VICE (2013) s06e04 Episode Script
The Parkland Effect
1 I was starting a Grand Slam and I was pregnant.
I was like, "How am I gonna get through this?" Please welcome Serena Williams! She has done it.
Her 23rd major title.
I like to think that it was unfair 'cause , and I want a rematch.
(LAUGHS) I always envisionned myself as a mom, but it happened so unexpectedly, Alexis and I, we're total opposite.
- Mr.
and Mrs.
Alexis Ohanian.
- (CHEERS) I definitely feel the pressure, the fear of failing.
Serena just has another gear that she can shift into.
Without fear, without doubt, without discomfort, what is there for a person to overcome? SHANE SMITH: This week on Vice: the gun debate reaches its tipping point across America.
(GIANNA TOBONI SPEAKS) (BANGING) (BB GUNS FIRING) GIANNA: So you see this as a sort of last line of defense? It is the last, best chance we have to keep the active shooter from slaughtering our children.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING) (CROWD SHOUTING) They're saying that right now, it's time for change.
(CHEERING) (CRICKETS CHIRPING) We're in a neighborhood in Parkland, Florida, and we're meeting up with a few of the students from MSD.
Tomorrow will be their first time back at school since the shooting.
(GIANNA SPEAKS) So, the shooter is actually in the book.
He's on this page right here.
Yeah, he's right there.
When I looked through it this morning, I totally forgot that he was in it, and I remembered, "Oh, like he went to school with us and he was there.
SUZANNA: You kind of forget - that you actually kind of knew him.
- Knew him, yeah.
He was a student, he was one of us, but yet not.
Yeah.
GIANNA: What do you remember about that day? My newspaper class, about 19, 20 of us, we're all huddled in the corner of the classroom, shut the lights off, lock the door.
I texted my mom, I texted my brother, saying, "I'm in a code red.
I hear there's an active shooter on campus with the gunshots coming from West Glades.
" But I said, "I'm safe right now, I'm okay.
" I think it's a drill, but I'm not really sure.
I wouldn't know what "code red" meant.
I know that sounds stupid, but did you guys know what that meant? I mean, we've been versed (ARIANA SPEAKS) - So you've been taught about that in school? - Yeah.
We literally just had formal training in January when we got back from winter break.
We're really fortunate we knew what to do when it happened, 'cause I think the outcome could've been so much worse.
For me to hear about armed guards at every school is not something that I was really raised around, but you guys were born after Columbine.
RICHARD: We've grown up with code yellow, code red, - code black our whole life.
- Gianna: Mmm.
Um, tomorrow is your first day back since the shooting.
How are you feeling? I think we're all a little actually excited to see each other again.
It will be a little impacting, also, seeing the empty seats for the first time.
I think it'll kind of bring the emotions of that day back, but when we're there together, it feels like we have the comfort and the support that we need, and we're going against it together.
GIANNA: Mm-hmm.
GIANNA: Sophie, who's a junior at MSD, let us join her on her way to school the next morning.
When you walk up there today, what are you expecting to see? Just a lot of friendly faces.
I know all of our teachers are gonna be offering us hugs, talking to us, and there are also gonna be a lot of guidance counselors, a lot of people just to talk to if you don't have anybody else to talk to.
And then, also, there are gonna be a lot of armed guards.
GIANNA: What are the next steps for you guys and the rest of these students? Definitely just to make sure that something like this doesn't die out, because, you know, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas those things kind of fizzled out after a week or so.
People were tired of seeing it on the news, and we're just here to make sure that people won't forget that this happened.
GIANNA: You're seeing all the kids just kind of file in.
There are tons of officers from the police and sheriff departments, and a lot of members of the community who are supporting the kids as they go through.
What's really strange about being here is that this scene is familiar.
We've seen this unfold so many times.
And I think what these kids hope is that this scene will no longer unfold in different cities across America, that they can be the generation that actually changes gun policy.
Parkland was just the latest in a series of devastating mass shootings that have terrorized American communities and killed nearly 500 people in the last decade alone.
While the calls for gun control rang loudly after the Sandy Hook elementary shooting, which took the lives of 20 children and six adults, Congress was paralyzed by partisan gridlock.
Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association was establishing a new narrative of their own, not only dismissing gun control, but calling to arm more people.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
GIANNA: Five years later, some of the Parkland shooting survivors are fighting back themselves, challenging the powerful gun lobby.
They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun! - We call B.
S.
! - Crowd: B.
S.
! GIANNA: Like many Republican politicians, President Trump is following the NRA's lead and promoting their push to arm a very specific set of good guys school teachers and staff.
But we have to take steps to harden our schools, so that they're less vulnerable to attack.
This includes allowing well-trained and certified school personnel to carry a concealed firearm.
At at some point, you need volume.
- (PEOPLE SHOUTING) - GIANNA: Two weeks after the Parkland shooting, despite an impassioned plea from students - (GIRL SHOUTS) - (CROWD SHOUTS) Florida legislators passed part of what would become a $400 million bill promoting the arming of school employees.
We met with Sophie and a few of her friends after their first day back to hear their reactions.
Just a few minutes ago, Florida lawmakers passed a bill for a school marshal program, which would mean training teachers on how to carry guns.
How do you guys feel about that? It kind of just hurts, knowing that they're funding money into this bill that'll also put teachers in an uncomfortable situation if another school shooting happens, where then, the SWAT team comes in, they ask if anyone's injured and then, "Who has a gun?" Nobody wants to be the person that says, "I have a gun.
" What's to say that the teacher might miss? And then who would also get injured? I don't know it would make me feel safer to know that each of those teachers would have a gun somewhere in their classroom.
- Mmm.
- In a way, I would almost feel more uncomfortable.
What do you think about what the NRA and Trump and others have said, the idea that a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun? I mean, I understand that in the point that if we had more police officers or school resource officers who knew what to do in that situation.
But at the same time, they're specially trained to do that.
Our teachers are trained to teach, so they shouldn't have to learn how to carry a gun as well.
GIANNA: With the Trump administration's support, schools across the country are considering arming their teachers.
But just a few hours from Parkland, Sheriff Grady Judd has been doing it for years and thinks his program should be the blueprint for the rest of the country.
So, you originally had the idea to start the school sentinel program.
- We did.
- And why did you come up with that idea? We study every one of the active shooters, the horrible events that have occurred since Columbine.
One of the common denominators is the active shooter, on average, arrives, does his evil deed, and leaves between two minutes and five minutes.
The police response is a plus-five minutes.
If the active shooter he's walking down the hallway, towards your child's classroom, do you want someone there now to stop him before he goes in and slaughters your child? So you see this as a sort of last line of defense? It is the last, best chance we have to keep the active shooter from slaughtering our children.
GIANNA: Sheriff Judd invited us to see his school sentinels in action, a group of local college professors and staff who have gone through 132 hours of training to be armed and ready to respond to a mass shooter at their school.
So this is the school sentinel program, training teachers how to end a mass shooting.
(GUNFIRE) Men and women of all ages, all backgrounds, the one thing they have in common is that they all really look like teachers, except for the fact that they're carrying massive guns.
(BANGING) (BANGING CONTINUES) (MAN SPEAKS) MAN 2: We're gonna go.
(MAN SPEAKS) - (BANGING CONTINUES) - (MAN SPEAKS) (MAN 3 SHOUTS) (MEN SHOUTING REPEATEDLY) (WHISTLE TWEETS) (MAN SPEAKS) GIANNA: In addition to firearms training, maybe the most important element of these drills is to learn to hit the right target.
(GIANNA SPEAKS) (MAN SHOUTS) MAN: You okay? - (LAUGHTER) - MAN: You're good! There's so many school shootings that are happening, and when you're an administrator on a campus like that for us, our hearts sank, and we're like, "What are we going do? We have to do something.
" And so, it was really a no-brainer, kind of a an obvious yes for us.
Obviously, part of the idea of this program, is to remain anonymous, remain discreet.
So why the AR-15s? I don't want to reveal tactics about where they are, but the sheriff's office is doing an incredible job to make sure that we have the equipment we're gonna need to respond as law enforcement agents.
Do you feel confident that you and your colleagues could end a mass shooting? - Yes.
- Do you have kids? - I do.
- And do you hope that faculty and teachers at their school are trained and armed? Yes.
It is a game-changer when you have a good guy with a gun, 'cause that's the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun.
(LAUGHS) GIANNA: While Sheriff Judd's school sentinels haven't had to respond to an active shooter, one woman in Colorado has.
Former police officer Jeanne Assam was volunteering as a church security guard when she stopped a shooter in his tracks.
He opened fire in a parking lot first, hitting five people, killing two.
He got about 80 feet inside, and that is when he was first confronted by Jeanne Assam.
I just knew I was not gonna wait for, uh, him to do any further damage.
I just knew I just knew what I had to do.
GIANNA: Jeanne showed us the handgun she used to take down the shooter.
So, this is the Beretta that I used.
It's a police Beretta, so it carries 16 rounds.
So, we're surrounded by AR-15s, the gun that the mass shooter used and fired at you.
This doesn't seem like a match.
Well, people say I've heard people say there's no way you can take on an AR-15 with a handgun, and I'm living proof that, yes, you can.
You just have to have the right mindset.
You know, obviously, a big argument right now is that teachers should be armed.
Do you buy that argument? Do you support that? No.
Absolutely not.
You're like, "Why?" - Why? Why not? - (LAUGHS) I just feel that if you're a prior law enforcement and now you're a teacher, go for it.
But if you haven't had law enforcement training, you are not used to that law enforcement mindset, that always alert, always ready mindset.
What if there's thorough training? What if there's target training, scenario training? It's not gonna cut it.
You cannot expect them to drop the chalk and pick up a gun and become instant cop.
It's awful, seeing somebody get shot and killed.
It's gory.
- Mmm.
- It's messy.
It's You'll never you never forget it.
GIANNA: Jeanne showed us the difference between the gun she used to stop the shooter in Colorado and t he AR-15 used in Parkland, Sandy Hook, and against her.
Okay, so we got the AR-15, and then Did he get you a Beretta? (MAN SPEAKS) JEANNE: That's what I got.
I want you to feel that versus that.
Why don't you walk me through, step by step.
Load it, put the magazine in hard.
Okay.
And then drop the slide.
There you go.
So you're in single action.
You're ready to rock and roll.
(GUN FIRING) JEANNE: Not bad.
Lay the gun down once.
Let me show you something.
Okay.
- Hand over hand.
- Oh, I see where you are.
Okay.
Just like that.
GIANNA: Damn, girl.
We say, "Center mass, shoot for center mass," because that's where all the organs are, that's a bigger target.
You shoot to kill.
You do not shoot to wound or you will die.
- Why don't you try the - Yeah.
Should I try this one? Just make sure you have to be confident.
Like, "I have to save people here," you know? Or this is the gunman, you know.
You're gonna hold the gun choice of a killer.
So see what you feel how do you feel about that? This thing is heavy.
Jesus.
Okay.
Here it goes.
(GUNSHOT ECHOES) (CASING CLATTERS) - You see how loud that is compared to the Beretta? - Yeah.
Wow.
- Way more powerful.
- That's exactly what it sounded like at the church.
Have you heard an AR since then? Not not inside.
Wow.
Wow.
- You okay? - Yeah, yeah.
(GUNSHOT ECHOES) (CASING CLATTERS) GIANNA: While Jeanne thinks only trained law enforcement should protect our nation's schools, the NRA is now doubling down on the call to turn educators into, quote, "good guys with guns.
" Like Wayne LaPierre said, a good guy with a gun is the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
Sometimes the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
ALL: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
And that's the hard reality of it.
GIANNA: To help spread this message, they've created their own network, NRATV, and Grant Stinchfield is one of its biggest stars.
- Hey.
How are you? - Hey, hey, how are you? - Gianna.
- Welcome to my home.
- GRANT: Nothing to be scared of.
- (GIANNA LAUGHS) Okay.
GRANT: Us NRA guys are actually pretty nice.
(LAUGHTER) GIANNA: Nice art.
Oh, you like that? So that is my AK-47 pistol grip.
Do you have any real ones? I don't have a real AK.
I got a real AR-15.
This is my gun safe, my pride and joy.
This is my Glock, so it's clear.
Mm-hmm.
Do you keep 'em empty? I keep 'em empty.
I keep a loaded firearm - on my hip, which I have right now - Okay.
and my AR in there.
That's That's what everybody vilifies, and literally, there's nothing to vilify about that gun.
That gun is a fabulous firearm.
It is easy to use, terrific home defense gun.
And no matter what they tell you, you can use it for hunting.
And in fact, in Texas, hogs are a horrible nuisance.
That is the gun of choice to hunt hogs.
Mmm.
How did you originally decide to get an AR? Um, truth is, I bought the AR only because Obama was in office and I was worried, "Are they gonna really try to go and outlaw these? I'd better get myself one.
" Did you really think that they were gonna either outlaw ARs - or take your guns, as we hear? - There was a chance.
The Democrats, being run by liberal gun-haters, will continue their assault on the Second Amendment.
They will focus on statehouses across the country, quietly slipping in more gun control through liberal-controlled legislative bodies.
What went through your mind when you saw the news at Parkland? (STAMMERS) My son, instantly.
My son was in school at the time when it happened, and at that moment, I thought of my my kid.
which is why it's offensive to me when I see signs like, the NRA has blood on our hands, and that I'm a child killer.
I've dedicated most of my adult life to people being able to keep themselves safe.
Wayne LaPierre coined the phrase, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
" And nobody has been able to show me where that is a false statement.
But has anyone been able to prove that it's a true statement? (STAMMERS) We just saw in Maryland that that school resource officer came and literally engaged the shooter.
Police accuracy rate is 18 percent when they're being shot at.
When they're not being shot at, it's 30 percent.
- Okay.
- That's not very good, when you have a sea of kids in front of you - and you're a teacher.
- Guess what.
It's a chance.
And guess what.
Even if the teacher and everybody gets mad, and it sounds horrible even if the teacher misses the gunman and God forbid, God forbid hits a student, hits two students is that not better than that gunman taking out the entire class? If it is a war sometimes you have casualties in war, and that's harsh to say but I want the casualties to be the lowest number possible.
Many would say that if it weren't for the NRA, AR-15s would be outlawed, the firearm that many mass shooters have used, including the one at Parkland, and bought legally.
If people give credit to the NRA for still being able to buy AR-15s, then God bless the NRA, because the AR-15 is a phenomenal firearm, and there's nothing more dangerous about that firearm than there is a common deer rifle.
But you know as well as anyone, that the AR-15 can do a lot more damage in a shorter amount of time.
Umm (STAMMERS) I would argue that you have some handguns that are more powerful than an AR-15.
What about the magazine and how many you can fire back to back? Do you know how quick I can change the magazine out of my Glock? Yeah, but we're talking about 20-year-old, mentally ill kids.
- Okay.
Great.
- So when you give them something easy to shoot that they can rapid-fire bullets that are exploding in people's bodies, it's more harmful than a handgun.
Well, then thank God if a teacher has a firearm, because they're gonna be a better shot than that kid.
They're gonna take that kid out much quicker.
How do you think we end this series of mass shootings? You know, the sad reality is I don't think you're ever gonna end it.
People have been killing since the beginning of time, - and it is sad.
- But not like this.
This is a new phenomenon over the last 20 years people going into movie theaters, schools, malls, and shooting them up.
It's a new thing.
I don't know if it's a new thing or not.
I wasn't around, you know, 60 years ago, - I don't know - But you were 25 years ago.
I was 25 years ago, but we have a whole different we have a whole different world when it comes to media and dissemination of information.
I don't know whether it was going on or not.
Maybe it's up.
Maybe it's down.
You asked me, "How do you stop it?" I'm telling you, I don't think you stop it.
The best way to stop it is to be prepared if it happens and stop it the moment it happens.
And prevention.
- (WOMAN SPEAKS) - Please.
Wow.
Wow.
Good afternoon.
We are following a tense situation unfolding right now in San Bruno, California.
NEWSMAN: Sadly, law enforcement has converged on the YouTube campus because of reports of shots fired.
How do I want to say this because I don't know the details.
- Let's say San Bruno.
- WOMAN: San Bruno.
It's not gonna matter how you phrase it, 'cause my answer's gonna be The same.
Okay, so I'll just say it like this.
Since we've been sitting here, a shooter has entered YouTube offices.
We don't know how bad this situation is.
Why are these mass shootings happening with such frequency? So, uh, whatever happened if that happened, that's horrible, but I'm not gonna do what the mainstream media does and start spouting off about something I literally know nothing about.
I don't know what happened.
I know no details of it, so literally, there's nothing I can talk to you about on it.
GIANNA: That aside, though, separate from YouTube, why are these happening more frequently? Again, we went over this, and I told you, I don't know that they are happening more frequently.
You tell me they're happening more frequently, I I don't know that for sure.
I do know you cannot regulate evil.
GIANNA: We followed Grant as he left our interview to do live hits on NRATV, restating the NRA's go-to narrative.
Right, given the breaking news, I'd like to bring in my friend, Grant, now.
I've been talking about him enough.
Grant, how you doing? You know, Dan, one of the things that I've I learned about this and when anything like this happens is, the bottom line is you cannot regulate evil.
Evil will come calling.
These people will find ways to kill.
The good guy with a gun matters! Whether it's the bad guy killing themselves or stopping what they're doing now, Grant.
Dan a good guy with a gun nearby gives people a chance of survival.
GIANNA: It seems that after each mass shooting, the public conversation often leaps into taking political sides, so we wanted to talk to somebody who's seen a completely different side of this crisis.
Just six months ago, pediatric trauma surgeon Dr.
Lillian Liao treated young children wounded in the Sutherland Springs church massacre.
We begin tonight with that breaking news a mass shooting at an American church.
There are 26 deceased: 23 in the church, two outside the church, and one at the hospital.
GIANNA: Bring us back to that day in November.
What are some of the first things that you remember about that day? We actually all happened to be in the building for a meeting when we received the initial contact that there had been a mass casualty incident in Sutherland Springs.
GIANNA: As the patients started to arrive, what do you remember seeing? So, we actually started receiving children first.
And I had a child, he was internally bleeding.
Where was he shot and with what type of firearm? Well, the reported firearm used was an AR-15.
He was shot in the pelvis.
He was shot in his left leg and left arm.
I think one of the things that people don't really realize is this isn't a bullet hole.
Part of his leg is blown off.
Yes, it's a cavity.
It's We call it "gaping holes.
" GIANNA: Dr.
Liao agreed to show us exactly what bullets fired from these guns can do to bodies.
The following images are disturbing.
- GIANNA: Oh my God.
- LILLIAN: That's the one.
GIANNA: Oh my God, these are huge.
LILLIAN: This is two weeks out.
That's two weeks out? We don't take pictures in real time, because we're trying to save their life.
So, that was the front.
That was the front, and this is sort of the backside.
Wait a second.
So the wound goes all the way through the leg? Yeah.
The higher the velocity, the bigger the defect of not just what most people think of as a bullet hole.
The force that hits the body is so fast that there's a blast range.
I mean, if anybody's been hunting and knows what it looks like when you've successfully hunted an animal, that's exactly what it looks like.
When you get shot with a handgun, most likely it's not gonna look like this.
There may be some skin and tissue missing, but it's usually what you think of as a little circular hole.
It's hard to deny the power between these two firearms.
Correct.
A handgun injury and the wounds that it creates is completely different than something that is created by either an AR or a shotgun or a rifle.
People may not understand that and feel like firearm is firearm, but they're not really the same.
Mmm.
You're one of the only doctors in the U.
S.
that has been in that type of environment.
Unfortunately, the number of those doctors is growing.
What would you share with the general public as someone who's been in that that situation? We have a public health crisis.
We have an increase in the number of firearm-related injuries by as much as 20 percent since 1999.
And we, as a community, not just speaking as a physician or a surgeon, but speaking as a person living in this country, we shouldn't have two divisive teams of people.
We should have one group of people working together to try to bridge the difference.
- I think we need to do something.
- Yeah.
GIANNA: Instead, it seems our nation is locking itself into the same predictable partisan battle as always.
But this time, the survivors of the Parkland school shooting have thrown themselves into the middle of it.
The MSD student movement is now publicly feuding with both the NRA and its conservative allies.
Yeah, there has been some unfortunate media handling of these traumatized children.
They've used them as ways to enact what they always like to do which is a gun-control agenda.
The student walkout for gun control yesterday looked, at times, more like a political celebration.
It was scripted and screened.
The only reason we've gotten so far is because we are not afraid of losing money, we are not afraid of getting reelected or not getting reelected.
We have nothing to lose.
The only thing we have to gain at this point is our safety.
I asked the Parkland students if they felt like they were pawns in some political debate, that they were being exploited by political operatives, and they basically said, "We don't care.
We're not endorsing their campaigns.
We'll take the support if it helps get our message out.
" It's a great answer by those kids.
It's a great answer.
Usually pawns don't know they're being used as pawns.
You know, I play a lot of poker.
If you don't know who the sucker is at the table, you're probably the sucker.
GIANNA: The Never Again kids turned to social media and, with the help of the powerful gun-control advocacy groups, organized one of the largest single-day protests the country has ever seen, the March for Our Lives.
(CHEERING) Today, we take to the streets in over 800 marches around the globe and demand common sense gun laws.
(CHEERING) GIANNA: What do you say to those critics, including some of the Douglas students who say they don't want their teachers to be armed? Yeah, they're they're children, and they have a perspective from a child.
- (BANGING) - BOTH: Shots fired! Shots fired! This is the white light of change.
EMMA: Six minutes and 20 seconds with an AR-15, and my friend Carmen would never complain to me about piano practice.
Aaron Feis would never call Kira "Miss Sunshine," Jamie Guttenberg would never, Meadow Pollack would never.
- (CROWD CHANTING) - Never again! Never again! Never again! Never again! Never again! Never again! GIANNA: The students of the Never Again movement believe they can force Congress to break the cycle of political inaction.
After all, many of them will be able to vote come November.
Are you confident that you guys can create change? - (CHEERING) - Today is the beginning of a bright, new future for this country.
And if you think today is good, just wait for tomorrow.
(CHEERING)
I was like, "How am I gonna get through this?" Please welcome Serena Williams! She has done it.
Her 23rd major title.
I like to think that it was unfair 'cause , and I want a rematch.
(LAUGHS) I always envisionned myself as a mom, but it happened so unexpectedly, Alexis and I, we're total opposite.
- Mr.
and Mrs.
Alexis Ohanian.
- (CHEERS) I definitely feel the pressure, the fear of failing.
Serena just has another gear that she can shift into.
Without fear, without doubt, without discomfort, what is there for a person to overcome? SHANE SMITH: This week on Vice: the gun debate reaches its tipping point across America.
(GIANNA TOBONI SPEAKS) (BANGING) (BB GUNS FIRING) GIANNA: So you see this as a sort of last line of defense? It is the last, best chance we have to keep the active shooter from slaughtering our children.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING) (CROWD SHOUTING) They're saying that right now, it's time for change.
(CHEERING) (CRICKETS CHIRPING) We're in a neighborhood in Parkland, Florida, and we're meeting up with a few of the students from MSD.
Tomorrow will be their first time back at school since the shooting.
(GIANNA SPEAKS) So, the shooter is actually in the book.
He's on this page right here.
Yeah, he's right there.
When I looked through it this morning, I totally forgot that he was in it, and I remembered, "Oh, like he went to school with us and he was there.
SUZANNA: You kind of forget - that you actually kind of knew him.
- Knew him, yeah.
He was a student, he was one of us, but yet not.
Yeah.
GIANNA: What do you remember about that day? My newspaper class, about 19, 20 of us, we're all huddled in the corner of the classroom, shut the lights off, lock the door.
I texted my mom, I texted my brother, saying, "I'm in a code red.
I hear there's an active shooter on campus with the gunshots coming from West Glades.
" But I said, "I'm safe right now, I'm okay.
" I think it's a drill, but I'm not really sure.
I wouldn't know what "code red" meant.
I know that sounds stupid, but did you guys know what that meant? I mean, we've been versed (ARIANA SPEAKS) - So you've been taught about that in school? - Yeah.
We literally just had formal training in January when we got back from winter break.
We're really fortunate we knew what to do when it happened, 'cause I think the outcome could've been so much worse.
For me to hear about armed guards at every school is not something that I was really raised around, but you guys were born after Columbine.
RICHARD: We've grown up with code yellow, code red, - code black our whole life.
- Gianna: Mmm.
Um, tomorrow is your first day back since the shooting.
How are you feeling? I think we're all a little actually excited to see each other again.
It will be a little impacting, also, seeing the empty seats for the first time.
I think it'll kind of bring the emotions of that day back, but when we're there together, it feels like we have the comfort and the support that we need, and we're going against it together.
GIANNA: Mm-hmm.
GIANNA: Sophie, who's a junior at MSD, let us join her on her way to school the next morning.
When you walk up there today, what are you expecting to see? Just a lot of friendly faces.
I know all of our teachers are gonna be offering us hugs, talking to us, and there are also gonna be a lot of guidance counselors, a lot of people just to talk to if you don't have anybody else to talk to.
And then, also, there are gonna be a lot of armed guards.
GIANNA: What are the next steps for you guys and the rest of these students? Definitely just to make sure that something like this doesn't die out, because, you know, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas those things kind of fizzled out after a week or so.
People were tired of seeing it on the news, and we're just here to make sure that people won't forget that this happened.
GIANNA: You're seeing all the kids just kind of file in.
There are tons of officers from the police and sheriff departments, and a lot of members of the community who are supporting the kids as they go through.
What's really strange about being here is that this scene is familiar.
We've seen this unfold so many times.
And I think what these kids hope is that this scene will no longer unfold in different cities across America, that they can be the generation that actually changes gun policy.
Parkland was just the latest in a series of devastating mass shootings that have terrorized American communities and killed nearly 500 people in the last decade alone.
While the calls for gun control rang loudly after the Sandy Hook elementary shooting, which took the lives of 20 children and six adults, Congress was paralyzed by partisan gridlock.
Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association was establishing a new narrative of their own, not only dismissing gun control, but calling to arm more people.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
GIANNA: Five years later, some of the Parkland shooting survivors are fighting back themselves, challenging the powerful gun lobby.
They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun! - We call B.
S.
! - Crowd: B.
S.
! GIANNA: Like many Republican politicians, President Trump is following the NRA's lead and promoting their push to arm a very specific set of good guys school teachers and staff.
But we have to take steps to harden our schools, so that they're less vulnerable to attack.
This includes allowing well-trained and certified school personnel to carry a concealed firearm.
At at some point, you need volume.
- (PEOPLE SHOUTING) - GIANNA: Two weeks after the Parkland shooting, despite an impassioned plea from students - (GIRL SHOUTS) - (CROWD SHOUTS) Florida legislators passed part of what would become a $400 million bill promoting the arming of school employees.
We met with Sophie and a few of her friends after their first day back to hear their reactions.
Just a few minutes ago, Florida lawmakers passed a bill for a school marshal program, which would mean training teachers on how to carry guns.
How do you guys feel about that? It kind of just hurts, knowing that they're funding money into this bill that'll also put teachers in an uncomfortable situation if another school shooting happens, where then, the SWAT team comes in, they ask if anyone's injured and then, "Who has a gun?" Nobody wants to be the person that says, "I have a gun.
" What's to say that the teacher might miss? And then who would also get injured? I don't know it would make me feel safer to know that each of those teachers would have a gun somewhere in their classroom.
- Mmm.
- In a way, I would almost feel more uncomfortable.
What do you think about what the NRA and Trump and others have said, the idea that a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun? I mean, I understand that in the point that if we had more police officers or school resource officers who knew what to do in that situation.
But at the same time, they're specially trained to do that.
Our teachers are trained to teach, so they shouldn't have to learn how to carry a gun as well.
GIANNA: With the Trump administration's support, schools across the country are considering arming their teachers.
But just a few hours from Parkland, Sheriff Grady Judd has been doing it for years and thinks his program should be the blueprint for the rest of the country.
So, you originally had the idea to start the school sentinel program.
- We did.
- And why did you come up with that idea? We study every one of the active shooters, the horrible events that have occurred since Columbine.
One of the common denominators is the active shooter, on average, arrives, does his evil deed, and leaves between two minutes and five minutes.
The police response is a plus-five minutes.
If the active shooter he's walking down the hallway, towards your child's classroom, do you want someone there now to stop him before he goes in and slaughters your child? So you see this as a sort of last line of defense? It is the last, best chance we have to keep the active shooter from slaughtering our children.
GIANNA: Sheriff Judd invited us to see his school sentinels in action, a group of local college professors and staff who have gone through 132 hours of training to be armed and ready to respond to a mass shooter at their school.
So this is the school sentinel program, training teachers how to end a mass shooting.
(GUNFIRE) Men and women of all ages, all backgrounds, the one thing they have in common is that they all really look like teachers, except for the fact that they're carrying massive guns.
(BANGING) (BANGING CONTINUES) (MAN SPEAKS) MAN 2: We're gonna go.
(MAN SPEAKS) - (BANGING CONTINUES) - (MAN SPEAKS) (MAN 3 SHOUTS) (MEN SHOUTING REPEATEDLY) (WHISTLE TWEETS) (MAN SPEAKS) GIANNA: In addition to firearms training, maybe the most important element of these drills is to learn to hit the right target.
(GIANNA SPEAKS) (MAN SHOUTS) MAN: You okay? - (LAUGHTER) - MAN: You're good! There's so many school shootings that are happening, and when you're an administrator on a campus like that for us, our hearts sank, and we're like, "What are we going do? We have to do something.
" And so, it was really a no-brainer, kind of a an obvious yes for us.
Obviously, part of the idea of this program, is to remain anonymous, remain discreet.
So why the AR-15s? I don't want to reveal tactics about where they are, but the sheriff's office is doing an incredible job to make sure that we have the equipment we're gonna need to respond as law enforcement agents.
Do you feel confident that you and your colleagues could end a mass shooting? - Yes.
- Do you have kids? - I do.
- And do you hope that faculty and teachers at their school are trained and armed? Yes.
It is a game-changer when you have a good guy with a gun, 'cause that's the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun.
(LAUGHS) GIANNA: While Sheriff Judd's school sentinels haven't had to respond to an active shooter, one woman in Colorado has.
Former police officer Jeanne Assam was volunteering as a church security guard when she stopped a shooter in his tracks.
He opened fire in a parking lot first, hitting five people, killing two.
He got about 80 feet inside, and that is when he was first confronted by Jeanne Assam.
I just knew I was not gonna wait for, uh, him to do any further damage.
I just knew I just knew what I had to do.
GIANNA: Jeanne showed us the handgun she used to take down the shooter.
So, this is the Beretta that I used.
It's a police Beretta, so it carries 16 rounds.
So, we're surrounded by AR-15s, the gun that the mass shooter used and fired at you.
This doesn't seem like a match.
Well, people say I've heard people say there's no way you can take on an AR-15 with a handgun, and I'm living proof that, yes, you can.
You just have to have the right mindset.
You know, obviously, a big argument right now is that teachers should be armed.
Do you buy that argument? Do you support that? No.
Absolutely not.
You're like, "Why?" - Why? Why not? - (LAUGHS) I just feel that if you're a prior law enforcement and now you're a teacher, go for it.
But if you haven't had law enforcement training, you are not used to that law enforcement mindset, that always alert, always ready mindset.
What if there's thorough training? What if there's target training, scenario training? It's not gonna cut it.
You cannot expect them to drop the chalk and pick up a gun and become instant cop.
It's awful, seeing somebody get shot and killed.
It's gory.
- Mmm.
- It's messy.
It's You'll never you never forget it.
GIANNA: Jeanne showed us the difference between the gun she used to stop the shooter in Colorado and t he AR-15 used in Parkland, Sandy Hook, and against her.
Okay, so we got the AR-15, and then Did he get you a Beretta? (MAN SPEAKS) JEANNE: That's what I got.
I want you to feel that versus that.
Why don't you walk me through, step by step.
Load it, put the magazine in hard.
Okay.
And then drop the slide.
There you go.
So you're in single action.
You're ready to rock and roll.
(GUN FIRING) JEANNE: Not bad.
Lay the gun down once.
Let me show you something.
Okay.
- Hand over hand.
- Oh, I see where you are.
Okay.
Just like that.
GIANNA: Damn, girl.
We say, "Center mass, shoot for center mass," because that's where all the organs are, that's a bigger target.
You shoot to kill.
You do not shoot to wound or you will die.
- Why don't you try the - Yeah.
Should I try this one? Just make sure you have to be confident.
Like, "I have to save people here," you know? Or this is the gunman, you know.
You're gonna hold the gun choice of a killer.
So see what you feel how do you feel about that? This thing is heavy.
Jesus.
Okay.
Here it goes.
(GUNSHOT ECHOES) (CASING CLATTERS) - You see how loud that is compared to the Beretta? - Yeah.
Wow.
- Way more powerful.
- That's exactly what it sounded like at the church.
Have you heard an AR since then? Not not inside.
Wow.
Wow.
- You okay? - Yeah, yeah.
(GUNSHOT ECHOES) (CASING CLATTERS) GIANNA: While Jeanne thinks only trained law enforcement should protect our nation's schools, the NRA is now doubling down on the call to turn educators into, quote, "good guys with guns.
" Like Wayne LaPierre said, a good guy with a gun is the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
Sometimes the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
ALL: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun Is a good guy with a gun.
And that's the hard reality of it.
GIANNA: To help spread this message, they've created their own network, NRATV, and Grant Stinchfield is one of its biggest stars.
- Hey.
How are you? - Hey, hey, how are you? - Gianna.
- Welcome to my home.
- GRANT: Nothing to be scared of.
- (GIANNA LAUGHS) Okay.
GRANT: Us NRA guys are actually pretty nice.
(LAUGHTER) GIANNA: Nice art.
Oh, you like that? So that is my AK-47 pistol grip.
Do you have any real ones? I don't have a real AK.
I got a real AR-15.
This is my gun safe, my pride and joy.
This is my Glock, so it's clear.
Mm-hmm.
Do you keep 'em empty? I keep 'em empty.
I keep a loaded firearm - on my hip, which I have right now - Okay.
and my AR in there.
That's That's what everybody vilifies, and literally, there's nothing to vilify about that gun.
That gun is a fabulous firearm.
It is easy to use, terrific home defense gun.
And no matter what they tell you, you can use it for hunting.
And in fact, in Texas, hogs are a horrible nuisance.
That is the gun of choice to hunt hogs.
Mmm.
How did you originally decide to get an AR? Um, truth is, I bought the AR only because Obama was in office and I was worried, "Are they gonna really try to go and outlaw these? I'd better get myself one.
" Did you really think that they were gonna either outlaw ARs - or take your guns, as we hear? - There was a chance.
The Democrats, being run by liberal gun-haters, will continue their assault on the Second Amendment.
They will focus on statehouses across the country, quietly slipping in more gun control through liberal-controlled legislative bodies.
What went through your mind when you saw the news at Parkland? (STAMMERS) My son, instantly.
My son was in school at the time when it happened, and at that moment, I thought of my my kid.
which is why it's offensive to me when I see signs like, the NRA has blood on our hands, and that I'm a child killer.
I've dedicated most of my adult life to people being able to keep themselves safe.
Wayne LaPierre coined the phrase, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
" And nobody has been able to show me where that is a false statement.
But has anyone been able to prove that it's a true statement? (STAMMERS) We just saw in Maryland that that school resource officer came and literally engaged the shooter.
Police accuracy rate is 18 percent when they're being shot at.
When they're not being shot at, it's 30 percent.
- Okay.
- That's not very good, when you have a sea of kids in front of you - and you're a teacher.
- Guess what.
It's a chance.
And guess what.
Even if the teacher and everybody gets mad, and it sounds horrible even if the teacher misses the gunman and God forbid, God forbid hits a student, hits two students is that not better than that gunman taking out the entire class? If it is a war sometimes you have casualties in war, and that's harsh to say but I want the casualties to be the lowest number possible.
Many would say that if it weren't for the NRA, AR-15s would be outlawed, the firearm that many mass shooters have used, including the one at Parkland, and bought legally.
If people give credit to the NRA for still being able to buy AR-15s, then God bless the NRA, because the AR-15 is a phenomenal firearm, and there's nothing more dangerous about that firearm than there is a common deer rifle.
But you know as well as anyone, that the AR-15 can do a lot more damage in a shorter amount of time.
Umm (STAMMERS) I would argue that you have some handguns that are more powerful than an AR-15.
What about the magazine and how many you can fire back to back? Do you know how quick I can change the magazine out of my Glock? Yeah, but we're talking about 20-year-old, mentally ill kids.
- Okay.
Great.
- So when you give them something easy to shoot that they can rapid-fire bullets that are exploding in people's bodies, it's more harmful than a handgun.
Well, then thank God if a teacher has a firearm, because they're gonna be a better shot than that kid.
They're gonna take that kid out much quicker.
How do you think we end this series of mass shootings? You know, the sad reality is I don't think you're ever gonna end it.
People have been killing since the beginning of time, - and it is sad.
- But not like this.
This is a new phenomenon over the last 20 years people going into movie theaters, schools, malls, and shooting them up.
It's a new thing.
I don't know if it's a new thing or not.
I wasn't around, you know, 60 years ago, - I don't know - But you were 25 years ago.
I was 25 years ago, but we have a whole different we have a whole different world when it comes to media and dissemination of information.
I don't know whether it was going on or not.
Maybe it's up.
Maybe it's down.
You asked me, "How do you stop it?" I'm telling you, I don't think you stop it.
The best way to stop it is to be prepared if it happens and stop it the moment it happens.
And prevention.
- (WOMAN SPEAKS) - Please.
Wow.
Wow.
Good afternoon.
We are following a tense situation unfolding right now in San Bruno, California.
NEWSMAN: Sadly, law enforcement has converged on the YouTube campus because of reports of shots fired.
How do I want to say this because I don't know the details.
- Let's say San Bruno.
- WOMAN: San Bruno.
It's not gonna matter how you phrase it, 'cause my answer's gonna be The same.
Okay, so I'll just say it like this.
Since we've been sitting here, a shooter has entered YouTube offices.
We don't know how bad this situation is.
Why are these mass shootings happening with such frequency? So, uh, whatever happened if that happened, that's horrible, but I'm not gonna do what the mainstream media does and start spouting off about something I literally know nothing about.
I don't know what happened.
I know no details of it, so literally, there's nothing I can talk to you about on it.
GIANNA: That aside, though, separate from YouTube, why are these happening more frequently? Again, we went over this, and I told you, I don't know that they are happening more frequently.
You tell me they're happening more frequently, I I don't know that for sure.
I do know you cannot regulate evil.
GIANNA: We followed Grant as he left our interview to do live hits on NRATV, restating the NRA's go-to narrative.
Right, given the breaking news, I'd like to bring in my friend, Grant, now.
I've been talking about him enough.
Grant, how you doing? You know, Dan, one of the things that I've I learned about this and when anything like this happens is, the bottom line is you cannot regulate evil.
Evil will come calling.
These people will find ways to kill.
The good guy with a gun matters! Whether it's the bad guy killing themselves or stopping what they're doing now, Grant.
Dan a good guy with a gun nearby gives people a chance of survival.
GIANNA: It seems that after each mass shooting, the public conversation often leaps into taking political sides, so we wanted to talk to somebody who's seen a completely different side of this crisis.
Just six months ago, pediatric trauma surgeon Dr.
Lillian Liao treated young children wounded in the Sutherland Springs church massacre.
We begin tonight with that breaking news a mass shooting at an American church.
There are 26 deceased: 23 in the church, two outside the church, and one at the hospital.
GIANNA: Bring us back to that day in November.
What are some of the first things that you remember about that day? We actually all happened to be in the building for a meeting when we received the initial contact that there had been a mass casualty incident in Sutherland Springs.
GIANNA: As the patients started to arrive, what do you remember seeing? So, we actually started receiving children first.
And I had a child, he was internally bleeding.
Where was he shot and with what type of firearm? Well, the reported firearm used was an AR-15.
He was shot in the pelvis.
He was shot in his left leg and left arm.
I think one of the things that people don't really realize is this isn't a bullet hole.
Part of his leg is blown off.
Yes, it's a cavity.
It's We call it "gaping holes.
" GIANNA: Dr.
Liao agreed to show us exactly what bullets fired from these guns can do to bodies.
The following images are disturbing.
- GIANNA: Oh my God.
- LILLIAN: That's the one.
GIANNA: Oh my God, these are huge.
LILLIAN: This is two weeks out.
That's two weeks out? We don't take pictures in real time, because we're trying to save their life.
So, that was the front.
That was the front, and this is sort of the backside.
Wait a second.
So the wound goes all the way through the leg? Yeah.
The higher the velocity, the bigger the defect of not just what most people think of as a bullet hole.
The force that hits the body is so fast that there's a blast range.
I mean, if anybody's been hunting and knows what it looks like when you've successfully hunted an animal, that's exactly what it looks like.
When you get shot with a handgun, most likely it's not gonna look like this.
There may be some skin and tissue missing, but it's usually what you think of as a little circular hole.
It's hard to deny the power between these two firearms.
Correct.
A handgun injury and the wounds that it creates is completely different than something that is created by either an AR or a shotgun or a rifle.
People may not understand that and feel like firearm is firearm, but they're not really the same.
Mmm.
You're one of the only doctors in the U.
S.
that has been in that type of environment.
Unfortunately, the number of those doctors is growing.
What would you share with the general public as someone who's been in that that situation? We have a public health crisis.
We have an increase in the number of firearm-related injuries by as much as 20 percent since 1999.
And we, as a community, not just speaking as a physician or a surgeon, but speaking as a person living in this country, we shouldn't have two divisive teams of people.
We should have one group of people working together to try to bridge the difference.
- I think we need to do something.
- Yeah.
GIANNA: Instead, it seems our nation is locking itself into the same predictable partisan battle as always.
But this time, the survivors of the Parkland school shooting have thrown themselves into the middle of it.
The MSD student movement is now publicly feuding with both the NRA and its conservative allies.
Yeah, there has been some unfortunate media handling of these traumatized children.
They've used them as ways to enact what they always like to do which is a gun-control agenda.
The student walkout for gun control yesterday looked, at times, more like a political celebration.
It was scripted and screened.
The only reason we've gotten so far is because we are not afraid of losing money, we are not afraid of getting reelected or not getting reelected.
We have nothing to lose.
The only thing we have to gain at this point is our safety.
I asked the Parkland students if they felt like they were pawns in some political debate, that they were being exploited by political operatives, and they basically said, "We don't care.
We're not endorsing their campaigns.
We'll take the support if it helps get our message out.
" It's a great answer by those kids.
It's a great answer.
Usually pawns don't know they're being used as pawns.
You know, I play a lot of poker.
If you don't know who the sucker is at the table, you're probably the sucker.
GIANNA: The Never Again kids turned to social media and, with the help of the powerful gun-control advocacy groups, organized one of the largest single-day protests the country has ever seen, the March for Our Lives.
(CHEERING) Today, we take to the streets in over 800 marches around the globe and demand common sense gun laws.
(CHEERING) GIANNA: What do you say to those critics, including some of the Douglas students who say they don't want their teachers to be armed? Yeah, they're they're children, and they have a perspective from a child.
- (BANGING) - BOTH: Shots fired! Shots fired! This is the white light of change.
EMMA: Six minutes and 20 seconds with an AR-15, and my friend Carmen would never complain to me about piano practice.
Aaron Feis would never call Kira "Miss Sunshine," Jamie Guttenberg would never, Meadow Pollack would never.
- (CROWD CHANTING) - Never again! Never again! Never again! Never again! Never again! Never again! GIANNA: The students of the Never Again movement believe they can force Congress to break the cycle of political inaction.
After all, many of them will be able to vote come November.
Are you confident that you guys can create change? - (CHEERING) - Today is the beginning of a bright, new future for this country.
And if you think today is good, just wait for tomorrow.
(CHEERING)