Massacre at Florida High School Reignites Gun Control Debate

Loud & Clear

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by Dave Lindorff, an investigative reporter and columnist, and Gilbert Mercier, author and Editor in Chief of News Junkie Post.
The death toll from yesterday’s shooting in a high school in Parkland Florida remains at 17, with three people still in critical condition. The shooting was emblematic of a larger problem of gun violence in the United States.
South African President Jacob Zuma resigned yesterday under intense pressure from his own African National Congress party following accusations of corruption and bribery. ANC chairman Cyril Ramaphosa was immediately sworn in as president. In the hours before Zuma’s resignation, we spoke with Dr. Gerald Horne, an author and professor of history, about Zuma, the direction of the ANC, and South Africa’s political direction.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said today that five Russian nationals were killed in a recent US airstrike in Syria. This is the first official recognition of an incident that will further strain US-Russian relations. Mark Sleboda, an international affairs and security analyst, joins the show.
In the aftermath of the Florida shooting, former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has delayed the announcement of his candidacy for the US Senate seat being vacated by Orin Hatch of Utah, which will now come early next week. Does Romney have a burning desire to be in the US Senate? Or is he looking for a platform from which to run against President Trump? Brian and John speak with Ted Rall, an award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist.
A Sputnik News correspondent is reporting that Georgian snipers were active in Ukraine during the 2014 Maidan shootings, under the instruction of a former US Army officer. Exiled former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili left Ukraine for the Netherlands yesterday just as the story was being published. Alexander Mercouris, editor in chief of The Duran, joins the show.
There’s a dirty little secret of American history called “Eugenics.” That’s the state-sponsored forced sterilization of women, almost always women of color or the developmentally disabled. This was a policy in states across America all the way into the 1970s. Dr. Kathryn Krase, a professor of social work at Long Island University and an attorney who focuses on family law, joins Brian and John.
The Taliban has released an extraordinary 17,000 word statement addressed to the American people, asking them to pressure elected officials to end the war in Afghanistan, which has dragged on for more than 16 years. The statement adds that the US intervention has brought only death, corruption, and drugs to Afghanistan. Brian Terrell, a long time peace activist and a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, joins the show.