"Credible" Bomb Threat Closes, Evacuates All Los Angeles Public Schools 241
The Washington Post reports that all Los Angeles public schools have been closed for the day after a "'credible threat' of violence to students at numerous schools in the sprawling district, and a schools official confirmed that it was a bomb threat to the school district." According to the Houston Chronicle, a law enforcement official speaking anonymously with the Associated Press said that the threat "was emailed to a school board member and appeared to come from overseas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. The official says the threat was sent late Monday. Superintendent Ramon Cortines says the threat was made against students at many of the district's schools." The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school system in the U.S., is no picnic to close; the New York Times notes that the closure throws into disarray "the lives of millions of Angelenos — students, parents, teachers and other school staff members."
So vague is has to be true? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure how this is being spun where you are, but think for a minute. 650,000 students are being sent home because of a "credible" threat. I might be convinced that a school was threatened, but the complete district of LA is bullsh$*. Someone is attempting to change the definition of the word "credible" here.
Before you "but the children", give me the percentage of terrorist activities or even bombings where someone gave warning.
No matter what though, you can bet your ass this will be used as propaganda to argue for more government and more freedom loss to the same.
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> What has actually happened here is that we as a Nation have modified the definition of terrorism, which now includes mere threats of violence instead of actual violence.
Nope, nobody has changed the definition of terrorism. It means now, and always has meant "Stuff other people do, that we may or may not also do, but we don't like that they do". That is what it always meant, what it always will mean.
Re:So vague is has to be true? (Score:4, Interesting)
This isn't the first time it's happened in the last couple of months either. Quebec had 71 schools threatened with bomb threats and shootings in November [www.cbc.ca] a few weeks prior to that several schools in Ottawa were threatened as well. It almost seems like someone/group is doing this because they know that people will overreact, and of course if something did happen people would be screaming bloody murder because they didn't overreact.
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It almost seems like someone/group is doing this because they know that people will overreact, and of course if something did happen people would be screaming bloody murder because they didn't overreact.
Duh. Anyone who remembers 9/11 probably knows someone whose business was interrupted by a random bomb threat or something. They were "a dime a dozen" back then. The vast majority of them were likely somebody either playing a prank or (more likely) somebody just trying to get some time off of work (or school, as in this case).
But the thing is -- they worked in keeping people scared. I had some friends back then who stayed away from any place large numbers of people might congregate for a while -- even
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It almost seems like someone/group is doing this because they know that people will overreact, and of course if something did happen people would be screaming bloody murder because they didn't overreact.
Duh. Anyone who remembers 9/11 probably knows someone whose business was interrupted by a random bomb threat or something. They were "a dime a dozen" back then. The vast majority of them were likely somebody either playing a prank or (more likely) somebody just trying to get some time off of work (or school, as in this case).
But the thing is -- they worked in keeping people scared. I had some friends back then who stayed away from any place large numbers of people might congregate for a while -- even things like shopping malls. They had heard so many random bomb threats that they assumed there must be terrorists everywhere. Same thing's going on now.
Absolutely! That went on for years. I grew up outside Philadelphia and for years after September 2001 a sister-in-law talked of being frightened to travel into the city for fear of terrorist attack. There is no publically available indication the Quebec and LA threats are related.
Re:So vague is has to be true? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't give you a lot of digits of precision, but here's the number I came up with: more than 0%. The warning is the terrorism. You don't have to murder anyone to be a terrorist (though it sure helps).
How to be a terrorist: Do something scary, preferably targeting a society of cowards. Did you scare people into overreacting? Yes: mission accomplished, you're a good terrorist. No: You're a bad terrorist, so don't quit your engineering day job.
They probably didn't scare any students ("yay, day off!") but the parents were hit. As for how successful it was, I'll wait for the media to tell me. Everyone, please remember to FREAK OUT, so that we can guarantee a repeat of this cheap tactic. I know I can count on Republican candidates to join the terrorists on this, but let's all please try to remember to include the progressives too: kids need more days off like this! All that pot isn't going to smoke itself!
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Which is why it's bullshit when that school claimed that kid made a bomb hoax and punished him for it.
1) The kid claimed it was a clock all the time.
2) Nobody seriously thought it was a bomb. If the school and cops really thought it was a bomb they should have evacuated the schools as they did for this incident. Not have people be around it for hours.
Yes most of us suspect the kid is being a smart ass or trolling the school. But that never used to require getting the US cops involved, you just have the teac
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Warning is usually specific (Score:3)
Re:So vague is has to be true? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Who needs to bother making a real bomb, a threat is enough to disrupt everything...
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New York [cbslocal.com] also received a threat but didn't deem it "credible" and therefore didn't act on it. My guess is that on any given day, any or all of New York, LA, and Chicago schools probably deal with some kind of threat.
So for LA to close the schools there is likely some other intelligence that they are acting on. Considering that authorities in that area are still getting information [latimes.com] about recent terrorist activity in the area, I think the first knee jerk reaction to closing the schools should be "Hmm I wo
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I wonder where the odds are, that they'd need to draw the line. What if a hypothetical threat was targeted at "A school in California", or even the entire USA? Or perhaps, what if there was a threat to bomb a non-specific LAUSD campus, some time in the next 30 days? in the next year? in the next 10 years?
Re:So vague is has to be true? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just imagine the alternative: You're the superintendent, and it was discovered that your received a somewhat credible threat, after something actually happened--no matter how trifling in the grand scheme. You know full well that you'd be publicly crucified by the entire nation's media, maybe you'd even be inquisitioned by Congress. You'd almost certianly lose your six figure job, and become unemployable to that standard ever again. You probably lose everything you worked your entire life for, and it would probably break up your family as well.
If you throw up the red flag, none of this happens, except people raise an eyebrow, and some kids get to take the day off, some tax dollars get wasted and the SWAT guys get to go play Rambo in a bunch of empty schools.
Which path do you chose?
If I was in his/her shoes, I'd sure as fuck play the CYA card too.
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You do get to play the CYA card, but only a finite number of times. Eventually, people get tired of it. The threats won't end before you run out of cards, so eventually you've got to figure out how to take a risk. Having demonstrated an abundance of caution will not save you from criticism should one of those attacks finally materialize. Nor, of course, will it save you from the attack.
Which is what counts in the end. I'm not sure that the CYA really saves his job, one way or the other. George W. Bush didn'
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You're the superintendent, and it was discovered that your received a somewhat credible threat, after something actually happened--no matter how trifling in the grand scheme.
Indeed, trifling is when it happens to other people, not when it happens to you.
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No, trifling is when the risk to life and limb from driving in LA traffic exceeds the risk to life and limb from terror threats;
If you're the principal, and someone at your school is killed by terrorists, it is no longer trifling. It doesn't matter what the odds of it were beforehand, or the odds of them happening again.
You seem to have trouble seeing things from the viewpoint of the people who are in the situation.
Re:So vague is has to be true? (Score:5, Insightful)
If I were an awful terrorist that really wanted to make the whole country go crazy, I'd *absolutely* call in "credible" bomb threats like this. I'd keep doing them randomly until someone told the superintendent that he *cannot* keep closing schools like this, it's making everyones' jobs impossible and losing millions of dollars of taxpayer money.
*Then* I'd blow up a school.
Luckily, I'm not a terrorist.
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This is what happens when you create an asymmetric war. We prefer to fight from the safety and comfort of an air conditioned office using our drones, rather than on the ground. It's safer for the troops but means that they are basically impossible to harm, so IS and other groups go after civilians instead.
If the West wants to get involved, it needs to get involved instead of launching missiles from thousands of kilometres away.
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The next time might involve bombs designed to go off when the schools are being searched so as to endanger the people looking for them.
This was one of the reasons the PIRA during the Troubles liked to give some sort of bomb warning: it meant that they got to kill some police or Army personnel rather than random civilians, which was in theory better from a public relations point of view.
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ETA (the Basque terrorists) and RAF (Red Army Faction; German terrorists) also customarily phoned in warnings. It's pretty much standard procedure for European terror groups: they don't actually want to kill people, because that looks bad, but they still want to carry out a bombing to show how serious they are, so they give a warning.
Pretty much just the recent Islamic terrorists don't give warnings. They just talk about it beforehand on Facebook, but none of the agents who are supposed to be monitoring t
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They just talk about it beforehand on Facebook, but none of the agents who are supposed to be monitoring them give a damn.
No, they give a damn. But if they warn people, then there won't be these huge mass deaths and their budget might get cut. Plus, they need the bombs and killings to go off so they can push to take away more freedoms and grant themselves more power. The real terrorists are in the government.
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> They just talk about it beforehand on Facebook, but none of the agents who are supposed to be monitoring them give a damn.
Not true. they always care enough to report it to their superiors!.
How else can spin be prepared ahead of time?
Plus they need to track that the terrorists are doing what they promised when they were trained and funded.
Re: So vague is has to be true? (Score:4, Informative)
Except that California elected a Republican Arnold as Governor for a spell. Much of Cali's representation is also Republican despite the liberal cities such as San Fran.
Yes, and before Schwarzenegger in my memory we had Pete Wilson, Deukmejian, and Ronald Reagan as well as Gray Davis and Jerry Brown. In the Senate before Feinstein and Boxer we had Pete Wilson and Hayakawa as well as Cranston. California politics are a mixed bag. The state which launched both Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon on their paths to the White House can hardly be seen as the socialist paradise some provincial thinkers make it out to be.
Re: So vague is has to be true? (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, california (and texas.. and new york) should be broken up into smaller states.
Their population's representation in the Senate and house are grossly smaller than those from many other states.
The Senate is not there to represent the people. Perhaps you should sue your high school for giving you a piss poor civics education.
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Incorrect. You're confusing who selects the Senators with who the Senators represent. The 17th Amendment was introduced to eliminate two perceived flaws with the state legislature sending Senators, namely deadlock in the legislature (the worst offending case coming about when the Senate did not confirm a candidate sent that was selected from a plurality rather than majority of the legislator of the state) with the second flaw being the potential for legislators to "buy" the state's assembly to obtain his se
Re: So vague is has to be true? (Score:3)
California is very diverse politically.
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We've had lots of Republican governors. California is very solidly purple through and through. Silicon Valley is mostly liberal though with enclaves of extremely wealthy people interested in a government that helps them keep it. It is nowhere as nearly conservative or libertarian as Orange Country for instance. Libertarians may be more common than normal in Silicon Valley than elsewhere, but they're still uncommon.
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So basically you are saying both sides are bad so vote Republican?
We've seen this before (Score:5, Funny)
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Related: a number of LA officers were googling how to get exactly 4 gallons of water into a 5 gallon jug, using only a 3 gallon jug as a measuring device.
It's 2015. Why is the US still using gallons?
Because... (Score:2)
Because, if we give up imperial measurements, the terrorists will have won!
The next political movement is to move away from a decimal based dollar, and start having 240 cents to a US Dollar! (or has that been done already?)
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Because metric is a Communist plan to weaken America's moral character.
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The Martian infiltrators do it to ensure that Mars invasion plans never succeed.
Only spacecraft/landers which are guaranteed not to spot anything suspicious are allowed to reach Mars.
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Nuttatology 2.0 (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, extremists are learning they can create lots of chaos withOUT the grandiose 9/11-style plans, which often leave too many clues to hide. Many had speculated on this shift before, but it looks like it's now happening.
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Unfortunately, extremists are learning they can create lots of chaos withOUT the grandiose 9/11-style plans, which often leave too many clues to hide. Many had speculated on this shift before, but it looks like it's now happening.
I'm going to bet this was done by bored kids or idiots rather than real extremists.
This kind of shit has been done for decades and I highly doubt it's increased in frequency since then.
Terrorists win (Score:5, Insightful)
An emailed bomb threat from overseas evacuates the entire school district of one of the biggest cities in the United States. When did Americans become such cowards?
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"An email from a law enforcement member who prefers to remain anonymous" -- this sounds like laundering of spy information in a way suitable for public consumption, which needs a reason, however executive 35,000 foot level.
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It's not as bad as when a student chews a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun. Then it's, "Call in SWAT!"
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They aren't scared of a bomb, they are scared of an email that claims there is a bomb. If they saw an actual bomb, their fear would make perfect sense.
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A clock that looks vaguely like a hollywood depiction of a bomb may also inspire fear.
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Next you know, they'll start writing checks to that Nigerian Prince.
Obama?
I wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
During the six years of World War 2 were all the schools in Europe closed down? This is the ultimate in generating as much hysteria as possible. Next is a complete lockdown, anyone seen outside their house will be summarily shot, and as the cliche goes, survivors will be shot again.
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Or even Narnia.
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Yeah, but then they got pulled into some stupid war with an ice queen and a bunch of animals and were expected to take up swords and shields and enter combat themselves. They would have been much better off in Australia or Canada.
BTW, am I the only one that thought the Narnia stories were dumb, and a lame attempt at a copy of Lord of the Rings but with a bunch of annoying in-your-face Christian metaphors?
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BTW, am I the only one that thought the Narnia stories were dumb, and a lame attempt at a copy of Lord of the Rings but with a bunch of annoying in-your-face Christian metaphors?
Probably the only person, yes.
Because that is the opposite order of when they were written.
CS Lewis wrote and published his books from 1949-1956.
Tolkien wrote chunks of LotR and related world fiction over a 30 year span, but didn't publish it until 1954-1955.
Most of the seven Chronicles books were published before LotR, and only two (The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle) could potentially have been based on any of the LotR books as you suggest. Both of those books were (according to Wikipedia) fini
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After the battle Aslan reveals that he could actually have defeated the ice queen with one paw ties behind his back - but he needed all those animals to fight and die in the battle in order to teach everyone and important moral lesson about the value of sacrifice.
It's something of a recurring theme - the Leo ex Machina has the ability to step in at any time and fix everything, but never does so because that would be unfair interference. At least until The Last Battle, when he just gets fed up with the story
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Thank you, that seems to summarize them pretty well.
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It's probably because the Narnia stories were overtly Christian allegories, plus they had those annoying kids as the protagonists. LotR was written by a devout Catholic and had some Christian influence and allegory as well (like Gandalf being resurrected), but it was much more subtle and not obviously written to push Christianity on people.
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Or even Narnia.
Well clearly, that was not intentional. People shouldn't leave old wardrobes just lying around willy-nilly, you never know where they'll form a portal to.
OTOH, turkish delight.
Catching Up With Fiction (Score:5, Interesting)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:Catching Up With Fiction (Score:5, Informative)
Book's available for free now...on the phone it goes!
https://archive.org/details/Ru... [archive.org]
Someone had test today they didn't want to take (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, um, credible (Score:3)
Authorities in New York City said they received the same threat but quickly concluded that it was a hoax. [ap.org]
Really? Every time some punk sends a stupid email, you're going to shut down an entire city?
First, there is no reason to take this stuff seriously. US deaths by terrorism is still in the ballpark of people dying of lightning strikes. If you insist on taking it seriously, give a 10% annual bonus to any teacher with a concealed carry license plus appropriate training. Problem solved.
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Really? Every time some punk sends a stupid email, you're going to shut down an entire city?
First, there is no reason to take this stuff seriously. US deaths by terrorism is still in the ballpark of people dying of lightning strikes. If you insist on taking it seriously, give a 10% annual bonus to any teacher with a concealed carry license plus appropriate training. Problem solved.
How does a CCW assist in finding and defusing a bomb?
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Silly.
Guns solve everything!
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So they can shoot the bomb? What??
How do we stop it (Score:4, Interesting)
Are we overreacting? Has this been happening more since the ISIS scares in Paris?
Can we stop or control this better?
I know many call these "isolated incidents" but these incidents still cause major disruptions to the population. This incident alone is probably affecting hundreds of thousands of people if you include students, parents and businesses.
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We are overreacting.
I don't believe it was wrong to evacuate the threatened school. You do have to take a direct threat seriously. I do believe it was wrong to evacuate *every* school.
Also, this stuff is going to continue to happen while the news media shines a laser-like focus on these incidents. We're always going to have this sort of thing, but media attention is actually encouraging this activity.
Although I understand the need for a free press, I wish these media outlets would develop some ethics wit
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Although I understand the need for a free press, I wish these media outlets would develop some ethics without some form of compulsion
Regulate the press :)
On a serious note, the only people that can make free press better is the readers. If the content is too "soap like" then move your attention to a different outlet or take the time to criticize the one in question. Unfortunately I see little hope for any change in viewer/reader behavior when I still see people follow the kardasians (not worth spelling properly).
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I sometimes wonder if there is value in regulating the press. It's not clear to me if that is worse than letting it do what it is doing now.
Ultimately, school shootings or other random mass killings (as opposed to organized crime killings) are a relatively rare, albeit extremely emotionally charged scenario. If we are looking at the situation in a very cold-blooded way, these are still very rare occurrences that, based on impact to society, should not be driving a national debate.
If you have 900 schools i
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Re:so, great success. (Score:4, Interesting)
Its about making its populus too frightened to send their children to school, too worried to board a plane without massive security theatre, and too scared to accept immigrants
One of these is not like the others. Making the populace too frightened to send their kids to school or to board and airplane really undermines the ability of a society to function at a basic level, because education and transportation are critical to a society's continued operation as well as long-term success. Immigration (particularly from middle eastern nations) is NOT necessary for a society's survival or prosperity. You can argue that it enriches a country to some extent, or that it's a humanitarian thing that's good for humanity at large, but how is it necessary for a particular nation? It's not. And it if were, there's no reason that western nations couldn't cut off immigration of middle easterners altogether and then increase the numbers of immigrants it allows from China, India, southeast Asia, eastern Europe, South America, and sub-Saharan Africa. It's not like we desperately need masses of people from the middle east for our nations to function, the way we need schools and travel.
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And how exactly did having little contact with the Russians hurt the American economy? The main problem was that there was a Cold War, and the two powers were roughly equal technologically (note "roughly"), and both interested in geopolitical dominance, so this naturally created a lot of tension and possibility for war. However, the American economy was also doing quite well at this time, and suffering horribly because of its lack of access to Russian immigrants (or technology; the Russians in fact copied
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One of these is not like the others. Making the populace too frightened to send their kids to school or to board and airplane really undermines the ability of a society to function at a basic level, because education and transportation are critical to a society's continued operation as well as long-term success. Immigration (particularly from middle eastern nations) is NOT necessary for a society's survival or prosperity. You can argue that it enriches a country to some extent, or that it's a humanitarian thing that's good for humanity at large, but how is it necessary for a particular nation? It's not.
Necessary for what?
Nothing is "necessary" except obeying the laws of physics. It's not "necessary" that any Americans continue to have a pulse, even. It's not "necessary" to maintain public education or public roads -- there was a time when these things didn't exist, and the universe didn't collapse into some internally-contradictory nonexistence. Using words like "necessary" without any further details is a great rhetorical device, as it allows one to make ridiculous claims that logically can't be argued
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Japan seems to get along just fine with an advanced, industrialized economy without resorting to large-scale immigration. You can argue that it'll bite them in the ass in 50 years or so, but that hasn't happened yet.
And honestly, the way you pitch it, it sounds like exploitation. How exactly is immigration helping the places these people come from, and the people still stuck there? If anything, it seems to make them worse off.
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Japan seems to get along just fine
I don't know of many economists that would describe it that way (though, granted, there are other issues at play besides the demographic catastrophe).
And honestly, the way you pitch it, it sounds like exploitation.
It probably is, but I try not to make value judgements.
I wasn't arguing in favor of immigration any more than I was arguing against it. I was just trying to inject some points that you seem to have omitted in the hope that people would have more of a complete picture to draw their own conclusions from.
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You have to look at the deep cultural background of the countries that are falling over themselves to take in refugees.
You might notice that it is only countries with a strong Christian background who are doing so.
This is because Western Christianity (as contrasted with Eastern Christianity) is descended from the religion of the slaves of Rome. Consequently its strongest values are things which were important to the slaves of Rome and this has profoundly affected the psychology of the societies of Europe an
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Recruiting tools? "Waah! I can't emigrate across the ocean to this other country, so I'm going to dedicate my life to becoming a terrorist and blowing myself up to kill as many people as possible!"
This doesn't sound right...
There's countless nations which do not accept immigrants from middle eastern nations. How many immigrants does Japan take in yearly? How many incidents of terrorism has Japan suffered from foreigners? (The only one I can think of is the Sarin gas incident, which was done by a native
Object-free zones (Score:2)
Headlines (Score:2, Funny)
The Latest: NYC officials: We got same threat, call it hoax
Why are these NYC officials talking like a Native American stereotype?
Re:Headlines (Score:4, Funny)
How?
The Only Legitimate Reponse (Score:5, Funny)
I believe the only proper response to this threat is to introduce common sense bomb control legislation.
Re:The Only Legitimate Reponse (Score:5, Funny)
You know that the only way to counter a bad guy with a bomb is to have a good guy with a bomb.
Obama, quit trying to take away my bombs!
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I believe the only proper response to this threat is to introduce common sense bomb control legislation.
We cannot allow emailed bomb threats to become the "new normal", so we need to go one step further and introduce common sense email control legislation. For the children. God bless America.
many many to come (Score:3, Interesting)
As soon as it is realized by students in our anti-education culture that by bouncing a forged email through the right patch of overseas re-mailer geography, they can enforce a district-wide day off, then these will become a daily and national occurrence. I wonder if this is the kill-button for high-school in the US.
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Kids in cold climates get snow days off. (Score:5, Funny)
Why shouldn't L.A. kids get jihad days off?
The terrorists are winning. (Score:3, Insightful)
Every time I see a fearful reaction like this I think back to what I heard one newscaster said near the end of live broadcasts of 9/11. I can't remember the exact wording of the quote and I haven't been able to find it posted online anywhere, but the meaning of the message is still clear in my mind. He said that the goal of terrorists is to change the lives of the population. To undermine our freedom and our ways of life using fear. Violence, destruction and killing are not the goal but rather just tools to reach their goal via fear. He said that we should not change how we go about our lives due to fear. If we do the terrorists have won.
Every time I see a reaction such as this I know that we did not take his message to heart. The patriot act, the TSA, mass surveillance, locking down and closing schools, push for increase gun control, freedom-stripping legislation, threats and discrimination against particular races/religions creeping towards the levels of WWII with Jews (and others) by the Nazis and Japanese/Germans/Italians by the US, and so much more. Knee-jerk reactions to everything, and reduction of freedoms throughout all out of fear. If we don't start to realize what is happening and take back our lives then the terrorists have officially won.
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Next Up... (Score:3)
Shutting down schools because officials receive Nigerian Prince scam. *And* they give the scammer their bank account details, because after all, 20 Million is on it's way!
Can't you wait until they get the calls telling them their windows machine has a virus, and ONLY the tech support dude with the indian accent can fix it?
Problem solved (Score:3)
See.... the issue here is they don't have their spam filter turned up high enough.
No e-mail, no problem
ID Required (Score:2)
— LA School Police (@LASchoolPolice) December 15, 2015
But, but, ... that's racist!
Tangentially related (Score:2)
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school system in the U.S., is no picnic to close; the New York Times notes that the closure throws into disarray "the lives of millions of Angelenos — students, parents, teachers and other school staff members."
So, are there protocols that make an exceptional event like this any easier to manage? Considering the nation's terrorism alert concerns, don't these incidentially function as 'duck and cover' terrorism drills?
Unprepared (Score:2)
What I always Wondered (Score:2)
Do real bombers phone in the time and location of the bombs they plant? Has anyone ever in the history of the universe ever planted a bomb in a school, and then told the authorities that they have done so?
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Only by the warped grammar of 20th century newspaper headlines. An "and" would have been more appropriate, and if you're jammed up for space, and ampersand replacing the comma would have less confusing. But I sometimes think we now live in a world where confusing headlines are acceptable because everyone finds the reality of the news confusing.
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Only by the warped grammar of 20th century newspaper headlines. An "and" would have been more appropriate, and if you're jammed up for space, and ampersand replacing the comma would have less confusing. But I sometimes think we now live in a world where confusing headlines are acceptable because everyone finds the reality of the news confusing.
Please don't publicise your limited grammatical capacity to others who can, do understand elaborate headlines.
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You have a "can, do" attitude. I like that.
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No, it fucking isn't.
""Credible" Bomb Threat Closes, Evacuates All Los Angeles Public Schools"
According to the title, the bomb threat is "credible", and the bomb threat closes. Everything from the comma on is a language-raping jumble of shit.
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I hear the strange echos of conversations. People saying that if other people hand in their firearms then they will be perfectly safe from mass violence. People defending their use of firearm homicide statistics instead of using homicide statistics. People who said a couple in California with a garage full of pipe bombs wouldn't have killed anyone if they just didn't have black semiautomatic rifles.
Indeed. Today the Guardian UK had an article and a table of half-answered questions which claimed this last. I don't think many readers understand the Federal definition of an assault weapon and the absurdity of a bayonet mount or telescoping stock being seen as increasing lethality. I have not read of a shooting yet where someone was in addition bayoneted, or where the shooter would have been inhibited by a weapon with a solid stock.
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The likely suspects are students. Students have been calling in bomb threats on their schools for many, many years. I remember a bomb threat one day at my elementary school in the late 1980s. 99.9% are false threats of course.