Not All Is Well In Hogg Heaven (Updated)

       Well, the local papers and news departments in Boise are pretty much run by leftist. Perhaps not  Bernie Sander's leftists, but pretty close. Consequently, the local media outlets gushed over the few hundred that turned out for a protest before the State Capital building calling for the trampling of the Second Amendment. The local newspaper--The Idaho Statesman--even ran an oped originally published in the Miami Herald entitled "May the Parkland kids forgive us for failing them so miserably" while making dishonest assertions about the facts and law. One particularly odd selection was to complain that, after a high profile death of a dog on an airline flight, Congress immediately introduced bills to protect our pets, but did nothing about protecting kids. Perhaps the person is too stupid to realize that we have large and complex criminal codes to protect kids and adults from criminal conduct, voluminous laws and regulations regulating firearms, and civil laws that impose money liability on a person that harms another. Perhaps the person is too stupid to realize all of this, but my guess is that the author is hoping his readers are too stupid to realize it.

       But I've gotten a bit off topic, which is the revelation that Hogg was not at school when the shooting occurred. Weasel Zippers reports that in an interview Hogg gave to CBS in which he admitted:

On the day of the shooting, I got my camera and got on my bike and road as fast as I could three miles from my house to the school to get as much video and to get as many interviews as I could because I knew that this could not be another mass shooting.

This contradicts earlier interviews where he said he was in his AP Environmental class when the shooting started.

         This makes me think that there needs to be a more detailed investigation of Hogg. It is not unknown that is possible to manipulate someone into committing suicide; e.g., Michelle Carter was sentenced last year to 2-1/2 years in prison for an manslaughter charge stemming her from using social media to to convince her ex-boyfriend to kill himself. So it is certainly plausible that someone may have manipulated Cruz into committing this shooting. Hogg seemed ready to rumble the date of the shooting, although he was not at the school, so perhaps he knew more about what was going on.

Update:  Red State is saying that the quote was shown out of context by CBS, and that an interview that Hogg gave to Vox clears up the matter. In the Vox interview, Hogg says:

        Jen Kirby: The activism of you and your fellow students has created the sense that, in the wake of this mass shooting, there’s a chance things might be different. Why do you think that is? 

         David Hogg: Because of timing. At 6 pm after the shooting, I took my camera, got on my bike. I rode in basically twilight. And I ride my bike three miles down winding sidewalks and find my way to the school, as I’ve done in previous years. All the while, I was making sure my camera bag didn’t rip open, because if you zip it a certain way, the camera falls out, and it would be destroyed. 

          I start shooting B-roll [alternate footage to be intermixed with the main footage], and I see Fox News over there. I knew I wanted to talk on the news and make sure there was advocacy, especially with so many people from the [National Rifle Association] and different gun-toting Americans who watch Fox News. I went on the day of [the shooting], and said, “There cannot be another mass shooting,” and I think that’s partially why. But also other people started saying that at the same time.

 But there is this, from the same interview (underline mine):

        Jen Kirby:  Seeing something like that, it frames your advocacy very clearly. I’m curious if you and your classmates were always passionate about this issue before last week. 

       David Hogg: Oh, absolutely. We’ve always been passionate about this. We’ve always been politically — we haven’t gotten out and campaigned or anything — but we’ve always been like, “Stop the bullshit; we hate living in America because being in school, our lives are put at risk every day, and that’s unacceptable. But what are we going to do about it?” We felt like the rest of the country — there’s nothing to do. 

        When this happened, we knew that this was our chance to say, “No more kids are going to die.” We’re going to hold these sick politicians who prefer the murder of children to [losing] their reelection. We’re going to hold them accountable. And that’s what we’re doing. 

        Jen Kirby: You also recorded your classmates while hiding out from the shooter. What motivated you to do that? 

       David Hogg: I thought if maybe [politicians] heard the voices of some that had died, maybe that would be enough to take action. But to be honest, it probably wouldn’t. It probably wouldn’t.