students, "thiis n t o th is e mostatal shooting since the one at our school and tragedy like this will continue to happen unless action is taken."

the massacre new call for gun control including fr houston police chief art acevedo. >> i believe anyone that owns a firearm that does not secure properly used to then kill people, that should carry some significant consequences and we need to think about that on a national level across this country. amy: on sunday, the national rifle association's incoming president oliver north blamed ritalin for school shootings. we will have more on the school shootings after headlines. "the new york times" is reporting three months before the 2016 election, donald trump, jr. held a secret meeting with an israeli man specializing in social media manipulation, and with george nader, an emissary representing the princes of saudi arabia and the united arab emirates. "the new york times" reports the israeli specialist, joel zamel, had already written a multimillion-dollar proposal for a social media manipulation campaign aimed at helping trump

win ahead of the august 3 meeting, which was organized by erik prince, the head of the now defunct mercenary firm blackwater. "the new york times" also reports george nader told donald trump, jr. that both the saudi and emirati princes wanted to help trump win the election. while it is not known whether the multimillion-dollar media manipulation proposal was ever put into effect, "the new york times" reports that after trump won the election, george nader paid joel zamel, the israeli specialist, up to $2 million. in response to "the new york times" expose, president trump launched a tweet storm sunday, in which he lashed out at both "the new york times" and special counsel robert mueller's investigation. in one of the tweets he wrote -- "the failing and crooked @nytimes has done a long & boring story indicating that the world's most expensive witch hunt has found nothing on russia & me so now they are looking at the rest of the world!"

president trump went on to call for an investigation into his claims his campaign had been surveilled, writing -- "i hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the department of justice look into whether or not the fbi/doj infiltrated or surveilled the trump campaign for political purposes -- and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the obama administration!" trump has been claiming for months, without evidence, that the obama administration spied on his campaign. legal experts say his tweet sunday crossed a line by applying overt presidential pressure on the justice department, which could possibly set up a clash similar to the one between president nixon and the justice department during the watergate scandal. rod rosenstein has responded to trump's tweet by asking the justice department's inspector general to probe whether the fbi

surveilled trump's campaign. president trump is slated to meet with south korean president moon jae-in at the white house tuesday, only weeks ahead of trump's proposed meeting with north korean leader kim jong-un. this comes as "the new york times" reports president trump is increasingly nervous about the proposed june 12 summit in singapore. north korea is threatening to cancel the meeting after president trump's national security adviser, john bolton, said the u.s. should use the so-called libyan model for denuclearization in north korea. in 2011, the u.s. and other nations attacked libya, toppling and killing libyan leader muammar gaddafi eight years after libya negotiated sanctions relief from the united states in exchange for renouncing its nuclear program. cuba has begun two days of national mourning saturday, after 110 people died when a plane crashed and burned right after takeoff on friday outside havana. officials say three survivors

are inplane crash critical condition. this is ana aviles gomez, whose son died in friday's crash. >> my son, he was my life. i don't want to think about it. i was talking to him before the flight and i told him, be good was the eat, enjoy, take care of yourself. and he said, yes, mother. yes, yes. he was with his wife. they were very happy. amy: experts say the u.s. embargo of cuba has crippled cuba's aviation industry, forcing cuba to fly decades-old planes and scramble to obtain parts to make essential repairs. the boeing 737 that crashed on friday was nearly 40 years old, which an aviation specialist said was "one of the oldest passenger jets i have heard of." in afghanistan, a series of bombings at a cricket match killed eight people and wounded dozens more in the eastern city of jalalabad friday night. on twitter, the chairman of the

afghanistan cricket board wrote -- "cricket has been a source of happiness & pride for all afghans, it has played a key uniting people. these attacks are against peace, unity and humanity."bili for th, which occurred during the holy month of ramadan. all of chile's 34 roman catholic bishops have submitted letters of resignation to pope francis, offering to resign en masse after francis accused the chilean church of failing to protect children from sexual abuse by priests and destroying evidence of the sexual crimes. pope francis himself has faced criticism in chile for ordaining a bishop who was accused of blocking a sexual abuse investigation into reverend fernando karadima, whom the vatican has found guilty of sexually abusing young boys. the saudi government has arrested at least six of saudi arabia's most prominent feminist

activists, including women who have been campaigning for decades for the right to drive. their arrest comes only weeks before the saudi government is finally slated to lift the ban on women driving. the feminists have now been organizing against saudi arabia's guardianship system, under which women need the permission of a male guardian to do almost everything. after their arrest, a saudi government spokesperson accused the women of seeking to "destabilize the kingdom and breach its social structure and mar the national consistency." in venezuela, president nicolas maduro has won a new six-year term in sunday's contested presidential elections. most of the opposition parties boycotted sunday's elections, in protest of alleged fraud and vote-buying by maduro's ruling party. the election board said turnout was just over 46%, far lower than the 80% turnout from the last election in 2013. the united states says it won't recognize the results of sunday's election and is

considering new oil sanctions against venezuela. in france, the closing ceremony of the cannes film festival was rocked by a powerful #metoo speech by italian actress and director asia argento, who is among the more than 100 women who have accused former hollywood mogul harvey weinstein of sexual harassment, assault, or rape. >> in 1997, i was raped by harvey weinstein here at cannes. i was 21 years old. this festival was his hunting ground. i want to make a prediction. harvey weinstein will never be welcomed here ever again. he will live in disgrace, shunned by a community that once embraced him and covered up for his crimes. and even tonight, sitting among

you, there are those who still have to be held accountable for their conduct against women, for behavior that does not belong in this industry, does not belong in any industry or workplace. you know who you are. but most importantly, we know who you are. and we are not going to allow you to get away with it any longer. [applause] amy: that was italian actress and director asia argento. meanwhile at cannes, director spike lee's latest film, "blackkklansman," won one of the festival's top prizes. the film chronicles the true story of how an african american police detective infiltrated the ku klux klan in the 1970's in colorado. in britain, prince harry and meghan markle were married saturday at windsor castle in a

ceremony that many heralded as ushering in a new era for the royal family. meghan markle, a former american actress, is biracial, divorced, and a self-proclaimed feminist. the wedding celebrated black culture and history, including with a rousing gospel choir performance of the song "stand by me." bishop michael curry, the first african american to preside over the episcopal church, also delivered a powerful sermon in which he preached about slavery, poverty, and the enduring power of love. >> the late dr. martin luther must discover "we the power of love, the redemptive power of love. and when we do that, we will make of this old world a new , love is the only .ay

there is power in love. don't underestimate it. don't even over sentimental lies it. there is our. power in love. if you don't believe me, inc. about a time when you first fell in love. seemed to center around you and your beloved." amy: among those performing, the first british musician to when the bbc musician of the year in its almost order year history. was among the songs played at a jones civil rights anthem "this little light of mine. the royal wedding is estimated to have cost $45 million.

and in more wedding news, a couple who narrowly survived the deadly white supremacist attack in charlottesville, virginia, has married. the couple's story went viral after marcus martin pushed his partner, marissa blair, out of the way of the speeding car being driven by nazi sympathizer james alex fields. a pulitzer-prize-winning photo captured marcus martin mid-air , his feet straight up, after being struck by the car. he survived, but the couple's heyer, died heather in the attack. last weekend, martin and marissa blair exchanged vows in virginia, surrounded by purple flowers in honor of heather, whose favorite color was purple. heather's mother was there. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. today we look at the latest in a long series of deadly shootings at schools in the united states.

the latest took place friday morning, just after 7:30 a.m. texas time, when a student entered his santa fe high school outside of houston, wearing a trench coat and shot dead 10 people -- eight fellow students and two teachers. 17-year-old dimitrios pagourtzis used a shotgun and a .38 revolver taken from his father to carry out the attack, which officials said he planned to end by committing suicide, but he instead surrendered to police. authorities said pagourtzis also reportedly planted various types of explosives in a home and a car. he is being held without bond on charges of capital murder. one santa fe high school student told local station abc 13 she wasn't surprised by the mass shooting at her school. >> was there a part of view that was like, this isn't really a co-this would not happen in my school? >> no, there wasn't.

>> why so? >> it has been happening everywhere. i was felt eventually it would happen here, too. hope. i don't know. i was not surprised, i was just scared. amy: the santa fe school district reportedly had an active shooter plan two armed , police officers at the high school, and had voted last fall to eventually arm teachers and staff under the state's school marshal program. ahead of the attack, pagourtzis posted on his facebook page a t-shirt that read "born to kill" as well as images of his trench coat and an explanation of its decorations, noting that "hammer and sickle=rebellion" and "rising sun=kamikaze tactics. iron cross=bravery. baphomet=evil." on sunday, the national rifle association's incoming president blamed ritalin for school shootings. some texas officials responded to friday's shooting with calls for prayers, including republican senator ted cruz.

this wanted a reaction from at least one santa fe high school student on twitter who responded -- "as an sfhs student, all i can ask you to do is vote for gun reform. you have the power to help prevent these things. thank you for your prayers, but we need action as well." meanwhile, texas lt. governor dan patrick said the santa fe school shooting may have been enabled by texas schools having too many entrances and exits. he spoke at a press conference with governor greg abbott and senator cruz. >> we may have to look at the design of our schools moving forward and retrofitting schools that are already built. what i mean by that is, there are too many entrances and to me exits to our over a thousand campuses in texas. -- over 8000 campuses in texas. they're not enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit.

25,000, be talking 30,000, 40,000 people. it up we can protect a large office building or a courthouse or any major facility, maybe we need to look at limiting the entrance and the exits into our schools so that we can have law enforcement looking at the people who come in one or two entrances. cut theiry have to start date. not all students show up at once so we don't have 1400 students trying to get in the door at once. we're going to have to be creative. we are going to have to think out-of-the-box. amy: lieutenant governor dan patrick also blamed abortion. his common street ridicule from some, but he stood by his comment on sunday during an interview on abc's "this week." to thinke out-of-the-box. we can stagger our start time. let us keep eyes on them. the israelis believe in the tech and a terror and the knife.

we don't do very good job of that in our schools. amy: in the same program abc got , response to patrick's comments from fred guttenberg, whose daughter jaime was killed in the parkland, florida, school shooting. >> i think those are the most idiotic comments i've heard regarding gun safety. let me be clear. you should be removed from office for his fill your to want to protect the citizens of dust failure of his protection of the citizens. aat guns are not the issue is crock. amy: this comes as "the washington post" reports that 2018 has been deadlier for schoolchildren than soldiers around the world, your soldiers. this is in part because of the 17 people killed in february in the mass shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland, florida. march for our lives, the group founded by parkland students who organized nationwide protests in march, tweeted support for the santa fe high school students, saying -- "this is not the price of

freedom. this is the most fatal shooting since the one at our school and tragedy like this will continue to happen unless action is taken." meanwhile, high school students in washington, d.c., entered the u.s. capitol building friday to demand house speaker paul ryan pass gun reform legislation. several of the students were arrested. >> we're here because we want to see paul ryan -- upwards of 10 people have been in theirlike animals own schoolroom, and this is unacceptable. this happens every single day. we should not have to go to school worried we are going to have to bury our friends or that our friends are going to have tobury us. the children were carrying signs that say "allow the vote." today texas governor greg abbott has called for texas to take a

moment of silence at 10:00 to a.m. honor the memory of the victims of the santa fe high school shooting. the school will be closed monday and tuesday. at a major award ceremony, kelly clarkson, a native of texas, said she was not going to honor and moment of silence last night at the ceremony, instead she said, we need action. when we come back, we will host a roundtable discussion with texas observer's kolten parker and ed scruggs of texas gun sense, along with the intercepts murtaza hussain on the pakistani exchange student was among the dead. she was the first funeral -- hers was the first funeral yesterday. we will also talk with soraya chemaly of the women's media center speech project about how the high school shooter may have targeted a female student he had aggressively pursued for months. he killed that student. this is democracy now! back in a moment. ♪ [music break]

amy: "heaven's only days down the road" by shelby lynne. for our radio listeners, we just showed the video images of the 10 people, the high school shooter killed at santa fe high school in texas. eight students and two teachers. i am amy goodman. today we're looking at the latest and a long series of deadly mass shootings at schools in the united states. the latest one took place just friday morning when dimitrios pagourtzis entered his santa fe high school outside houston, texas, wearing a trench coat and shot dead 10 people. eight fellow students and two teachers. he used a shotgun and a .38 caliber revolver taken from his father to carry out the attack, which officials said he had planned to end by committing

suicide but instead surrendered to police. this is the jenna governor dan patrick speaking to abc news about the cause of friday's shooting. >> we have devalued life whether it is through abortion, whether it is the breakup of families, through violent movies and particularly violent video games which now outsell movies and music. psychologists and psychiatrists will tell you that students are desensitized of violence, may have lost empathy for their victims by watching hours and hours of video, violent games. amy: that is lieutenant governor of texas. for more, we're joined in our roundtable discussion by four people. we're going to begin in austin, texas, with the texas observer's kolten parker and ed scruggs of texas gun sense. you have been covering this extensively throughout the weekend. can you talk about what we know at this point, who the shooter

is, what exactly happened, who was killed, and then the state's response? >> sure. i think around 7:30 friday morning, the attacker made his way into the school. what i have read is he fired through the art room's door, entered in. students tried to hide, tried to get out. eventually, despite there being two resource officers who were armed and at least one coming to try to stop the shooter, he was ofe to kill 10 people post students and teachers. and injure about 13 others. thearted to hear about shooting may be an hour after the shots rang out on friday morning. in 10 immediately clear or 15 minutes, it was not a

false alarm will stop it was pretty early on there were victims -- reports of victims. for a few hours maybe, there was not much of a response from officials as everybody was trying to sort of put two and two together to figure out what was going on. but throughout the day on friday, it started with the press comics around 1:30 p.m. about six hours after the shooting occurred with the lieutenant governor or dan patrick, the governor greg abbott and u.s. senator ted cruz, which you just referenced in the opener. generally, the response has not -- as you mentioned, at least in texas, has focused pretty much on anything but guns. school safety, culture, abortion even. we have a runoff election coming up on tuesday. is very well-versed in politics and that is how he got where he is today. i think is natural reaction with anything is to play politics,

and i think that is what we saw with this situation here. amy: on sunday, texas governor greg abbott told reporters his team is examining various methods to boost school security. >> i personally have spoken more than 100 people from the santa fe area. i consistently get the same solution offered up, which is better security at our schools, better control of ingress and egress from schools, and perhaps metal detectors -- i don't know if that is a solution or not, but these are all of the kinds of things that need to be put on the table. amy: that was texas governor greg abbott speaking sunday. this is governor abbot addressing the national rifle association, the nra, annual meeting that was just recently held in dallas. the problemaid that is not guns, the problem is

hearts without god. homes without discipline. communities without value. country, we have a core value that our nation is founded on, and that core value is our united states constitution. amy: that is governor abbot addressing the nra convention. alton parker, yet cover the gun issue for like five years in texas. you are at the convention. president bush and vice president pence also addressed the convention. >> yeah. it was sort of surreal on friday -- amy: i'm sorry, president trump. >> listening through trump, abbott, cruz --patrick wasn't there, but everybody basically made the same point which was that the only change in gun laws

is to expand access to guns. the on that, it is more of a culture problem in america and specifically with abbott, it is hearts without god, not guns. of its credit, he came out on friday and specifically said, i think after getting some criticism online, that we need to do more than pray. but i think time will tell, you know, what that action looks like in texas. amy: i want to turn to the new national rifle association president retired u.s. marine corps lieutenant colonel oliver north, that central figure in the iran-contra scandal, helping the reagan administration circumvent congress to secretly sell arms to iran and use the money paid back to them to fund u.s.-backed conference in nicaragua. north has also been a fox news

contributor. speaking sunday on fox news am a the nra president-elect north blamed a culture of violence and ritalin for the shooting. >> the problem with got is we're trying like the dickens to treat the symptom without treating the disease. in the disease in this case is of the second amendment. the disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence, drug in many cases. nearly all of these perpetrators are male. they are young teenagers in most cases. and they have come through a culture where violence is commonplace. what we need to do is turn on the tv, go to a movie. if you look at what is happening young people, many of these envoys have been on ritalin since they were in kindergarten. amy: i would to bring into this conversation and scruggs, the vice chair and spokesperson for texas gun sense. if you can respond -- first and foremost, what happened on friday morning at santa fe high

, thel just outside houston casualties were know, 10 dead, to teachers and eight students. all ofn the response to the people we're just been listening to. >> minus response and i believe the response of many across the state, anger. i can't really say i am shocked. earlier in the program there was a reference of a clip of a young lady at santa fe high school saying she was not shocked, she almost expected it would happen. i was here with you on this program back in november after the enormous death toll and what might happen after that in relating to gun violence. basically back then, our state leaders said nothing. our governor did not say much. dan patrick didn't even say

much. so when i saw the report coming over social media on friday, my initial hope was, ok, perhaps this is a false alarm. we have had several close calls recently, which i'm not sure people realize. in illinois last week, a young man was stopped by resource officer before he could open fire. hoping it would be something along that line. it quickly became apparent this was not going to be a false alarm. i went into a meeting for one hour. when i came out, the death toll was eight to 10. my initial response was anger with a little discussed. my view, think the view of our organization and minds of people are allhis state, these preventable deaths. on most every death by gun violence is available, but these mass shootings, these school shootings are forgettable. the state has they collected focusing on them for far too long.

and i still think after sutherland springs, there were people here who thought we were immune to something like this happening. i really don't understand why it is part of a cultural aspect of texas because we have an itablished gun culture here, believe people think they're protected from this. the school had to armed resource officers, so it was not a gun free zone. people just did not think this would happen and yet it did. i think the states response since then has been on one hand, very problematic. of also, a little bit positivity and hope. i think for the governor to come out and make the statement that we need to do more than thoughts and prayers is actually progress because he rarely says very little about these incidents. and it shows the events of recent months, the march for our ,ives, the shooting in parkland

florida, the incredible response to the march for our lives here in austin -- we had 20,000 people march on the capital -- i think it has a slight impact. at least that had to acknowledge that. and his statement was, a roundabout way, of admitting that, yes, texas has a serious than problem and it has a threat to its security. now, in terms of dealing with the threat. i think they're looking at it in a very mono focused way, looking at just school security. dan patrick actually has some point when he is talking about entrance and exits to schools. it is a big security problem in where i think the criticism comes in is it appears to be all he is saying that we need to do, and that is just incorrect. the gun problem here goes way beyond just school shootings in a number of mass -- suicides.

ponder, texas. five people killed. three young children, an ex-wife and her boyfriend. he then turned the gun on himself. we were just beginning to try to focus on that when the shooting in santa fe occurred. amy: we're going to talk about the link between mass shootings and violence against women in a moment. but i want to turn to the police chief of houston, houston is largely democratic urban area of texas versus the more conservative rural and suburban ones. the houston mayor responded to friday's shooting by calling for a new gun control measure and metal detectors in schools will stop the houston police chief political out against inaction on gun control. >> when you to start using the ballot box and ballot initiatives to take the matters out of the hands of people that

are doing nothing that are elected and into the hands of the people to see the will of the people in this country is actually carried out. it is when specifically, one of the things that we need to consider is if you have firearms in your home and you do not secure them and you do not secure them in a manner that can preclude someone from grabbing them and taking them and carrying out this carnage, that there is a criminal liability that attaches. amy: that is the houston police chief. ed scruggs of texas gun sense, can you talk about the legislation your supporting in taxes and what kind of opposition you face and will -- do you think that will change after this? >> well, i do want to quickly mention our acevedo. i count him as a friend. very brave spokesman. i think what you hear coming out of houston from the mayor and the police chief, it illustrates a cultural divide that is growing in texas between urban

areas and rural areas. you see it on display right there. blunt andce chief, to the point about what we need to do. i think that will have an impact in coming years. in terms of legislation, our reservation has been just working to get in the doors of lawmakers the last four to six years. and we are realistic about what we face here, but there are some areas of common ground that we should be able to reach if we could sit down today and those ,re the improving safe storage gun safety education -- which was a factor in this event, no question about that -- also improving background checks, red flag laws -- similar to what was passed in florida after parkland -- and also doing more to streamline laws regarding the confiscation of weapons and

taking them from the hands of abusive spouses. the law here is very, very vague. we have received bipartisan support in private conversations on those issues. we just have an intractable entrenched political system in our legislature. it was mentioned earlier are electrical system here, the majority republican control and gerrymandering, etc. the nra is extremely powerful in the legislature. they don't spend a lot of money because they don't have to because, really, they are playing on the nra playing field in many ways. and so lawmakers are basically terrified of being primary did. so it is hard to get any gun legislation the matter how, since it may be or how good of an idea it is to ask a get it moving. but what we're hopeful of is as

these terrible incidents continue -- and they will continue -- that eventually, the pressure is going to mount and we will see some movement. i think public opinion -- we have seen some movement in texas. a quinnipiac poll about three weeks ago, texas pacific poll, showed that 55% of the texans supported stricter gun laws. that was a 14 point margin over those who did not. amajority of texans favored federal ban on assault-style weapons. we have not seen that before. and 94% of texans favored background checks for all gun buyers. this puts us in a league with most other states. it shows the events i think of recent months have had an impact upon public opinion. and something tells me somewhere that greg abbott may have seen that poll. but it is not just public opinion in the state, it is who votes in the state and where they vote. and that makes it much more

complicated than it might be in some other states. amy: kolten parker, you wrote a piece after the nra convention atut governor greg abbott the convention saying the problem is not guns, it is hearts without god. and you also have been closely following dan patrick summit the lieutenant governor, who blamed abortion and other issues for this massacre. his power andbout his power base of the legislature? he could be texas next governor, is that right? >> sure. i think if he ask him, he was a that he is focused on being the lieutenant governor. he has said as much in the past. it where he says, he controls -- basically, he is the president of the senate. is way that texas government set up in some ways he is as powerful, if not more, than the governor at times. know, very you skillful at politics.

he comes from houston. he was a shock jock, conservative radio host before he got into politics. he came into the senate as somebody who was making a lot of noise as a freshman, causing a hype around himself. amy: he got a vasectomy on the air? >> yes, which is sort of one thing that gets mentioned in stories now. there are a lot of other things that he did to sort of -- it was something that, you know, in an objective way, he is a skillful speaker and politician. and so things like that lead into -- as lieutenant governor, he changed rules in the senate that had long been traditional to keep sort of the balance of power between the majority party and the minority party. the last session, he was extremely vocal on the bathroom bill, which was an anti-trans

measure that took up much of the oxygen of the legislature. there wasn't much time for guns last session, if there was any appetite anyway, because most of the session was spent talking about the bathroom bill. in texas, live a part-time legislature. they meet for about six months every other year. the next time they meet will be is coming january. i think we will see a lot of this discussion now and they're radically the discussion that will happen at these roundtables that governor abbott has called for this week. i think it is a long time before the session starts. so depending on what happens from now until then, if more shootings occur, and what happens in the midterm general elections this november, i think will determine how much of an appetite there is at the capital. but i think one thing you already see playing out is dan patrick is quitted take the far right -- is going to take the far right -- it looks like he is agreement with this is not a

gun issue. it is sort of interesting to hear patrick blame violence in texas on something they've been so adamant about getting rid of in the state, abortion. to go to breakg and come back to this discussion and we're going to start up our next segment by talking about sabika sheikh, the pakistani high school exchange student who died in the killing on friday. hers was the first funeral yesterday. her family from pakistan could not come. they will hold a funeral in pakistan. we have been speaking with ed scruggs of texas gun sense and kolten parker of the texas observer who is cover the gun issue and many other issues in texas for years. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "the times they are a-changin'" performed by jennifer hudson at the march for our lives against gun violence in washington, d.c., earlier this year. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. one of the 10 victims and the santa fe high school shooting was an exchange student from pakistan. her name is sabika sheikh. she was due to return to pakistan in june after participating in the exchange program sponsored by the state department. her uncle ansar sheikh called the shooting an act of terrorism and pleaded with the u.s. government to take action, saying -- "i don't blame the murder of my girl on american society but on that terrorism mindset that is there in all societies. we need to fight it all over the world. i do ask the american government to make sure weapons will not be easily available in your country to anybody. please make sure this doesn't happen again. it really hurts." sabika sheikh's friend and

fellow student jaelyn cogburn, spoke at her funeral on sunday. >> [indiscernible] she was the most beautiful, loving person i ever met. amy: that was the dear friend of , part ofeikh in texas her host family speaking at her funeral on sunday. and now i want to read a piece

by a cnn website writing -- "the comparisons with mobile use of begin as soon as sabika sheikh was identified as one of the victims. both are pakistani girls. one was shot on her way to school by a militant your pakistan's border with other was shot by fellow student inside a school in santa fe texas. she died. it is many briefly pointed out, that is where the comparison and. malala?ika be the next nope, we all know she will be forgotten before next weekend." la or shut the she became the face of the barbarism of the taliban, which do not hesitate to shoot a child and had to stop girls from attending school. today she is an activist for women's education and the

youngster about these prizewinner. but the root of frustration is 'se notion that sabika sheikh death 40 nothing to change this gorgeous gun violence. the santa fe attack was the 22nd school shooting this year that resulted in casualties, an average of one a week. that is just a quote from the cnn website, of the piece. for more, i want to bring in murtaza hussain a reporter at the intercept focusing on national security foreign-policy and human rights. the funeral of sabika sheikh was the first. >> that's right. it was a particularly tragic case because she came as an exchange program. it is often to raise goodwill between countries. the death was extremely tragic and seeing this seems from the funeral really sent home what a loss this was for her family and

the relationship between the u.s. and pakistan. amy: talk about what we call terror and what we call lone wolf killings. >> i think just as malala's shooting was the cause for reflection and pakistan globally and the roots of violence in her society, we should be thinking about sabika's case as being part of the very tragically normal cycle of violence we have seen in the united states targeting schoolchildren and mass violence with weaponry generally. maybe there is not a name for it yet, but we need to have a name, a label come and to categorize and attack this problem and name and charter the political groups of this violence, which all signs point to being the access to weaponry by ordinary people. amy: i also want to go to the issue of the motive for the killing. no official motive has been

announced for the massacre, but a familiar pattern has emerged. the shooter, a white male who have been rejected by a female classmate. the mother of shana fisher, one of the victims in the art classroom where police say dimitrios pagourtzis entered and opened fire, told "the los angeles times" that her 16 old daughter had four months of problems from this boy. he kept making advances on her and she repeatedly told him no." sadie rodriguez said her daughter recently stood up to him in class and "a week later he opens fire on everyone he didn't like." rodriguez also spoke to houston station abc 13. he has been mentally unstable. nobody was paying attention to him.

he is coming to school wearing upside down crosses and trenchcoats. amy: while investigations into the attack are ongoing, the santa fe shooting could be the second school shooting in recent months driven by such rejection, and in march, 16-year-old jaelyn rally was shot and had a greatin a hallway just before classes austiny 17-year-old after she ended their relationship. that was in maryland. her injuries after brain-dead and she later died after she was taken off life support by her family. i want to bring into this conversation soraya chemaly, a journalist who covers the intersection of gender and politics, director of the women's media center speech project. , though this has not been confirmed, the mother of one of the shooting victims shooter, now in custody, when after her daughter hermonths trying to make

his girlfriend. >> yes. she described his persistence. and i think really focuses on this question of boys and men who cannot take no for an answer. we see for example, i think yesterday in reuters had a headline that said "spurred advances provoke this attack." headlines like that are particularly unhelpful because it actually sort of reverses the trajectory of the harm and leads to conversations about shooters like this really being bullied and defending themselves. so we see and a lot of these cases of shooting, two primary metaphors. war and metaphor of self-defense. and the other is of disease and pathology.

i would argue that both, corelly hide and mask the issues we won't talk about. massage and is to go extremism and terrorism -- misogynistic extremism and terrorism. -- close tof these 50% of the shootings begin with a history or an incident of intimate partner or known acquaintance violence. amy: we just heard ed scruggs referring to the case and ponder, texas, where a man walked into a texas home and shot his three children, his ex-wife, and her boyfriend before turning the gun on himself. the only survivor, the man's ex-wife, the grieving mother took to facebook live from her hospital bed in a series of heart-wrenching videos to express her devastation at the loss of her family, reading from

usa today. so this is just taken place in texas, then followed by the santa fe shooting. you write about this intersection of man's rights activists, whites of premises, and neo-nazi sites have been crossed pollinating ideas and using gaming to talk to boys. explain. >> there are all of these communities that thrive online. grow a manye and different platforms, whether it sort of gete ideas laundered of the media food chain before the become more palatable for mainstream. summit of these ideologies, whether you're talking about what are known as racisttary celibates or neo-nazi white supremacist

groups, one of the fundamental ordinal forms of dividing people and controlling people is gender. because the first order of dividing and controlling people -- is the first order of dividing and controlling people. we see messages that often cross pollinate. and one of the, i think, unremarked upon aspects of this is the degree to which young boys who are playing games, often in network fashions, are exposed to these ideas. and no one is really talking to them about it. so we use a lot of language and talking about these shootings the highly effective gender. so if we say that people are using guns, really what we mean our boys and men are using guns. if we say that people lack empathy, really what we mean our that boys and men lack empathy. so in these cases, which are so incredibly overwhelmingly perpetrated by young men --

almost always young white men in these school shootings -- we still hear people say, well, we don't have a good profile of the shooter. and that is not true. we do have good profiles of these shooters and we need to investigate why it is that we continue to cultivate a lack of empathy and boys in general and took nor the warning signs by excusing them saying things like "boys will be boys" and "this is what boys do," which i think is heartless. amy: murtaza hussain, just as soraya chemaly is talking about these males shooters, the whole idea of them being white no christian. you don't usually hear white and christian when you hear about the shootings. you hear about a shooter. if the person were not white or were muslim, you hear about the religion. you do hear about their color. think this -- do you explains the relative ownership

around the issue of gun control? >> when a crime is committed by minority group, we generalize that crime to the entire group. where it is done by white person or a white male, it is viewed as individual acts. i don't think we should generalize this to any categorize the people that we should question why we do that in some cases and don't do it for others. ishink that soraya chemaly correct to highlight there is a class act entitled young men who thevery angry and they have ability to act on their anger in a very broad fashion because of the access to weapons in this country as well. there's a confluence of different factors. i think we should resist the urge to call this a white christian terrorist act in the absence of more evidence, but we should also extend the same generosity of categorization to other groups as well. amy: i want to thank murtaza hussain, soraya chemaly, as well as ed scruggs kolten parker and

kolten parker. [captioning ma

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