. >>> i want to bring in fromm e irvine, california brian levin. thank you for being with us.s from his former wife he was abusive and also claims from a gun shop owners that he was there asking for body armor, ammunition, but they didn't have any identifying information. are these signs that were missed? >> possibly. here is the problem. the fbi is reigned in by laws and regulations. let's say a case comes up inconclusive or they close it. that's it. that's why we have to change starting monday this insane loophole of people who have been on the terror lists. whether the no fly lists. at least making some adapgs so we can protect people's civil liberties, but get potential ticking time bombs. there's an excellent article out for tomorrow's "new york times" which talks about his history of aggressi aggression. there's another article in "the "daily beast"" which talks about his family's chaotic situation. i wrote some years ago, oftentimes these types of symbolic killers and terrorists are a chaotic mix of personal failures and aggrievement coupled with an ideology that can he

brian levin, stay with us. we'll be right back.you'll see, when shoppers add an item to their jet carts, they automatically shrink the prices of millions of other products. very impressive. whoo, it's got a little kick to it. sorry, i can't hear you?? nice shirt craig. at jet.com, we always find innovative ways to save. get 15 percent off your first order. (vo) on the trane test range, you learn what makes our heating and cooling systems so reliable. if there's a breaking point, we'll find it. it's hard to stop a trane. really hard. trane. the most reliable for a reason. >>> the top of the hour, we begin with breaking news. francis rivera at msnbc headquarters in new york. a live look at the pulse night club this morning, where there is breaking news out of orlando, where police say as many as 20 people are dead after a shooting at that nightclub early this morning. it's what they are calling an act of terror. domestic or international. at least 42 people were transported to local hospitals with injuries. the shooter, armed with an

an nbc terror analyst and brian levin and ari, msnbc's chief legal correspondent. tlemen, this is once again a situation where we're brought together by tragedy to discuss how something like this could happen. and brian, let me start with you when it comes to the fbi saying that yes, mateen had been on their radar at least twice but he was able to purchase these firearms used here legally. is this a failure of the system or something else? >> we don't know yet. here is the thing, there is a terror watch list, which is flawed, i admit it but people who can't fly because they are on the terror watch list can nonetheless buy weapons. we don't know whether this assailant was on the list. this is something we have to look at and perhaps have greater coordination of people that are persons of interest and a connection perhaps of notifying state and local authorities. you have civil liberty issues, about aggressive fbi tactics with regard to terror investigations. it's a balance. we have to open this up and look how to refine this. interestingly enough, we had 141 hate cri

i want to bring in brian levin, a professor at cal state. ian, you're familiar with these two groups. you were going to go and observe this rally. your takeaway given what we know so far that six people have been stabbed, five taken to the hospital, but so far no arrests with these two groups involved. >> yeah. it looks remarkably eerily like the clan rally that i was at in anaheim where a mob went after the remaining clansmen that couldn't escape. and i think the commonality for both of these is the events actually happened in the run up to the rally or the information disburseme disbursement. it wasn't actually during the rally, per se, but before they got a chance to scramble to where they were going. this guy heinback has been involved in white nationalism for some years. he started when he was in maryland. he's had different groups with the name traditionalist in it. this rally has been broadcast for sometime, and the reason i didn't go was because there was talk that it might have been cancelled because of all the chatter that was on th

along these very same lines, we want to work into this conversation brian levin, director for the center of study of hate and extremism at cal state. brian, the part of this that really angers so many americans on top of this two-pronged hate crime that is also terrorism is the isis involvement. perhaps aspirational on their part after the fact, saying, as i've been saying for the past hour, oh, yeah, he was one of ours. >> yes, absolutely. a similar thing happened after the terrible attack in san bernardino. let me just take one quick moment to my dear friends at the human rights campaign whom we work together on legislation and various other matters. to the lgbtq community, our prayers and hearts go out to you. we stand with you shoulder to shoulder from san bernardino. we will not tolerate this kind of act of hate and terrorism in a pluralistic, civilized society. thank you for the e-mails from both that community and from my friends of goodwill in the muslim community. one of the things we have seen here is a strategy isis has been doing, which has been to inspire misanthropes, unsta

let me bring in brian levin, director from the stud difference hate and extremism at cal state university. you know, brian, it is your job to study hate, what motivates people to carry out this very act that we saw this morning in orlando. >> well, one of the things that we've seen, and this is important, isis is not trying to cultivate religious scholars of goodwill. they have a fellow al baghdadi whose edicts are binding only on those who follow him. and he is a violent hateful man who is an affront to all civilized society whether muslim, christian or other. the thing is, they target unstable, they target criminal, they target disenfranchised and they have a very sophisticated internet network pip testified before congress about this. and said the combination of thi to violence is a cornerstone of what their american strategy is. they can not easily get folks into the united states like they can in places like europe. is they try to cultivate unstable angry violence people with their own bastardization of one of the great abreu whommic faiths and they're successful at it. if they could

short time ago, i spoke with cnn's military analyst, lieutenant general mark hertling as well as brian levinvine california. i asked him what may have motivated mateen. >> it's my guess that this is someone who was inspired by isis rather than orchestrated and directed. several weeks ago, isis came out with a new magazine. interestingly enough, in that magazine, they were primarily aiming their ire at muslims around the world, whether it be egypt, the united states, saudi arabia, or elsewhere. but the bottom line is that these folks can get radicalized by one group, and the baton can be passed to another group. that's what we found happened with respect to the terrible attack that hit in san bernardino. one of the things that i warned congress late last year was because of isis' ability to use the internet, the dark web, and social media, even when they were under pressure, they were still getting their message out. and unlike europe, where they're orchestrating folks who have gone in theater and then come back to europe, here they're inspiring malcontents, disenfranchised people, mentally u

joins us now is former new york city police officer commission and brian levin.tor the center for the study of hate and extremism. commissioner, i would like to start with you. where do you think it leaves us in terms of addressing our safety here in the united states? >> well, i think the one thing or a couple of things that's going to come out of this, i think, jim comey made it clear to congress he needs more staff. i honestly believe that. i think with the amount of work the fbi is doing, with the people they are looking at, you know they have 14,000 sworn agents, 20,000 administrative staff. a lot is analytical. i think he needs more staff. i think that's something congress has to consider. we've done an incredible job on intelligence sharing and, you know, identifying these guys in advance like this guy they've looked at numerous occasions. the bernardino people they were looking at. the problem is there's no consistent follow up. i think we have to take that intelligence sharing to another level. i think when the fbi agents go out to visit these people, i