Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Gun problem - this time is it ISIS?

Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook were photographed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport in 2014.Last week, 14 people were killed in San Bernardino, California, and it is believed that the shooters planned their attack. Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik practiced at gun ranges in the Los Angeles area and their target practice occurred within days of the shooting. Investigators say they "were radicalized and have been for quite some time." President Barack Obama and law enforcement officials call an act of terrorism. So far investigators haven't found any evidence of a plot for the attack extending outside the continental United States. "Right now, we're looking at these two individuals," Bowdich said, "and we are beginning to focus, to build it out from there." "Sources told CNN that investigators believe Malik was radicalized at least two years ago, well before she came to the United States with Farook on a fiancee visa and before ISIS proclaimed its caliphate. Authorities are looking into whether she pushed her husband to adopt more extremist views." Authorities raided a home owned by Malik's father, removing items from the unoccupied space coming out with no red flags. The family supposedly knew nothing. They even had a 6-month-old baby. "Farook's father told an Italian newspaper that his son supported ISIS' ideology of establishing an Islamic caliphate. "He said he shared the ideology of (ISIS leader Abu Bakr) al-Baghdadi to create an Islamic state, and he was fixated on Israel," the elder Farook told La Stampa newspaper." When the father remembered the first time he saw his son with a gun, he said this: "I became angry. In 45 years in the United States, I yelled, 'I have never had a weapon.' He shrugged his shoulders and replied, 'Your loss,' " the father said. Obama called the San Bernardino attack "an act of terrorism, designed to kill innocent people." "The FBI is still gathering the facts about what happened in San Bernardino, but here's what we know: The victims were brutally murdered and injured by one of their co-workers and his wife," he said. "So far we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas, or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home." Before Farook's father made news, ISIS hailed the couple as "supporters" of the terror group. The FBI has said it is treating the attack as an act of terrorism. "Malik had posted to Facebook a pledge of allegiance to ISIS leader Baghdadi, three U.S. officials familiar with the investigation said." Additional security guards have been posted at county offices and other security measures are in place, Ramos said. Personally this really scares me. Anyone who lives in the US has access to guns and it doesn't matter if they support ISIS or not. We are literally placing the power to kill us in their hands. I have lots of problems with the amount of gun control we have, and to me, this story just strengthens my views. It's terrifying. It is literally terrorism. This time it's happening right in our own backyard. 

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