09-11-25 FULL SHOW - What A No Good, Rotten, Horrible Day Yesterday Was

Today on the anniversary of 9/11 we will talk about how in 24 short years we've gone from one enemy from far away to the enemy within.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Mandy don on Kam got wanna
study the Niceys.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Through Prey, Andy Donald, Keith sad Bab Welcome.

Speaker 4 (00:27):
We welcome to a Thursday edition of the show. I'm
your host for the next three hours. Mandy Connell, joined,
of course by my right hand man. He's wearing his
American flag shirt today. He's Anthony Rodriguez. We call him
a rod yep. And today we are sort of we're
sort of all going to have some time together in

(00:48):
this program to get to vent our spleen a little bit. Obviously,
yesterday not ideal. Breaking news is hard, it sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
I hate it.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
And the news yesterday it just felt like it just
kept getting worse, right, it was just one thing after another.
And so let me do the blog first and then
we'll get into sort of a review of what happened yesterday.
I'm going to take your phone calls. We're going to
open up the phones today. I'd like you guys to
have the opportunity to sort of vent your spleens a
little bit and talk about your feelings because I got

(01:24):
to tell you guys, So I just said this at
the end of the show with Ben, Like I got
in my car yesterday after the show and just cried
for like four or five minutes, and then I blew
my nose and I put on a big girl pants
and I am ready to come back and do the
show again today because at a bare minimum, we cannot

(01:44):
let life stop or let it stop ourselves because of
what happened yesterday. And I'm going to share with you
something I wrote last night.

Speaker 6 (01:53):
I came home.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
I got home late last night because I think think
the Good Lord above had a massage schedule.

Speaker 6 (01:59):
For yesterday afternoon. Nothing like getting a massage.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
You're laying there your massage therapist, my massage therapist, Law
is amazing at Bo Massage Skin Karen Spa, and I'm
having what should be a very relaxing massage, and my
brain is just on hyperdrive, like just overdrive. And it
was just a super emotional day yesterday. And we're going
to continue that conversation today.

Speaker 6 (02:23):
The fallout over the last.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Twenty four hours has been both incredibly heartening in one
way and incredibly disheartening in another way. And we're going
to talk about all of that stuff in a moment,
But first, let's.

Speaker 6 (02:33):
Do the blog.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Find the blog by going to mandy'sblog dot com. That's
Mandy's by the way, a Rod, did you look at
my social media to see my AI generated do it?

Speaker 6 (02:42):
Today?

Speaker 4 (02:43):
I got to tell you, guys, if you follow me
on social media at Mandy Connell or at the Mandy
Connell depending on where you're looking for me at Facebook
or Twitter, every day I post a link to my
blog and through a whole for a whole bunch of
reasons that are not worth explaining, I have to create
a to go with my blog.

Speaker 6 (03:02):
You know, I have to create one. So now I've
been using.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
AI to create these cartoon photos to go with my
blog because otherwise social media will not share the post. Right,
So today's I'm pretty proud of today's And if you
look at me, look at it on social media. I'm
doing them all cartoon style because I think that on
when you see it scroll by on social media, it
does catch your eye because it's not like anything else.

(03:27):
But I'm using an AI image generator that I type
in a very specific description, and I am getting better
at typing in those verious specific descriptions and it creates
these images.

Speaker 6 (03:38):
Did you see my image that I made for today?

Speaker 7 (03:40):
Not bad?

Speaker 4 (03:40):
I told you I thought about it for a long time.
I was like, I don't want anything graphic. I don't
want anything. But I'm very proud of my picture today.
On social media at Mandy Connel on x and at
the Mandy Connel on Facebook.

Speaker 6 (03:54):
Well, let's jump in.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
You can find the blog by going to mandy'sblog dot com.
Mandy'sblog dot com or rand Cromwell dot com also works.
Look for the headline in the latest posts section that
says nine eleven twenty five blog what a no good,
rotten horrible day yesterday was? Click on that and here
are the headlines you will find within.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
I do you going with someone's office?

Speaker 8 (04:15):
Half of American all with ships and clipments and seen
that's going to press plant.

Speaker 5 (04:19):
Today?

Speaker 6 (04:20):
On the blog it's I have some thoughts. It's time
to get.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Guns in schools today. I'm taking your calls. The Evergreen
Gunman is dead. Israel is offering help to Palestinians and Gaza.
What fighting back looks like? MSNBC shows a spine. Are
Democrats okay? With their side being the party of death.
Paulus blames others for the law he signed scrolling. This
is the episode Ben was talking about yesterday. Now for

(04:46):
some other stuff. The coddling of NBA players continues. Gop
ones are helping women with pcos. Does sunlight make us happy?
The FBI has the gun. The transit death spiral is real.
This man is his own kind of hero. Tucker may
have lost his way, but he's right on this. Common
sense is winning. Nothing to see, just an alien ship

(05:08):
not being destroyed by a hellfire missile. Here is the
person of interest.

Speaker 6 (05:13):
Those are the.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Headlines on the blog at mandy'sblog dot com, and as
you can see, it's very heavy on details about yesterday's
assassination of Charlie Kirk. And it sounds so weird to
say assassination of someone who is not an elected political official.
But if that wasn't an assassination, I don't know what
an assassination was.

Speaker 6 (05:34):
And I want to share with you last night, when
I got.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Home from my massage, it was like like seven or something,
and Chuck said, can I just I also want to
give a word to my husband, just for a minute.
I know that everybody doesn't have a perfect husband, but
damn you, guys, I do. I do, And he just

(05:57):
took such good care of me last night, not that
I was like an emotional mess and a complete disaster,
but he realized, like this, this feels very personal, right,
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (06:09):
Let me just read what I wrote for you and
I put it on social media.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
You may have already read it, but I'm gonna go
ahead and read it, which I don't normally do, but
it easily allowed me to encapsulate my feelings about this
assassination of Charlie Kirk and today's anniversary of nine to eleven.
We're twenty four years away from the most significant and
deadly attack on American soil in our history, and so

(06:33):
this is what I was thinking. Twenty four years ago today,
our nation was attacked in devastating fashion by islam As
terrorists who wished to destroy the Great Satan. Millions of
US watched in horror as planes flew into the Second
World Trade Center. We watched human beings plunge to their
death when escaped from the buildings became impossible. We gasped

(06:54):
in collective horror when another plane flew into the Pentagon.
When word came of yet another crash in a field
in Pencil. It was clear that the United States of
America was under attack. We didn't know who, but we
knew it was happening. The days and weeks that followed
were filled with heroic actions, as brave men and women
poison themselves digging through fallen buildings looking for survivors. Thousands

(07:16):
donated blood for the survivors that never arrived, and the
country was united against the enemy from far away. For
most of us, I think that day is burned like
a scar in our memory. I can still clearly remember
every moment of the day, from the phone call from
my then mother in law telling me to turn on
the news, which I did just in time to see

(07:36):
the second plane hit. I was a radio news reporter
at that time and immediately called my boss to find
out what to do. He asked me to find a
local angle. That's what you do when something big happens.
So I headed to the blood donation center in Gainesville.
When I got to the center, it was raining ever
so slightly, just a drizzle, but enough to be annoying
in the parking lot, in a line that snaked back

(07:58):
and forth across the sizeable a lot. Were at least
five hundred people who were standing quietly in the rain,
waiting to do the only thing they could do, which
was donate blood for the survivors we were all hoping
would be found. The entire scene struck me as so
beautiful I had to stop and gather myself before I
walked up to the people who were grieving in the
same way I was, to ask if they would talk

(08:19):
to me what a tragedy strikes. The news people are
the ones that have to find the people to talk to,
and I honestly.

Speaker 6 (08:26):
Hate that part of the job.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
I always feel like I'm intruding when the last thing
anyone needs is to be bothered. But when I asked
the first person if she'd go on the air with me,
she accepted without hesitation, and we spoke about how horrifying
the whole thing was. She said she felt so helpless
and devastated, but had to do something. I spoke to
all sorts of people, young and old, black and white,
and they all had the same story. They knew that

(08:50):
we were in this together and they wanted to do
their part. I have no idea what their political affiliations were,
because it didn't matter. We were all Americans fighting the
enemy from the unknown, at least for a while. Fast
forward to yesterday, went about half an hour into my
radio talk show, we got news of a school shooter
in Evergreen.

Speaker 6 (09:08):
My heart sunk.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
This would not be my first breaking news coverage of
a school shooting, and I hate it. It's challenging to
do a show when you're trying to give all the
details you can but.

Speaker 6 (09:18):
There are none.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
But our news team mobilizes quickly, and I'd done it before,
so I knew we could get through it. But then,
almost simultaneously, the news broke that Charlie Kirk had been shot.
On one television, I had Fox News for that coverage.
On the other, I had our local Fox thirty one
on for their coverage of the Evergreen situation, where we
still didn't know if anyone had been killed. I'm pretty
good at handling one crisis, but two at the same

(09:41):
time was almost too much.

Speaker 6 (09:42):
And now Charlie Kirk is dead.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
And though I don't know anything about the yet as
uncaught assassin who killed him, I do know this. Back
in two thousand and one, we were brought together by
the enemy from outside, and when nine to eleven happened.
We all knew it was a catastrophe that would fund
to mentally change us and the world, and it did.
But yesterday we saw the enemy from within. I'm not

(10:07):
a Charlie Kirk superfan, but I admired his ability to
connect with and share the ideas I believe in with
an audience that.

Speaker 6 (10:13):
Usually tuned such talk out.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
His demo was the college kids he met and faced,
and he went to and fate met face to face.
Thousands of students have come to his events to see
Kirk debate young liberals and progressives about the illogical nature
of their worldview. It was sort of a tent pole revival,
only the revival was the ideas of our founders fought for.

(10:36):
He was respectful but not afraid to call a man
a man, even when they were wearing a dress. Thousands
of students listened to his impassioned defense of the roots
of liberty in this nation, and he's probably responsible for
a good chunk of the large number of young people
registering Republican right now. He urged young men to stop
the endless partying and get married and have kids. He
expressed opinions that were wildly unpopular with the most strident students.

(10:59):
In any of the snippets of these confrontations, I've seen
more than one have a visible light bulb moment when
they realized their passionately held beliefs were built on a
foundation of sand.

Speaker 6 (11:10):
And for this, someone decided he needed to be murdered.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
And with one bullet, Charlie Kirk became a martyr, and
his message got a billion times more powerful. Perhaps it's
because I've been in political news talk for the past
twenty years, but this killing has me rattled. It's odd
to say, but when President Trump was shot at a
campaign rally, I was not nearly as surprised as I
was about this. First off, Other presidents have been shot

(11:35):
as recently as Reagan when I was a kid, and
when Trump was shot, we immediately knew he was okay
after he stood and raised his fists to the crowd.
But this is different. Kirk wasn't the president or an
elected official who had earned the ire of a mad constituent.
Kirk was just a guy, a dad, a husband, and
a conservative. How did we get here? How do we

(11:57):
get out? A few days after the nine to eleven
had text columnist Steve Chapman wrote these words. America's founding document,
The Declaration of Independence, is not just a historical relic
concerned with grievances against George the Third. It's a radical
manifesto whose relevance has not diminished in two hundred and
twenty five years.

Speaker 6 (12:17):
What makes it so.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Important then and now is its exaltation of the unalienable
rights of every person, including life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. It was bad enough when democratic freedom prevailed
on our shores, but today it is the aspiration of
billions of people around the world. Tyrants and terrorists see
our way of life as a mortal threat to everything

(12:41):
they hold dear. To our credit, it is back then
he wrote them about Islamic terrorists who hated our way
of life and our freedoms. That could be said today
about whoever killed Charlie Kirk read this part again. Freedom
and openness are the most conspicuous and admirable features of
our society, but curiate those intent on exerting control over

(13:02):
their fellow man. To them, nothing can be more dangerous
than letting people think for themselves. The bad guys have changed,
but the motive remains the same. Charlie Kirk was just
talking to a couple of thousand college students, and someone
who can't stand the free exchange of ideas killed him.
We used to be the place where people could vigorously
debate ideas, even on popular ones.

Speaker 6 (13:24):
But we've changed.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
It's about winning and losing, owning the other side, demonizing
those you don't agree with, and stopping speech you find objectionable.

Speaker 6 (13:32):
We've lost our ability.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
To reason and seek understanding of why someone might feel
the way they do.

Speaker 6 (13:37):
I'm not sure at all how to fix it.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Today I prayed that God would give me the right
words to say to bring us together, not tear us apart,
and that we would all resist the urge to give
into the feelings that lead to revenge.

Speaker 6 (13:49):
I also pray that those on.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Either side of the political debate who don't see people
on the other side as human beings can have their
eyes opened. Yesterday, two little kids under five were left
without a dabat and a thirty six year old wife
is left without a husband, likely because of speech. No
one should be okay with that, no matter how much
you disagree with his message. Yesterday felt similar to nine

(14:12):
to eleven. In another way, it feels like in one
hundred years, historians will talk about the assassination of Charlie
Kirk and say, yep, that's when it all went to crap.
Here's hoping that we can write a different history instead.
Your phone calls welcome. Three O three seven one three
eighty five eighty five. Three O three seven one three
eighty five eighty five. I do have a guest coming

(14:34):
up at twelve thirty that is going to address what
happened yesterday in Evergreen, our other horrific breaking news story.
Laura Carno is going to join me. You know, I've
spoken to Laura Carno about the faster program and arming
teachers are volunteers, people in a district, people at a
school who want a volunteer to go through a very

(14:54):
rigorous training program and be armed at school in a
very very well trained way, they.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
Should be able to do so.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
And I've kind of been a little bit of squishy
on this because I understand parents the thought of having
someone with a firearm at school. That's a terrifying proposition.
But guys, what we're doing is not working. And until
we can figure out some you know, master way to
overcome the spiritual malaise that has taken hold in our country.

(15:28):
We must protect students, and we now see you can
pass all the gun control measures in the world and
it's not necessarily going to help. And you know what,
maybe having trained armstaff would not have prevented what happened
yesterday in Evergreen. But wouldn't it be nice if a
bad actor rolls up to a school and sees a

(15:50):
sign on the front door that says some members of
this staff are armed and will use lethal force to
protect the children in this building.

Speaker 6 (15:59):
That would be some thing that feels like.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Perhaps it would be more effective than talking about we
need to pass more gun control when the coups cannot
even get the guns away from.

Speaker 6 (16:08):
The bad guys. Now, how in the world are you.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Going to execute that?

Speaker 6 (16:12):
In time?

Speaker 4 (16:13):
Pun intended, bad pun intended to prevent this from happening again.
So Laura's going to join us in the next segment,
and we're going to talk about what the FASTER program is,
how it works, the level of training that these volunteers,
and it's all volunteer receive, and it's time for parents

(16:34):
to start asking their school boards. It's time for parents
to start asking their principles to seriously consider this program
that may actually, just maybe, just maybe would be able
to keep kids in schools. We can talk about root causes,
we can talk about we can talk about all of it,
but none of it is going to be doable as

(16:56):
quickly as this is.

Speaker 6 (16:57):
We'll be right back.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
My next guest, Laura Carno, is I've been on the
show before. She has been tirelessly working for years now
with an organization called Faster whose goal is.

Speaker 6 (17:08):
To train volunteer members of.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
A school staff or a district who are in the
schools on a regular basis to undergo rigorous training so
they can safely carry a firearm and be able to
protect children in the case of an attack on a
school of any kind. And Laura, I am going to
give myself a bit of a beating right now in
that I've always been intrigued by this idea, but I

(17:34):
was never passionate about this idea. But what we are
doing is clearly failing. It is not working, and we
have yet another Colorado school shooting. So I want you
to explain to my audience because the first reaction is, oh,
my gosh, we don't want to arm school teachers, do
you know, school teachers they shouldn't have guns, But let's

(17:56):
talk about faster and what that training is really like.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Sure, and just to.

Speaker 9 (18:03):
Back take a step back so that folks know the
context of this. It has actually been legal in Colorado.

Speaker 10 (18:09):
For more than twenty years for school boards and charter
school boards to authorize armed staff.

Speaker 9 (18:15):
So this is not just hey, I'm a teacher and
I have a CCW and I'm gonna carry and go
get training. It's not like that.

Speaker 10 (18:22):
The law in Colorado says your school board has to authorize.
You authorize the policy and then select the people. They
are hand picked, They go through vetting, they go through
you know, interviews, all kinds of things before they even
get to us or you know, the training and vetting
kind of continues.

Speaker 9 (18:42):
But the training to be able to go from not
carrying a firearm in school to carrying.

Speaker 10 (18:48):
It's the same training that law enforcement gets in the
academy to learn how to stop an active killer. Our
instructors are all active duty law enforcement instructors, so they
they know the same They know what they're training because
they just trained it yesterday.

Speaker 9 (19:04):
To recruits or to guys that have been on the
force for a while.

Speaker 10 (19:08):
So it's mindset, it's medical, it's firearms, and its tactics,
and it's all that stuff wrapped up. We have been
nearing the end of our ninth training year, Mandy, and
at the end of this year, we'll probably be in
about fifty school districts in Colorado. So when you and
I started talking about this way in the beginning, and
it was like, oh, this sounds crazy, it's really mainstream

(19:31):
now and more people are saying why weren't there armed
people there?

Speaker 4 (19:36):
And that's the question I keep getting, where are the SROs?
Where are the SROs? We just found out their SRO
that's normally in the school was on medical leave and
there was a different SRO who was supposed to stop buying.

Speaker 6 (19:45):
I mean, you know, SROs can't be everywhere at all times.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
And this is what I actually was having a conversation
with someone who has a very deep knowledge about school
safety from a long career in that field, and they
were pushing back a little bit about the notion of
armed teachers. And one of the things that this person
said was, you know, teachers are not great in a

(20:09):
crisis situation. And I'm like, absolutely, there are some people,
whether they're teachers or members of the military or cops
that are not.

Speaker 6 (20:15):
Good in a crisis situation.

Speaker 4 (20:18):
But I got to tell you, Laura, I will never
forget finding out that the principle of Sandy Hook Elementary
went rushing towards a gunman, completely unarmed, to protect her
children in her school. Do not underestimate the Mama Bear
instincts of people that work in school boards, Papa Bear instincts.
You don't work in a school because you don't love children,

(20:38):
you know what I'm saying. I mean, these people are
cut from a different cloth, and these children are their
children while they're in that school room. What kind of
things have you seen or are you aware of from
teachers that have gone through the faster training. Tell me
about what that arc is like and who signs up.

Speaker 9 (20:57):
Yeah, and I'm really glad you brought up the Sandy Hook.

Speaker 10 (21:01):
Principle that ran towards the sound of gunfire and died
protecting children. These people do have the mindset. It's not
for everybody, and that's okay. It doesn't need to be everybody,
but the public, especially these bad guys.

Speaker 9 (21:18):
They need to know that there are in every school.

Speaker 10 (21:24):
One ten I don't know how many people potentially armed,
and they shouldn't go in there. So, Mandy, if you
were to come to a Faster class and just kind
of survey the folks that were there. Their male, they're female,
they're younger, they're older, they're middle aged. They are rural,
they're urban, they're suburban. They look like the people if

(21:44):
you went to your local King Supers and you'd go, oh,
these are people who live in Colorado. They don't look
any different. They're a complete cross section. But the one
thing they do have is they have that mindset that
if something happens, even if they didn't have a firearm,
they would run to save the children and be a
bullet sponge if that's all they could do, and die

(22:06):
for other people's children. Wild animals don't die for the
babies of others. They only die for their own babies.
Humans are different, So this is a very different breed
of people. And that's why I started Faster. After I
went to the class in Ohio, the Faster Saves Life's
Class in Ohio, I came back here determined that we
were going to do this here because we have people

(22:27):
with the right mindset. They deserve to save children and
they deserve to go home alive to their families.

Speaker 6 (22:33):
How many hours of training is the program total?

Speaker 10 (22:37):
So the training that we do at Faster is only
their annual certification that starts with a twenty four hour class,
and then every year thereafter that's a sixteen hour class.
Regardless of the level they have to pass that same
qualification that law enforcement has to pass every year. We
actually make it harder by two shots and they have

(22:58):
to pass at one hundred percent. Not all law enforcement
agencies require one hundred percent, so they do.

Speaker 6 (23:04):
There's a live fire portion of this as well.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
It's not just classroom learning, it's actual tactical training and
firearms training and shooting an actual gun.

Speaker 10 (23:12):
Correct, correct, And that qualification is the qualification and handgun proficiency.

Speaker 9 (23:18):
So again we make it harder and they have to
pass at one hundred percent. But this is just their
annual training. School Boards have gotten much more requiring.

Speaker 10 (23:25):
Over the years in saying and you must dry fire
once or twice a week, and you must go to
the range as a group every month, and you must
do exercises in the school every quarter, including one with
local law enforcement. School Boards are getting very much more requiring.
So when I say twenty four or sixteen hours, that's
just their annual required qualification course. But they are getting

(23:49):
a ton more experience during the year, far more than
law enforcement is getting.

Speaker 9 (23:56):
And this is what we hear from our law enforcement instructors.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
In my conversation with the person who worked for a
long time in school safety, one of the things that
they said that I thought was kind of interesting is
like we saw in Uvaldi and Parkland, the failure of
police officers to go into the schools and face an
active shooter. And I just push back with these people
are defending their babies. These are their children, whether they're
in that school, and anyone who knows any teachers knows

(24:23):
that's how they feel about these kids. Doesn't mean they're
necessarily going to sign up for this class, but I
think overwhelmingly.

Speaker 6 (24:28):
That's how teachers feel. So what can the people.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
Listening to this show right now do to get faster
in their district to allow volunteers to become trained in
armed to protect kids.

Speaker 10 (24:41):
So this is a very parent driven policy. So parents
get together with ten or one hundred of your fellow
parent friends in your school district, go to school board
meetings and talk about this meet with your superintendent and
talk about this. We have four years since this gunfrees
school zones. We have had these sitting ducks situations. We've

(25:05):
tried it their way, we keep having these school shootings.
Let's try it our way. Let's have somebody armed in
every single school so bad guys know they cannot go
in there and kill with impunity and kill without without
being able to be stopped.

Speaker 9 (25:19):
And it'll be a dramatic change in our country.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
Laura Carnor, I appreciate your time today. You can find
out more about Faster.

Speaker 6 (25:27):
It's on the blog.

Speaker 4 (25:28):
You can find out more about Laura. She's written a
wonderful book that's so accurate called Government Ruins Everything that
you can order and Laura, thank you so much for
what you do.

Speaker 9 (25:37):
Thanks so much, and folks can find us at Faster
Colorado dot org.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
Faster at Colorado dot org. I'll talk to you soon, Laura.
All right, that is Laura Carner. The first comment, What
an effing dumb idea arming teachers. Police are bad enough
with guns, even with training, and we want to add
those responsibilities to already underpaid teachers. That isn't what they
teach for. How out of touch and retarded? Is this person?

(26:03):
How's your way working, Texter, How's what you're doing doing?
How's that working out for you? How's that working out
for our kids? What's your idea? The anniversary of nine
to eleven? And also, we're kind of still reeling from
everything that happened yesterday. We're going to have an update,
I think fairly soon. We don't have a time frame,

(26:25):
but a scheduled press conference was pushed because there are
so many rapid developments in the Charlie Kirk case. We're
getting some clarity on what happened in Evergreen. The shooter
is dead of a self inflicted wound, and neither of
the victims have left the hospital. And if you have
a moment, say a prayer for those kids and their families,

(26:46):
all of them. Pray for the kid who decided this
was a good idea. Pray for his family, Pray for everybody. Jeez, Louise,
I prayed more yesterday than I have in a really
long time, and I pray a lot, but I want
to just take a moment to remember another friend of mine.

(27:08):
And this is gonna sound very random, but there's a
reason I'm telling you this story.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
In the next couple of minutes.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
I know a woman named Leoma love Grove in Fort
Myers and she was an artist and she was one
of the most spectacular ray of light type people you'll
ever meet in your life. Everyone loved Leoma love Grove.
If you didn't like Leoma, it was you, not her.
She came to me on the ten year anniversary of
nine to eleven and said, Mandy, I have this idea.
I want to rent out the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater,

(27:35):
which is a big theater, beautiful space. And she said,
and I want to go on stage and I'm going
to be painting a giant canvas on stage. Is that
we have people come on and talk about their experiences.
We had a firefighter from New York. We had all
these different people lined up, and she said, and I
want to put canvases on either side of the stage,
and I'm gonna paint squares on the canvases and We're

(27:56):
going to invite people to come up and paint a
square on the canvas. And I said, Lioma, that is
the craziest idea I have ever heard.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
And I'm in. And I was the MC for that event.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
So the day of the event comes and we have
all of these incredible speakers coming up and sharing their stories,
and some of them were just gut wrenching, and the
entire time what I feared was going to happen did not.
I told Theoma, I was like, I don't know who's
going to come up and paint a square? I mean,
what are we asking people to do? The entire event,
there were lines all the way back waiting to paint

(28:28):
the squares. And then Leoma, who had done this, I
think it was like thirteen by sixteen canvas of the
American flag as only she could, with the words to
the Star Spangled Banner sort of superimposed on this big
free form, you know, beautiful flag. And then all of
these people painted these squares and they put the squares

(28:48):
on the flag, and for a very long time, that
piece of artwork hung in the Fort Myers Airport.

Speaker 6 (28:54):
It may still be there.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
I haven't flown through the airport in a very long time.
But it was a moment where we could all come
together and we could all share the grief of that day,
even ten years later. And I don't know how to
get that same spirit when it comes to things like this.
If it's even possible. But the reason I bring this

(29:17):
up this year, on the twenty fourth anniversary of nine
to eleven, is that Leoma Lovegrove died this year of cancer.
She'd had cancer for many years and she passed away,
and the world lost a light who just for that
one moment in time, just wanted to give people an
opportunity to come and share and have fellowship, and she
did it. One person with a crazy idea can make

(29:38):
a difference. So if you've got a crazy idea, I'd
love to hear it. I'd also love to hear your thoughts.
We're taking phone calls next three h three seven one,
three eighty five eighty five.

Speaker 6 (29:47):
We will be right back.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
No, it's Mandy Connell and the Day KOLA ninety one,
m SA got way.

Speaker 8 (30:05):
I want to stady the nicey us.

Speaker 3 (30:09):
Through Pray by Toronto, keeping the sad Babe.

Speaker 5 (30:15):
We welcome to the second hour the show.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
I'm your host, Mandy Connell, and now's the time to call.
I'd love to hear from you. And here's what I
want to talk about. Three O three seven one three
eighty five eighty five is the common sense spirit.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
Well, that's not the hot line. They're not a cam
my hat line. They're just calling the phone line. Sorry
about that.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
Wait, whoa, that was a big sneeze. That was a
refreshing sneeze. Wow, I can hear better after that. One
three o three seven one three eighty five eighty five
is the number to call. You know, if you have
thoughts on what's transpired in the last twenty four hours,
I'd like to hear them. If you have ideas on

(30:53):
how to make schools safer for children, I'd love to
hear them. One of the things I'm not interested in
our ideas like we need to pass more laws on
gun control, because we've been doing that relentlessly in Colorado
and it's had no positive effect to my knowledge.

Speaker 6 (31:13):
I mean, do you guys feel like it's made it better.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
We talked with Laura Carno from Faster Colorado, an organization
that trains teachers and staff who volunteer.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
To go through the program.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
That's such a critical part of the Faster program that
I want people to understand we're not forcing any teacher
to arm themselves.

Speaker 6 (31:34):
That is counterintuitive.

Speaker 4 (31:35):
First of all, I mean, if somebody doesn't want to
be there, some people are not capable of taking a
human life just flat out. I've actually had that conversation
with people before. I've had friends that are like, you know,
I think, and they're all women. I've never had this
conversation with a man, But I have friends who are
women and they say, I think I'm gonna get a
gun and I want to learn how to shoot. And

(31:57):
I always say the same thing, and you pull the
trigger in defense of your own life? Can you take
another human life in defense of your own life? Because
if the answer is no, don't get a gun, they'll
just use it on you. And don't get me wrong,
I don't know if I don't know how it would
affect me psychologically if I was ever put into a

(32:19):
position of having to protect myself and my family with
lethal force. But I can assure you I've already had
that conversation with myself, and in a situation where it
is me or them or my kid and them, they
are going down. And that's why I practice. So I
would never force the teacher into that situation. I would

(32:39):
love to hear your thoughts on what happened yesterday and
the assassination of Charlie Kirk and.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
You guys, it was.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
It was absolutely an assassination. Assassinations are not just reserved
for people that elected office. You can assassinate any prominent person,
especially one that may be politically motivated. And again I
say may, because we don't know yet. As far as
we know, the Charlie kirkshooter has not been apprehended, but

(33:07):
there are rapid developments in the case.

Speaker 6 (33:09):
We'll have them as soon.

Speaker 11 (33:11):
As we know them.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
Three O three seven one three eighty five eighty five. Mike,
you were on KOA. What's on your mind?

Speaker 7 (33:19):
Yes, Hi, Mandy, I want to talk about the school shooting.

Speaker 12 (33:22):
What I think is probably the obvious solution to that.

Speaker 13 (33:26):
We guard highly valued individuals.

Speaker 12 (33:29):
And highly coveted items like bank vaults and other things
with people that are trained, and we have appropriate firearms
and security protocols that we inscut and those people and
those things are protected. Now, I don't know why we
can't utilize some of those very same things at our schools.
Things that we use at airports, metal detectors, armed.

Speaker 14 (33:54):
People that are at the school at the same time
that the schools are open.

Speaker 6 (34:00):
I agree with you, but the reality, the reality.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
Let me say this to the notion of having armed
security guards at every school sounds great. It is insanely expensive, right,
That's one of the downfalls. It's insanely expensive. That's one
of the reasons that I am now an advocate for
a program that allows staff and teachers to voluntarily learn

(34:22):
how to safely carry a firearm and deal with an
active shooter situation through the Faster program.

Speaker 6 (34:28):
They're already in the building, were already paying them, right, So.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
I think there's a way to do that that we
can get to where people would have a greater comfort level.
To your point, we already provide those services at banks
and sporting events and everything else. Why aren't we providing
them at schools if people are willing to volunteer to.

Speaker 12 (34:47):
Do them, right. Yes, this blanket idea that we're going
to have a quote gun free zone at schools, that's ridiculous,
exactly fine on a poll that you can walk right
past and get into the it's cool.

Speaker 7 (35:00):
It's ridiculous, you know. So, I agree with you.

Speaker 12 (35:03):
Why are people that are clear background check, that are trained,
and that want to and have an inclination to carry
a concealed firearm on their person when they're teaching our kids.
I don't understand the less argument.

Speaker 5 (35:16):
We say, well, you can't do that.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Yeah, that's the great that's the sixty four thousand dollars question.

Speaker 6 (35:23):
Why not, Jerry? You are on KOA. What's on your mind?

Speaker 5 (35:26):
Jerry, Well, I think.

Speaker 7 (35:28):
One of the things that we really need to do
is to look at the mental health of our culture.
People don't get enough recognition for some reason, and there
are so many people that are using this method to
get recognition.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
You know, I don't disagree with you, Jerry, in the
sense that I think there is sort of a seductiveness
if you're the sort of person that you feel like
you're overlooked by society, and perhaps there.

Speaker 6 (36:00):
Is the notion and we saw this in.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
The last shooter of the Catholic School and I'm sorry
I just blanked on where this happened. But in the
manifesto they talked about the fact that they were not
getting the kind of recognition they deserve. But the sad
part about that, Jerry, is that you sound like maybe
you're my age, maybe a little older or younger.

Speaker 5 (36:21):
We did.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
I didn't run around looking for recognition from other people.
I don't understand that it was important to me to
be recognized by my parents, my teachers, you know, stuff
like that. But this sort of need to be famous
for any reason is honestly, I don't get it.

Speaker 7 (36:40):
Well. I don't get that part either, and that's what
I attribute to needing more mental health services. I think
one piece of it, though, is that so many people
that I hear on the streets are talking about all
of the needs that end wants, not just need, but

(37:00):
once that they have that they can't meet, you know,
and all the things out there in the world that
they see that people do that they can't do, and
sometimes I think that people become overwhelmed by it.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
I think that we have a culture now that is
very invested in envy, envy for other people's lifestyles. And
to your point about mental health, Cherrie, I cannot tell you.
And my daughter goes to school in the Douglas County
School District, I cannot tell you how much time they
spend talking about mental health. They offer classes for parents,
they offer things for students, they offer all kinds of support,

(37:37):
and it's like, at what point, how if that's not working?
I'm wondering what responsibility parents have that we're not meeting
as parents, Like, what are we doing wrong that we
have these kids that are falling through the cracks. Jerry,
I really appreciate your phone call and your perspective. Destined
in Denver.

Speaker 6 (37:56):
You're on KOA.

Speaker 7 (37:58):
Hi, Andy, thanks for taking to my call. I just
feel like, you know, drastic.

Speaker 15 (38:05):
Changes need to be made here, just like nine to
eleven change things and COVID change things.

Speaker 7 (38:12):
I think when.

Speaker 15 (38:13):
Somebody does something like this and decides not to take
their life, the consequences need to be severe, and they
need to be soon, meaning not have them in a
prison for twenty five or thirty years and have taxpayer
feed them and take care of them medically. You know,
the consequences need to be severe. You know, like in

(38:36):
foreign countries, if you get caught cheated on your wife,
you could potentially be castrated. You know that's going to
change things. You're going to think about that more. Or
in foreign countries, if you decide to steal something, you
can get a finger chopped off or a hand chopped off.
Their crime rates are low for these things.

Speaker 6 (38:57):
Well, I do hear what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (39:00):
Absolutely hear what you're saying, But I would just be
happy if we could just keep criminals in jail now, right,
if we just viewed criminals as instead of being victims
of their circumstances, as being people who are perpetrating crimes
on other innocent people. We flipped the script since, especially
in big form, since the George Floyd riots. And I'm

(39:23):
just going to say it, I think that we have
created a group of people who believe that they can
act with impunity because they burned buildings, they killed people
during the violent protests and riots of the George Floyd
quote Summer of Love, and they were not held responsible. Right,
there were no repercussions. As a matter of fact, some
of them sued the city of Denver and got big payouts.

Speaker 6 (39:45):
You know, they got big checks.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
So we've created this this belief that as long as
you're on the right side of the issue, whatever the
issue is, you can do whatever you want and no
one's going to stop you. If we just applied the
law the way the law is the supposed to be applied,
I think that would go a long way towards towards
solving some of these problems.

Speaker 16 (40:05):
Anyway, and my other thought is that social media needs
to change drastically as well. You know, I'll try to
give you an example, like maybe you should not be
able to go on YouTube or some other search engine
and figure out how to make a bomb or you know,
I'm sure you can find other resources out to make it,
but it should not just be this readily available to you,

(40:28):
or making gun parts, or just social media in general.

Speaker 15 (40:32):
I'm fifty years old. None of this was around when
I was a kid. Even if this was going on
in the world, I didn't know about it unless it
happened in my town. Yeah, like it just it just
needs to social media needs to change. It creates a
lot of chaos, a lot of hysteria.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
I agree that I think social media has been a
net loss for most of us.

Speaker 6 (40:57):
Unless you're dying to get.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
In touch with people, you would die schol what that
you've lost touch with? Social media doesn't have a lot
of redeeming value right now, I find myself. I'm I'm
on X a lot, obviously because I'm doing news research
and you know, all that stuff. But as far as
the other forms of social media, I am just I'm
not interested in what they're selling. But Unfortunately kids this,

(41:20):
especially in this generation, they've grown up. That's all they know, right,
They don't even know how to have a conversation in
real life. The only problem that I have with the
notion that these things should not be available online is
that who gets to decide what we're seeing in Europe
right now? Is Europeans deciding some you know, group of

(41:41):
people deciding that making a snarky comment online is somehow
worth being arrested.

Speaker 6 (41:47):
We live in a free society, and in.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
A free society, bad stuff is going to happen because
human beings are going to make bad choices. So we
can live in a society where we've can convinced ourselves
that we are a quote safe because we have offloaded
the responsibilities. And by the way, a lot of people
talk about rights, they don't talk about responsibilities. Right, Maybe
we get back to talking about the responsibilities of citizenship

(42:14):
living in society because those don't seem to ever be discussed.
But who gets to be the decider of what gets
on social media and what doesn't. We can all say,
you know what, nobody needs to learn how to build
a bomb on YouTube. Sure we can all decide that.
But maybe somebody on the deciding committee wherever that is,
decides that Charlie Kirk's work is dangerous and it's gonna

(42:36):
inspire some kind of you know, craziness. So they decide
we don't get to hear Charlie Kirk. And that's the
slippery slope that I'm concerned about. James, you were on KOA.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Hello, Mandy, Hi, James.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
A.

Speaker 17 (42:54):
I was just calling in to see if there was okay.
If I say a quick prayer, absolutely, James, okay, your
heavenly Father to come to you through your son Jesus. Lord,
we thank you for the opportunity to pray to you
and to talk to you, and for your presence on earth.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
Lord.

Speaker 17 (43:15):
We pray that you will have your holy presence in
our community and everyone's hearts. Lord, I pray that you
will give us all, especially the non believers, the ability
to have your love, your kindness, and to see each
other for who we really are and not these labels

(43:36):
which are superficial and not real. Lord, Please help us
see each other for who we are, sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers,
children of God. Lord, I pray that you will just
have your presence in our community, lift us up, just
bring us peace, Unify us Lord through love of kindness,

(44:01):
patience and just Lord, I pray that you will be
with the non believers and change their mind. Give us
conviction that we need to love each other. Lord, that's
and to love our enemy. Especially to pray this in
Jesus name.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Amen, Amen, James, thank you well the fine prayer Rick
in Denver, you are on KOA.

Speaker 11 (44:23):
Hello Mandy, thanks for bringing this topic up. I think
I have an idea and I actually wrote to the
governor about this years ago, that we literally could protect
the high schools, in grade schools, not necessarily universities completely
almost protect them for almost zero cost. And what I did.
Some of this data is a little bit dated. I'm

(44:44):
in the car. I just pulled over so I can
talk to you. But I'm a licensed concealed carry person.
How to take classes. I had a PAFC, I had
to do all those types of things. But in the
United States there's approximately fifteen million people licensed concealed carry.
I was a retired I'm a retired financial planner. My

(45:06):
main clients were cops and teachers. You know, those are
the ones that want to leave their profession. The most
after they've been dedicated to it. I have yet to
find any of those people or servicemen who disagree with
the concept that I'm going to talk about right now,
and it's very quick.

Speaker 7 (45:22):
Basically, what it is is you have a security.

Speaker 11 (45:25):
Officer at a at a school. I think Motorola would
would would donate radios. We would have two volunteers at
every door marked that you are concealed carrying. You do
not those kids. No, you cannot go in that door.
You can let somebody out that door, but they are
not going in that door. You're going in the front door.

(45:47):
If I have a problem with somebody, I radio the
cop that's in charge.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
Okay, let me just let me stop you there. For
a couple of reasons. Number one, I understand where you're
coming from. And I've had this conversation to so many
people who feel the same way you do. But the
assumption that someone who is a concealed carry holder automatically
somehow has the skills, the wherewithal in the drive you
know what I'm saying?

Speaker 17 (46:12):
Like that, that to me, I agree with you.

Speaker 11 (46:14):
I agree with you one hundred percent. I think what
has to happen then is as part of and you
have to do this voluntarily. As part of it is voluntarily,
you pay an extra fee for training. So I believe
that I'm not saying that that that the that everybody
who's concealed carry would do this automatically.

Speaker 6 (46:35):
But I don't know anybody that.

Speaker 11 (46:37):
Has concealed carry that said that they would not actually
go through and donate days, do the training, do whatever
it needs to do, pay the fees, do whatever they
need to do to be able to volunteer time at
those doors. In fact, I was just with the motorcycle
copper retired were on motorcycles and I was asking them

(47:00):
about this, and he goes, I think it's a great idea.
But I'm not saying that just because you have concealed
carry you can do this. You have to go through
additional training. You would pay for that additional training to
the licensing, so the state doesn't have to pay for it.
You're paying for this. I think most people that want
to conceal kerry want to do it for self protection

(47:20):
and for.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
Altruistic I totally understand what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
I think that it is more complicated, and as one
who has tried to get volunteers to do various things
at schools. I like your moxie, but the follow through
on this I think would be way more cumbersome than
you might think. Thanks for the call, Rick. Let me
get James and Littleton. James you're on KOA.

Speaker 5 (47:48):
Well, Hello, Mandy, Hi James.

Speaker 14 (47:51):
Thank you for your level headed points of view, and
I thank you for all that you do.

Speaker 18 (47:57):
Hey.

Speaker 14 (47:57):
I think that when it comes to gun problem and
the issues that we're dealing with in today's culture, I
find it a matter of culture. I grew up shooting
and hunting with my father and my grandfather. I saw
the damage that guns can do to living things. I
experienced guns in a whole different way. I grew up

(48:18):
in cass Rock in the nineteen eighties, and you weren't
cool if you didn't have a gun rack with guns
in the back of your truck pulling into the high school.
We also had shooting classes and sports shooting in the school.
And I think the culture has changed so drastically that
ninety percent of children don't understand.

Speaker 6 (48:40):
I agree wholeheartedly. I grew up in a rural community.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
When I was I don't know, maybe I was like
seven or eight, my dad took us to a friend
of ours house in a farm, and he put a
watermelon on the ground about fifteen feet away and he
shot it with a large caliber round and it explodes
into a million pieces. And my dad said, that's what
happens when you shoot a person. And that began the

(49:05):
gun safety classes, right. That was always point the muzzle downrange,
Never point a firearm at somebody else.

Speaker 6 (49:11):
Always make sure your weapon's unloaded. So that is how
I grew up.

Speaker 4 (49:14):
I don't know if that is something that is feasible
on the scale that you're talking about, simply because there
is such an anti gun movement entrenched.

Speaker 6 (49:29):
In the schools. And that is because, in my view.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
Most teachers are female, and most women look at guns
as a scary thing, as a problem. They don't understand
that guns are the great equalizer for women. You know,
that's the thing that's gonna save you. I just practically speaking,
I agree with you. I just don't think we can
get it done, James. I just don't think we can
get it done. We got to take a quick time out.

(49:54):
We'll be back with more of your phone calls. Three
oh three seven one, three eighty five eighty five. Rick
Steve please thing in there will be right back. We're
going to talk to you guys. We're kind of doing
a react show right now. Steven Evergreen, what's on your mind?

Speaker 5 (50:07):
Steve?

Speaker 19 (50:10):
A couple of moments ago, you said something about rights
and responsibilities, and I think that's correct. For every right,
there's an equal and commensurate responsibility. If someone takes the
right to own a gun, they have the responsibility for
safe keeping it. I don't know how this sixteen year

(50:30):
old got a gun, but there needs to.

Speaker 8 (50:32):
Be widely publicized.

Speaker 7 (50:37):
From the news.

Speaker 8 (50:38):
People that actively persecute but not persecuting, prosecuting people who
own guns and don't control them and some kid gets
a hold of it has to happen. Needs to be
a big part of the story, and I don't think
it is well.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
We don't know that information yet. In the late express
conference from the Jefferson County Sheriff's office that is an
ongoing part of the investigation that they have not determined
where the kid got the gun yet.

Speaker 6 (51:07):
I don't disagree with you.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
I think that you know at a certain point your
kids are old enough to be teenagers that they have
to be held responsible for your own actions. But if you,
as a parent have in some way enabled them to
do something horrible like this. Yeah, I think you're right.
I think that there has to be some responsibility.

Speaker 6 (51:28):
At that point.

Speaker 19 (51:30):
My point is that, yeah, they haven't said who what
the responsibility is. They need to make a bigger effort
to communicate. This is one of the things we're investigating.
This is a big part of the entire investigation, and
it's you know, it's kind of as to the fact, Well, I.

Speaker 6 (51:49):
Don't disagree with you.

Speaker 4 (51:50):
I do know that there's a case in Michigan where
the parents were both found guilty of a crime because
of what their son did. So perhaps we will see
that in the near future. We'll keep her eye on that.
It's a very good point, and I appreciate the phone call.
Let's see here, Linda, you are on Kowa.

Speaker 6 (52:08):
What's on your mind?

Speaker 5 (52:10):
Yes, Well, first of all, I've got two things. But
first of all, my daughter is an SR school resource
officer at the school that my grandkids all well all
went to and they can and now my great grandkids
are there. This school is over in Lakewood. I'm want
to get necessarily given the name, but the school houses

(52:36):
preschool through twelfth grade. There's about four hundred and fifty
kids there. My daughter used to manage the kitchen there,
and then about five or six years ago, they offered
her the position of SRO. I was not happy about
it because I said, you know, if there was something
that was disruptive before, she could stand in the kitchen

(52:57):
and throw a ladle and duck down. Now she has
to be that that first person, first response person. I
as a mother, am not happy about that. But yet
all of my grandkids and great great kids go to
school there, so I know she would be doing everything
to protect And it does bother me. For one thing,
that Jefferson County has not given her a bulletproof vest.

(53:23):
Oh that's terrible time and time again that I would
purchase one for her. Even yesterday I texted her and
I said, a bulletproof vest is going to be something
you would get this week. Yeah, it does make me
sad that they don't. She goes through all the training,
she goes through like four weeks of training before school
ever starts, and you know, and I know that she's going.

Speaker 7 (53:46):
To do what she has to do.

Speaker 5 (53:47):
She's had some instances where people came on the property.
Of course, usually it's the homeless, heards, it's drug addicts
and stuff like that.

Speaker 18 (53:54):
She has to go out.

Speaker 5 (53:56):
She's only about five to two, you know, one hundred
and thirty pounds or something.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
Well, Linda, I can imagine. I mean, I got to
tell you when my son was in the army and
when he was deployed. I know that feeling you're talking about.

Speaker 11 (54:09):
Right.

Speaker 4 (54:09):
You don't want your kid to be the first line
of defense. But you did something right in raising a
woman who said, yeah, I'll be that person. I will
put myself out there. So try and look at it
with a measure of pride. But I think that's outrageous
to your point that there's not that she does not
have a protective vest, and that's something that I think
everybody needs to investigate, Like what kind of support are

(54:32):
we giving the SROs in the school, What kind of
support are we giving our first line of defense. I
think those are all great points, Linda, And I'm glad
your daughter is up there protecting kids and grandkids. Cynthia,
you are on KOA, what's on your mind?

Speaker 20 (54:45):
Well, I agree with the case of Michigan. I think
the parents should be held responsible because you're responsible for
your children until they're eighteen years old, and I think
the parents should also suffer the consequences.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
Well, I think that there, as I said, there is
some responsibility for enabling a crime, But the kids, especially teenagers,
they're making their own choices, and I think that the
young man, who unfortunately has taken his own life at
this point, is ultimately responsible for this crime. But yes,
if his parents left unsecured weapons around and he used

(55:24):
those to perpetrate this crime, I mean, yeah, I think
that there is some culpability there as well. I mean
I feel that way. I think you need to be
responsible if you're a gun owner. Patrick, you are on
KOA from the three to three.

Speaker 21 (55:39):
Yeah, I was just wondering, why don't they just rotate
police officers in every school, make it part of their employment,
just like you know, you're working your way up through
the ranks, like you have to spend a certain amount
of time in the schools. You get to know the
students and you get to protect them, and you're a
trained police officer and just make a party employment.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
Well, like in Douglas County we have law enforcement officers
in the schools as SROs Okay, so we have officers
but you got to understand something about being a school
resource officer, Like, it's not for everyone, right, Not everyone
wants to deal with teenagers or middle schoolers or elementary
school kids. So I think the system that we have,

(56:21):
at least in Douglas County, I don't know what every
other county does, is very effective because not only do
the kids see the same face every single day, it
also allows those people to build long term relationships with
kids that may need someone to look up to and
may need someone that can demonstrate what happens when you
make good choices.

Speaker 6 (56:41):
Right, So it's I.

Speaker 4 (56:42):
Think it's easy to sort of say you should rotate in,
rotate out, but I'd rather have cops who a want
to be there and be understand that that job as
an SRO is not just about keeping the kids safe.
It's about representing law enforcement and establishing relationships, and in
some schools where you have kids that maybe don't have
a lot of law enforcement around in a positive context,

(57:05):
that part of the mission is even bigger than keeping
kids safe in the grand scheme of things.

Speaker 6 (57:10):
I mean, as often as it happens, does that make sense? Yeah,
all right, I appreciate your call.

Speaker 4 (57:16):
Patrick More phone calls are welcome. Three oh three seven one,
three eighty five, eighty five. I've got a ton of
text messages.

Speaker 6 (57:23):
I want to chair this.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
Texter said, people want to put guns into schools, That's
going to be a massive, uphill battle, especially in those
areas where the cops are the devil and the guns
are loud and scary. I figure, if you want guns
in schools, then small changes need to be taken, such
as starting with arming teaching staff with tasers or pepper
balls to start. The only issue with tasers and pepper
balls is they have to be used in close contact.

(57:46):
Now that's not a horrible thing, and I'm not against it.
I'm just saying there are reasons that those are are
not the only thing that police officers have to go Mandy, Lol.
We have it's a National Guard that they can do
it already, zero tax dollars. People don't join the National
Guard to go patrol schools like I want people that

(58:09):
want to be there, and the people that are already
in the schools have already demonstrated their love for kids.
We'll be right back with your phone calls and text
Keep it on KOA, let's walk this whole thing back
for one second. Okay, I don't think that if someone
steals a firearm from their parents that has been somehow
secured and goes out and commits a crime with it,
That's not what we're talking about. But the case in

(58:31):
Michigan the dad bought his underage son a weapon and
the son turned around and use that weapon to kill people,
there's some I mean, you have some responsibility. You've given
a firearm to a child, which in Michigan is against
the law.

Speaker 6 (58:47):
I don't know what the law is here in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (58:50):
I mean when I was a kid, my dad literally
got us shotguns for our twelfth birthday.

Speaker 6 (58:55):
That is what our gift was.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
Okay, so I know things have changed. But a Texter
says this, I'm ne me find it really quickly. All
these people saying that the parents should be responsible, I'm
not sure if they understand the laws in Colorado. At
the age of thirteen, parents are no longer able to
have any say and their children's mental or medical health.
The child is able to make those determinations all by themselves.

(59:20):
The average weight to get a psychiatrist to see a
new patient in Colorado is four to six months.

Speaker 6 (59:25):
We need to fix that system.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
Our mental health system is so broken to the point
where and I think that's absurd by the way, and
I've pushed back in certain situations by saying when they're like, well,
you know you have your daughter has to give you
permission to have access to a record. So I'm like, great,
she'll also be paying the cope and the bills. She's
also going to be responsible for paying you. If that's

(59:48):
where we're going to go, then make her responsible for everything. Oddly,
that's been an effective argument for me.

Speaker 6 (59:56):
This texter said, my kids go to a school.

Speaker 4 (59:58):
While it's wonderful in a great environment to learn, the
teaching staff and parents are resistant to having an armed
individual in the school. Being that you're a master wordsmith,
thanks for that. Could you impart any messaging I could
use that might be effective at tipping the scale a bit.
Here are the two things that I would say. Number one,
what we're doing now clearly is not working. Number two,

(01:00:21):
would you rather worry for a little bit that someone
with a gun is in your school there to protect you,
or would you rather watch kids get gunned down in
front of you before you die? I hate to say
it is bluntly but blunt is what we need here.
Dave in Lakewood, thanks for the call.

Speaker 22 (01:00:36):
What's on your mind, Dave, Yes, a little bit clearing
up things as to what place officers are supplied. My
daughter was a deputy sheriff in one county in Colorado
for ten years and was a SRO for a year.
When she what she went through with six months of training,
they told her, well, you need to buy a bulletproof vest.

(01:00:57):
You need to buy your service hand endgun, your AR
and your shotgun. What they did they yeah, yeah, they
did not provide those.

Speaker 6 (01:01:10):
Oh well okay, then.

Speaker 22 (01:01:14):
Yeah, where she could where she get her her more proof,
best does not provide it.

Speaker 6 (01:01:22):
That's crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Absolutely, this and this Texter just sent this in or
rather email or Hey, Mandy, I've been in law enforcement
at the Denver Metro for the last twenty five years.
I won't name the agency, but both me personally and
my agency have multiple surplus ballistic vests available.

Speaker 6 (01:01:38):
If you can put me in.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
Touch with the caller who called regarding her daughter, who's
an SRO in Lakewood.

Speaker 6 (01:01:44):
Okay, So, Mom, if you're.

Speaker 4 (01:01:45):
Listening, I need you to email me so I can
connect you with this gentleman and get your daughter a
ballistic vest. That email address Mandy Connell at iHeartMedia dot com.
Mandy Connell two ends two l's in Connall y m
A and d Y Connall at iHeartMedia dot com. If Mom,

(01:02:07):
you send me an email and I will get you
in touch with this gentleman who is offering to help
get your daughter the desk the vest that she needs.
All Right, we're gonna be uh, We're gonna take a
very quick time out. We're gonna continue with your phone calls.
I've got some audio that I don't know if I
can play on the air. I'm gonna find out. I've
had a Rod screen it because I can't listen to
it on my on my computer. But the reactions are

(01:02:30):
in and some members of Congress are making a bad choice.

Speaker 6 (01:02:33):
We'll do that next. Keep it on KOA.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
No, it's Mandy Connell on KOA.

Speaker 6 (01:02:48):
Ninety one f M.

Speaker 5 (01:02:51):
Got Way.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Kenny through three sad Babe, Well for blah blah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:02):
Welcome to the third hour of the show. A Rod
and I.

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
We're just talking about the fact that yesterday's show took
seventy eight hours, and today's show is just flying by,
taking your reactions, taking your phone calls, taking your thoughts,
either on the shooting of Charlie Kirk, the last twenty
four hours of developments.

Speaker 6 (01:03:19):
We will be airing the press conference with updates.

Speaker 7 (01:03:23):
Is that?

Speaker 6 (01:03:23):
Uh no, no, it's not. It's the old stuff we're
going to be airing.

Speaker 4 (01:03:27):
They're saying there is going to be a press conference
because there's been significant developments in the Charlie Kirk case.
We're also talking about the shooting at Evergreen High School
and the tragedy there and.

Speaker 6 (01:03:39):
How to how to to harden our schools today? Right,
how do we do that? Today?

Speaker 2 (01:03:50):
News?

Speaker 4 (01:03:51):
Well, this Texter says interesting because I met a kid
from Evergreen today who said it was two boys fighting
over a girl.

Speaker 6 (01:03:58):
PS. Thanks for a coverage of both tragedy, guys.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
The rumor mill that is coming out of Evergreen is
so hot and heavy, and most of it has turned
out to be false. So just hold your fire on
that kind of stuff. That's a bad analogy to you today.
But don't believe everything you hear because you think the
students are not getting stuff wrong.

Speaker 6 (01:04:21):
They clearly are getting it wrong. Mandy.

Speaker 4 (01:04:27):
My best friend was a huge Charlie Kirk fan. He
died last year. Do you think he and Charlie met
in heaven? I saw a rainbow last night, which made
my heart happy. You know what, that's the kind of
thing I'm gonna say yes. I am going to absolutely
say yes, that makes my heart happy as well.

Speaker 18 (01:04:47):
So now.

Speaker 6 (01:04:52):
I want to share something.

Speaker 4 (01:04:53):
I was talking to my nephew in Israel this morning
about something that Israel is doing that is not getting
any play with soever. That we'll go into on another day.
But here's my nephew who's been fighting in a war
since October seventh. Actually he's sort of out now because
he'd already been in the idea for twenty years at
that point, and now he's kind of, you know, helping
out but not actively fighting, which makes me very happy.

Speaker 6 (01:05:16):
And he said to me, we.

Speaker 4 (01:05:19):
Were chatting about something else, and I said, yeah, it's
been a rough twenty four hours here. We had a
school shooting and we have the you know, assassination of
a political commentator. And he sent back, yeah, that's a
uniquely American thing, killing someone because of what they say.

Speaker 6 (01:05:38):
And I was like, whoa.

Speaker 4 (01:05:41):
And I text him back and I said, that's the
most un American thing we can have. And if you
look on my social media today to find the blog
every day on social media on X and on Twitter
and mean, excuse me on X and on Facebook. I
create a cartoon image that I use to promote the blog, right,
because if you just put a to the blog, they
won't show it to anybody, blah blah blah. So today's

(01:06:03):
I was pretty proud of today's image that I made
using AI And it's the statue of Liberty standing in
front of a headstone that says American Free Speech seventeen
seventy six to twenty twenty five.

Speaker 6 (01:06:18):
And that is the scariest part of this entire thing.
I'd be lying.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
And I wrote a long piece on it that I
read at the beginning of the show. I'm not going
to read it again because it is long, but it
is on the blog and it's on my social media.
This death has unnerved me because after twenty years as
a talk show host talking about everything, not just politics,
but talking about everything, this feels very very personal because

(01:06:45):
he wasn't an elected official, he wasn't some politician. He
was just a dude who when he was eighteen years old,
decided that he was going to spread the values of liberty,
of freedom, of protecting those things, of protecting our rights
from a tyrannical government, and he was going to do
it with college students. Guys, that is the least receptive

(01:07:06):
audience to that message that I can possibly imagine other.

Speaker 6 (01:07:09):
Than like five year olds, right, Like five year olds
would be less receptive.

Speaker 4 (01:07:13):
College students are right there, very very close. This is
the time of life when young people are, you know,
trying to figure the world out out from under their
parents' ideas and values and pressures.

Speaker 6 (01:07:27):
And a lot of times I know I did. When
I was in college.

Speaker 4 (01:07:29):
I went from being raised by a dedicated Rush Limbaugh
listener who was more conservative than Rush was, to be
in a dirty foot hippie liberal in college. I had
no I wouldn't want to hear any of that crap, right,
but to think for a second that our image from
outside the world from inside a war zone. Because one
of the things I said to my nephew today is like,

(01:07:50):
I don't know how you live with this level of chaos.

Speaker 6 (01:07:54):
Every day.

Speaker 4 (01:07:56):
He walks his kids to school, to kindergarten with a
glock on his hip because he lives in Israel. You
got to do that, right, You got to do that
because people are trying to kill you in Israel if
you're a Jew. So it's shocking to me that the
perception is that killing someone because of their speech is

(01:08:18):
an American thing, because my entire life that's been the
most anti American thing ever. When you kill someone you
disagree with, it's because you.

Speaker 6 (01:08:27):
Know you've lost the argument.

Speaker 4 (01:08:29):
You have no intellectual capability to bring a coach and
argument to sway people to your side. So the only
option you have is to stop the other people who
are making a better argument than you are by not
letting them make the argument anymore. And that is the
most anti Fitical thing to the America that I grew
up in. And this Texter said, Mandy, uh, let me

(01:08:53):
see here. Does his death scare you as a radio host? Yeah,
it makes me nervous, not just because of Charlie Kirk,
but guys, I worked at the station alan Berg worked for.
Now alan Berg was killed by right wing white supremacist
so got political violence on both sides of the aisle.
There have been a few times in my career that

(01:09:14):
I had been nervous about Stephan, I wouldn't say I'm
nervous now. I don't feel nervous. But you can't help
but think, like, how do you not feel like are
conservatives just going to be hunted?

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
Now?

Speaker 6 (01:09:28):
If we share ideas that other people find.

Speaker 4 (01:09:31):
Undesirable, and we do so in a compelling way, it's
it should make all of us a little bit nervous, right,
because you don't know if you're going to have a
conversation with someone who's decided that your speech that they
hate is hate speech. And isn't that what everybody likes

(01:09:54):
to accuse others of, Well he has hate speech. Well, really,
it's just speech that you hate. And Charlie Kirk was
a street shooter. He was very much a straight shooter.
But he was a respectful street shooter. He wasn't going
to blow smoke, he wasn't going to lie, he wasn't
going to confirm delusions.

Speaker 6 (01:10:10):
He was respectful when he did it though.

Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
And what's fascinating to me, and I cannot play by
the way the representative Ilhan omar audio because there's a
curse word.

Speaker 6 (01:10:19):
She does not say it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:20):
The host says it, but essentially she's like, yeah, he didn't.
He said June teenth shouldn't be a holiday. He said this,
He said George Floyd was a scumbag, which we all
know he was. You know, he said all these things,
essentially saying, of course he deserved to be shot because
he said things I don't like.

Speaker 6 (01:10:39):
It's gross, you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:10:41):
Even when we had what I consider to be the
worst president of the modern era, Joe Biden in office,
absolute disaster policy. Everything he did was a disaster. Not
one single time did I wish someone would kill him,
Not one. And I think we need to start looking

(01:11:01):
at people who who are celebrating this and asking them
to examine what's.

Speaker 6 (01:11:06):
Wrong with you that you think this is. Okay, We'll
be right back. Keep it on, KOA. We talked about
the Faster program earlier today.

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
Faster is a program that teachers and staff members at
schools in districts that have allowed it can go through
a level of training that is fairly intense, and they
are trained on how to safely carry a firearm at
a school and respond in the case of a school shooting.
Just got this text message. By the way, I fix
that link if you want to go check it out. Mandy,

(01:11:34):
I'm a teacher who is fortunate.

Speaker 6 (01:11:36):
Enough to teach in a school that uses Faster.

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
Among other training programs, to equip teachers who volunteer with
the skills they need.

Speaker 6 (01:11:44):
To protect our country's most precious treasure.

Speaker 4 (01:11:46):
We devote dozens of hours outside our full time schedules
to prepare ourselves because we feel so strongly about this.
No one is forced and minimum performance qualifications have to
be met before we serve in this capacity. You for
your coverage of this important topic. So that is that
I'm also taking phone calls about everything. Three oh three

(01:12:07):
seven one, three eighty five eighty five. Somebody asked on
the text line an interesting question, and that question is, Mandy,
do you think Charlie Kirk and his assassination was approaching
the icon level of Martin Luther King?

Speaker 6 (01:12:21):
Now Martin Luther King.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
Junior as a leader of the civil rights movement is
in a different category, okay, because he was a political leader,
he was a spiritual leader. He was the leader of
a movement that was underway that was significant that you
had all of the African Americans in the United States

(01:12:44):
and you had a lot of white people as well,
I should not downgradh that, but that movement was well underway.
Charlie Kirk, in a strange way, was building a movement, right,
He was building a movement of young people. And as
far as like you know, does he end up in
the same kind of icon status, I don't know. I
know that last night on a lot of college campuses

(01:13:07):
there were candlelight vigils for Charlie Kirk, and there are
a lot of young people that are beyond devastated. As
a matter of fact, I'm getting ready to have a
young man on the show. His name is Easton. He
is twelve years old. He's going to be coming on
the show. I think tomorrow, I believe, so, I'm checking
right now. Easton is nope, next week. It's next week

(01:13:30):
that he's coming on, or of the week after that.
In any case, I know this young man's mom. Easton
is a twelve year old Conservative and one of his
heroes was Charlie Kirk. And his mom sent me a
text yesterday and said when I picked him up from school,
he was devastated. Devastated. And so it remains to be

(01:13:53):
seen what happens next with Charlie Kirk's movement, so totally different.
But the potential exists for Charlie Kulkirk to become a
symbol for young people on the right to rally around.
And frankly, you know, everybody likes to think like young people.

(01:14:13):
They want to rebel and they want to be, you know.

Speaker 6 (01:14:15):
Seen as rebellious.

Speaker 4 (01:14:16):
There's nothing more rebellious than being murdered for your cause,
and that seems to be what happened. We are still waiting,
by the way, for the press conference about this. I mean,
they've been teasing and now a rod is there any
movement on that at all now? So it may not
be in this during the show, but if it is,
we'll grab it. I don't I don't know what the
plan is for the sports show. I can't commit for them.

(01:14:39):
But that being said, there are a lot of young
people whose hero just got killed in front of their
face this morning, and I want to talk about this
a little bit longer on the other side of the break.
What makes this different and what makes this the killing
of the young Ukrainian woman in North Carolina. The reason

(01:15:00):
these stories have taken on such a huge life is
because they're on tape.

Speaker 6 (01:15:08):
We'll dig into that after this. Keep it on, Koa, ay, Ery,
keep it on Koa.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
I want to say a little bit more and then
I'm going to take phone calls three three, seven, one,
three eighty five, eighty five.

Speaker 6 (01:15:19):
We got one line open. I mentioned this before the break.

Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
This is all a whole new world when it comes
to the impact of what happened yesterday, because unfortunately or fortunately,
whatever however you want to look at it, a lot
of people saw the same video that I saw yesterday
that I cannot unsee. I cannot get the vision of
watching Charlie Kirk get shot out of my mind a

(01:15:44):
couple of weeks ago. A week ago, we see a
young woman on a train get stabbed to death. Does
it make it better or does it make it worse?
It certainly makes it harder to spin it as we
don't really know what happened. We absolutely know what happened,
so it's gonna be very interesting to see how things go.
I did get this text message that I want to share.

Speaker 6 (01:16:07):
I'm Ms Connell. This is Jesse.

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
I'm a senior in high school. I heard the news
of Charlie Kirk's passing on your show on the way
home before we left school. One teacher set out you
will all need to find a new hero. After Ms
Connall's show ended, I listened to mister Rush on five
sixty Am, who emphasized for us not to question our faith.
I sincerely appreciate both hosts. They're both a trusted and

(01:16:29):
assuring voice on the radio. As an eighteen year old,
Charlie was the biggest loss I've had for someone I
didn't personally know. And so I texted this young man
back and said, I would like you to politely let
that teacher know how inappropriate and hurtful that was.

Speaker 6 (01:16:43):
And he said, I already sent an email, and always.

Speaker 4 (01:16:47):
Call it out from now on, from this moment forward,
don't let anybody get away with it. Be nice, be polite,
but don't let them think for a second that that
kind of stuff is Okay. Doug calling from down the
street in the DTC somewhere. What's on your mind?

Speaker 7 (01:17:04):
Doug?

Speaker 6 (01:17:08):
Hello, Doug, Doug is listening, Doug. Okay, hang on, Doug.

Speaker 4 (01:17:13):
I'm gonna put you back on hold and I'm gonna
go to Sheila in Denver. I'll be coming back listening
on your phone, not on the radio.

Speaker 18 (01:17:19):
Hi, Sheila, Hey, Mandy, Thank you so much for your
coverage yesterday. I was working at the time that you
were on, so I had to listen to the podcast.
But just to hear your the way you felt about
it really was it made me feel better that I'm

(01:17:39):
not feeling what it feels bad those kind of things.

Speaker 6 (01:17:42):
Oh No, I mean, I think here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:17:45):
Like, honestly, Sheila, I don't understand how everybody wasn't that upset,
you know what I mean? Like, I just I don't
know these families. I don't know these kids. I don't
know any of these people. But how can you not
how can your heart not break for both to situations
that we had yesterday? It was just it was too
much here in Colorado. We got a double dose, we

(01:18:05):
got a two for one special that nobody wanted. And
I don't understand how people cannot feel anything, I even
for people you disagree with. I don't know, you know,
I'm one of those people, Sheila. I don't kill spiders.
I get the cup and the and the and the
you know, the piece of paper, and I put them
outside because that's just how I am. Like in a

(01:18:25):
situation where I had to kill an animal to survive,
I could do it, but I'm not interested in killing.
I'm just not and I'm I'm don't understand the people
who are not only not upset but celebrating, I mean,
the gooulishness of it has been really hard to take.

Speaker 18 (01:18:41):
Yes, and I sure appreciate you having the lady on
from faster, because that's what we need to do. We
need to let anybody who's willing able to carry a
gun and get those signs up in school saying yep,
this is go somewhere else. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:18:59):
Imagine just a sign on the front door that says
members of this staff are armed and will use lethal
force to protect our children.

Speaker 6 (01:19:07):
I don't care who you are. That's a deterrent.

Speaker 4 (01:19:09):
We know that the Aurora theater shooter drove by multiple
theaters to get to one that was a gun free zone, right,
I mean, we know these gun free zones do not work,
and yet we continue to double down on them for
some reason. I appreciate the phone call she led him.
I'm glad you shared my distress and I shared yours yesterday.

Speaker 6 (01:19:27):
That's kind of why we do what we do.

Speaker 4 (01:19:29):
Let me go to Bob in the DTC, Sorry about that, Bob,
I had the wrong name up there.

Speaker 6 (01:19:34):
So now here you go.

Speaker 23 (01:19:37):
This is a follow on to the worst president in
the modern era. I know very well about this.

Speaker 24 (01:19:45):
I was in the Air Force and they sent me
to get the masters, and two of the courses of
the thing were economics, and the prof thought that did
one particular lecture that could have been titled how to
ruin a Country's economy in seven easy steps, And unfortunately

(01:20:08):
I don't have my notes, and I don't think I
can contact that professor because that was back in seventy
six when I.

Speaker 7 (01:20:15):
Took that course.

Speaker 23 (01:20:18):
But I think that Biden and Gang did all seven
and the only.

Speaker 7 (01:20:25):
Saving grace was.

Speaker 23 (01:20:28):
The time necessary for it all to jel wasn't there.
We were saved that Harris did not win, because she
would have continued the same policies and made them even worse, probably,
and our economy would suffer serious, serious deficits. I mean,

(01:20:50):
it just totally a thing where you might want to
just find another country to live, and it would.

Speaker 7 (01:20:56):
Be so bad.

Speaker 4 (01:20:57):
I got to tell you, I'm concerned enough that you know,
my daughter wants to go to school in Europe, which
has its own problems, right, but at least in Europe
in parts of Europe. I have some modicum of feeling
that that, you know, she's not going to be murdered
on a train by someone stabbing her in the neck.
I mean, it could happen, It could happen anywhere. But

(01:21:18):
there are things happening here that have nothing to do
with the economy. But how we are reacting to each
other as a society, what we've become, how uncivil everyone
has become, how nasty everything has become. That almost to me,
I mean, to your point, Really, that's what destroys the nation,
not just the economy.

Speaker 25 (01:21:39):
Well, you are very correct, but remember this money rules
the economy actually does in very very many little ways
to affect how society acts.

Speaker 7 (01:21:58):
I told that a hard way.

Speaker 6 (01:22:01):
Yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 4 (01:22:03):
When you see people that are in a bad socioeconomic way,
chances are they're not living their best lives and more
likely to have issues or be victimized by other people
in that situation.

Speaker 6 (01:22:14):
Kevin in Castle Rock, what's on your mind?

Speaker 18 (01:22:15):
Kevin?

Speaker 26 (01:22:17):
Hey, Mandy, I usually get to listen to you all day.
Today I just happened to only get to listen to
you from the last break. So, with the exception of hearing, Sheila,
I don't know that that anybody has said anything to you.
I reached out to you last night and sent you
a little email about thanking you for what you did

(01:22:37):
yesterday and how you handled everything yesterday. I thought it
was great. It was raw radio. I thought, I thought
you did the best job somebody can do. And you know,
I really really felt for you when that moronic call
or called texted in and said that you're just assuming

(01:22:58):
things and you're the problem because you're.

Speaker 6 (01:23:01):
Just assuming everything.

Speaker 26 (01:23:03):
The emotion that you got.

Speaker 7 (01:23:04):
Really hit me.

Speaker 26 (01:23:07):
As well, if it is everything that was going on.
But I just thought that an email to you last
night wasn't enough. I felt that the listeners should hear
it too, that I think you just did an amazing job,
and thank you for everything you did yesterday and everything you.

Speaker 7 (01:23:21):
Do every day.

Speaker 6 (01:23:22):
Kevin, I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):
It's honest to God, like that yesterday might have been
the worst day of my entire broadcast career.

Speaker 6 (01:23:28):
Like since I've had my show.

Speaker 4 (01:23:30):
I didn't have my show on nine to eleven, so
I was a radio reporter, and if you read the blog,
I did a long piece about nine to eleven and
how it kind of how it it feels. Yesterday felt
like its own kind of nine to eleven, like we're
now permanently changed. Fundamentally, something has shifted in our country
that is so bad that I'm nervous about what happens next.

Speaker 6 (01:23:52):
But you know, this is what we do.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
This is my job, this is what I signed up for,
and I'm glad that just by being here maybe I
help someone else or made it easier for them to
get through the day as well. And I genuinely appreciate
the kind words more than you could possibly know.

Speaker 11 (01:24:08):
Kevin.

Speaker 6 (01:24:08):
I appreciate you well.

Speaker 14 (01:24:10):
You did an amazing job.

Speaker 26 (01:24:11):
And usually I'm texting you with smart alecy things, that
this one, I really really, I really really do mean
what I said, and I do appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (01:24:20):
I appreciate that day you too, Man, have a good one.
Thank you for that.

Speaker 4 (01:24:24):
David and Englewood. You're you're going to be the last
caller today, So what.

Speaker 26 (01:24:28):
Do you have?

Speaker 27 (01:24:29):
Yeah, I just want to you know, I just texted
you too, and I put down I just I just
put down that you you, Joe Rogan, any kind of
conservative newscaster or perceived conservative newscaster.

Speaker 13 (01:24:45):
It's like I just think you guys have to take
pause in this now because not only did they not
only did they shoot Charlie Kirk because he's just giving
his opinion what so many of you do, and the
people like us, just you know, the people on you know,
just listening to you. It's like they took a shot
at freedom and killed and wanted to try to kill

(01:25:08):
freedom that way, you know. And in Europe. The other
part of it is in Europe they haven't the same
kind of problems, just not with their own people.

Speaker 6 (01:25:18):
Yeah, and they are there. There are definitely things in Europe.
And to your point, it does feel personal, doesn't it.

Speaker 4 (01:25:25):
And and it kind of feels personal, not just and
the whole like political commentator saying, yeah, that's one thing,
but it feels personal because he was just a guy
espousing the same ideals that I share.

Speaker 18 (01:25:38):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:25:39):
So, so now you're coming after my tribe, You're coming
after my people with violence in a way that goes
well beyond the kind of political violence that we've seen
over the last few years, which has been significant. And
so it does feel very personal to me and everyone else.
And I'm not gonna lie. David already talked to Chuck
I'm like, well, we're going to the range this weekend

(01:25:59):
just to make sure I can do that center mass
tight shot the way I want to.

Speaker 18 (01:26:03):
I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:26:03):
I'm not going to wait for somebody else to protect me.
Sad but true, and I appreciate your phone call. That
was a fine way to end this conversation. And I'm
just going to say, if you haven't looked at the blog,
I got a lot of stuff on the blog We've
got to talk about tomorrow because some of it is
so crazy and insane that has nothing to do with

(01:26:23):
what's gone on in the past two days. I'm guessing
that later this afternoon we're going to get some kind
of information about the Charlie kirkshooter, because they canceled an
earlier press conference because there is a lot of developing
information coming out. So I don't know if they've caught someone,
but I hope they have, and I hope he's still alive.

(01:26:45):
I want this guy to go to trial, and I
want him to face a jury, and I want people
to hear what this person has to say because I
want to understand what happened to this guy that made
him decide.

Speaker 28 (01:27:04):
Do you know what I'm gonna do.

Speaker 4 (01:27:06):
I'm gonna I'm gonna get a sniper's nest on the
top of a building. I'm gonna scope out an area,
I'm gonna practice with my rifle, and then I'm gonna
kill Charlie Kirk. What happened to that guy to make
him make those decisions. A lot of people online are
saying this had to be.

Speaker 6 (01:27:24):
A professional hit because that next shot was so you guys,
nobody shoots someone in the neck. He missed.

Speaker 4 (01:27:31):
He was shooting center mass and he missed. He happened
to get him in the neck. Like, snipers don't aim
at the neck.

Speaker 6 (01:27:39):
That's not a thing that they do.

Speaker 4 (01:27:41):
I checked with a couple of snipers, by the way,
to make sure before I said that. It was like,
you guys, ever named it aim at the net? Nope,
never named at the neck. If you have to name
at the head, that's your second choice. But you're shooting
for center mass. What made this person think that was
a good idea. We've already lost the opportunity to talk
to the young man who'd decided that killing students at
Evergreen High School was a good idea to find out

(01:28:03):
what he was thinking, because ultimately, until we can get
a better understanding of what would make someone make that choice.
We have very little chance of stopping more of this
stuff before it can happen, right, I mean, it's this
and it's my it's my belief, you guys that if
this person did not have access to a firearm, he

(01:28:24):
probably would have tried to do something else. We see
that in Europe and Japan and all these other places
of gun control, where they're driving trucks through crowds to
kill as many people.

Speaker 6 (01:28:33):
As they can.

Speaker 4 (01:28:34):
If someone wants to do mass harm, if someone wants
to kill someone, they are going.

Speaker 6 (01:28:40):
To find a way to do it. So there you go.

Speaker 4 (01:28:44):
Man, this Texter, I'm gonna respond to this. I know
it's wrong, but I want the guy to burn alive
for killing Charlie. I absolutely understand how you feel. It
is really easy to wish scorts to earth on people
who have done something like this. But I am here
to tell you I am begging you to not, like

(01:29:07):
ever give in to those feelings in any significant way,
because I have always believed my side is better.

Speaker 6 (01:29:16):
I have always believed my side is the side that.

Speaker 4 (01:29:20):
Believes in the rule of law and believes in following
the law and the rules and everything else. So yeah,
use the power of the law to the best of
your ability to stop these people.

Speaker 6 (01:29:30):
And I'm just gonna say it like from now on.

Speaker 4 (01:29:33):
When I hear the snotty comments, when I hear the
nasty comments, generally speaking, when I'm out in public or
in a situation or hit a party in somebody's house
and I hear some left winger spouting off nonsense, I
am not going to engage. But now I'm going to
walk up and nicely and confidently push back if the

(01:29:53):
language crosses some kind of line because it's not okay.
And we the silent majority, if you want to call
us that. And by the way, I'm including center left
wingers who are not crazy, who are also appalled by.

Speaker 6 (01:30:05):
This entire situation.

Speaker 4 (01:30:06):
I'm asking you to do the same thing, politely, just
say that's not okay.

Speaker 6 (01:30:13):
And that is part of the problem. Mandy.

Speaker 4 (01:30:16):
You can't stab someone from two hundred yards away, No,
but you can buy a pickup truck and drive it
through the crowd to run him over. I mean, god,
we've seen it happen over and over again. It's really
not that hard, Mandy. I think Utah still has the
firing squad. They do not many shoes it, but it's
an available option, and hopefully this gentleman will have the

(01:30:37):
opportunity to make that choice. I'm just going to say,
and I'm anti death penalty straight up, but I can
make exceptions.

Speaker 6 (01:30:44):
Uh been, all right, I'm not.

Speaker 10 (01:30:48):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:30:49):
My issue is that we have we have we have
put innocent people to death, and that is my issue.
Person in the situation, like the guy in North Carolina,
although they don't have the death penalty in North Carolina anymore,
when there is no shadow of a doubt, I have
some moral flexibility there. But generally speaking, when I say

(01:31:10):
I'm pro life, I'm pro life. Okay, i am pro life,
you know, unless someone's trying to kill me your mind,
and then it's all that's wrong.

Speaker 29 (01:31:18):
Oh yeah, don't don't come because I'll administer the death
penalty without a jury.

Speaker 6 (01:31:22):
Correct.

Speaker 4 (01:31:23):
That would be that one situation where anyway, all right, now,
we're going to at least put a pin on today
and yesterday.

Speaker 6 (01:31:31):
We're going to tomorrow have dumb stuff. We might do
an entire hour.

Speaker 4 (01:31:36):
On the self cleaning toilets in Switzerland, which are amazing.
We might do an hour on whether or not you
have words that you can never spell right the first time?
Do you have words you can never spell right the
first time?

Speaker 18 (01:31:48):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (01:31:48):
Man?

Speaker 6 (01:31:49):
The word receipt ben really exhausted. Exhausted is the one
that gets me every time.

Speaker 4 (01:31:55):
Oh, forget about nausea. Okay, forget about nausea. That's not
a thing that's happened.

Speaker 6 (01:31:59):
Can remember the h goes or hemorrhage I could do
like two r's or maybe two g's.

Speaker 9 (01:32:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:32:08):
Hemorrhage I can do.

Speaker 29 (01:32:09):
And it's only because fuel had a song called hemorrhage
in my hands.

Speaker 6 (01:32:13):
Yeah, so often that I exhausted gets.

Speaker 4 (01:32:15):
Me every time, everybody, that's gonna be tomorrow's show. Okay,
fluff and nonsense coming up tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (01:32:21):
I'm careful, And now it's time for the most exciting
segment on the radio. I'm as good.

Speaker 2 (01:32:31):
Of the day.

Speaker 6 (01:32:32):
Great microphone placement, that was well done. Then all right,
I have a work in progress. What is our dad
joke of the day? Please.

Speaker 28 (01:32:39):
A friend of mine is a drummer. He and his
wife just had triplets. Their names and a one and
a two and a one two three.

Speaker 6 (01:32:52):
So much right now, that's why we do it right there.
What's our word of the day, please.

Speaker 28 (01:32:56):
It's an adjective adjective zoomorphic, zoemorphic.

Speaker 6 (01:33:01):
To zoo morphic.

Speaker 26 (01:33:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:03):
Does that mean that it's something that can change from
an animal to a human or something like that?

Speaker 6 (01:33:09):
Man, what do you think?

Speaker 29 (01:33:10):
I think it has to do with Uh, it has
to do with animelia, but I can't remember exactly what
it was like pertaining to animals and their shapes or something.

Speaker 28 (01:33:18):
Am I I'm in the Ballparomorphic describes things that have
the form of an animal.

Speaker 4 (01:33:24):
Okay, well that seems pretty obvious, like a little too obvious,
but whatever, Who holds the record?

Speaker 6 (01:33:29):
You're not going to know this.

Speaker 4 (01:33:30):
I'm just gonna I'm just gonna get rid of that question.
The question is who holds the record for constructing the
world's tallest cowboy boot structure?

Speaker 7 (01:33:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:33:38):
No, we don't know about Bob Wade, but there you go.
In the Hardy Boys.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
Series of mysteries, it is who what are the names
of the first When are the first names of the
two teenage amateur Sluice brothers.

Speaker 6 (01:33:51):
Frank and Joe? You're wrong, it's Sean catherery on. The
other guy.

Speaker 29 (01:34:00):
Is Chet yeah, dad was Fenton and the girls. The
girlfriends were started with a C in an eye. Now
I can't remember, but.

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
In the seventies Parker Stevenson and Sean Cassidy played the
hardy boys, so today.

Speaker 6 (01:34:15):
They will always be the hardy boys to me. What
is our jepardy category? Feelings?

Speaker 18 (01:34:20):
Aw?

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
Feelings?

Speaker 6 (01:34:22):
Oh, oh oh feelings.

Speaker 28 (01:34:24):
A UCLA study says two thirds of college freshmen report
feeling this longing.

Speaker 6 (01:34:30):
What is homesickness?

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Correct?

Speaker 28 (01:34:33):
Miss Adamson or missus behar Ben? What is joy corect?

Speaker 6 (01:34:39):
Shakespeare? Yeah, was the first to call it the green
eyed monstery, Mandy?

Speaker 26 (01:34:45):
What is envy?

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
No?

Speaker 26 (01:34:47):
Then?

Speaker 6 (01:34:47):
What is jealous?

Speaker 11 (01:34:48):
Correct?

Speaker 7 (01:34:48):
Well?

Speaker 6 (01:34:49):
I mean okay, Tim Curry saw you shiver with this hope?
Or what's the anticipation?

Speaker 28 (01:34:56):
Correct? Dylan Thomas said to do this, this against the
dying of the light. And Ben, what's rage?

Speaker 2 (01:35:05):
That is.

Speaker 6 (01:35:07):
A solid wind. I was trying to get the sweep there,
but you beat me down. Absolutely fantastic. You hear that
he's going for That's just the win, the sweep of
man like his moxie. I like his moxie. Confidence gets confidence.

Speaker 4 (01:35:19):
Okay, we got k sports coming up next tomorrow. Fluff, nonsense,
and any pertinent details that we need to relief release.

Speaker 7 (01:35:27):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:35:27):
Please pray for the two kids.

Speaker 4 (01:35:28):
From Evergreen High School last we heard, still in the hospital,
still in critical condition. And pray for a country. I'm
just gonna say it. Just do it all right, KO
sports coming up next.

Speaker 6 (01:35:38):
Keep it on K