On Friday, the Oakland County Michigan prosecutor announced she was charging the parents of the Oxford High School shooter with involuntary manslaughter. When MSNBC national security analyst Frank Figliuzzi was asked by Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace for his thoughts on the matter, his first instinct was to warn that conservatives would make the parents Second Amendment heroes and then had the gall to to say that would be politicization of a tragedy.
Wallace asked a relatively simple question of the former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, "This prosecutor did something different, she did something bold. There’s not a ton of precedent for it and in your view, what should we be looking out for in the coming days?"
Figliuzzi's first instinct was to go after conservatives, "let's keep our eye on how those who are Second Amendment enthusiasts until, you know, the end of the Earth when it comes to even children having access to guns -- let's see how they respond. Let's see how this gets spun by perhaps members of Congress even, who are even owned by the NRA in many respects where their donations come from. Let's keep an eye on that and try to keep them honest in terms of what happened here."
The parents were not arrested before the press conference announcing the charges, so the FBI and U.S. Marshals joined the hunt to locate them. For Figliuzzi this means viewers should also watch for "the degree to which these now potentially fugitive parents become a cause celeb for the far right which would be a terrible politicization of a tragedy, but we have seen that before."
The only one politicizing anything is Figliuzzi. The parents appear to have ignored clear warnings something was wrong with their son by doing nothing to prevent him from accessing the firearm used in the shooting. No Second Amendment advocate supports such reckless behavior.
Only after politicizing the shooting with his wild attacks against conservatives did Figliuzzi conclude by urging parents to talk to their local school boards about their relationship with police.
This segment was sponsored by Dell.
Here is a transcript for the December 3 show:
MSNBC
Deadline: White House
4:22 PM ET
NICOLLE WALLACE: This prosecutor did something different, she did something bold. There’s not a ton of precedent for it and in your view, what should we be looking out for in the coming days?
FRANK FIGLIUZZI: So, I, you know, let's keep our eye on how those who are Second Amendment enthusiasts until, you know, the end of the Earth when it comes to even children having access to guns -- let's see how they respond. Let's see how this gets spun by perhaps members of Congress even, who are even owned by the NRA in many respects where their donations come from. Let's keep an eye on that and try to keep them honest in terms of what happened here. And the degree to which these now potentially fugitive parents become a cause celeb for the far right which would be a terrible politicization of a tragedy, but we have seen that before. And then let’s, let’s all demand, I’m going to give people homework here: go and ask your school board and your school officials, what is the level of partnership that we have in our school between the sheriff or the police and the guidance counsellors and the principal? When I was in the FBI we held seminars for these partnerships and in many cases it was the very first time that say, an assistant or assistant chief of police ever met each other, let alone understood how they should work together and assess a threat. So, ask those questions if you are a parent. Get those answers as soon as you are back next week.
