America. This epidemic of mass slaughter, this scorch of School Shooting. Fter School Shooting it only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. Amy we will speak with the head of the coalition to stop gun violence and a former Florida State legislator during the time shooting was two years ago. She took on the Florida Governor. Then kept out. For people of color, things are shutting the door to homeownership. Here we have the likelihood so black applicants in philadelphia are almost three times as likely to be denied a traditional mortgage. Reveal found this troubling pattern and dozens of cities. Philadelphia was one of the largest. 61 metros across the country, applicants of color are more likely to be denied conventional mortgage, even if they have the same financial characteristics of a nonhispanic, white applicant. Amy we will look at modern day redlining 50 years after lbj signed the Fair Housing Act banning Racial Discrimination in lending. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In parkland, florida, 17 people were killed and 15 others wounded wednesday in one of the deadliest School Shootings in. The massacre at the Stoneman Douglas high school in Broward County, florida, was the 18 School Shooting this year. This is Broward County sheriff scott israel. Victims,e 17 confirmed 12 victims were within the building. Two victims were just outside the building was the one victim is on the street at the corner of pine island. And two people lost the lives of the hospital. The weapons he had and whether or not the firms went off, was that in anticipation of the shooting taking place . I dont know anything about the fire alarms. He had multiple magazines. At this point, we believe yet one ar15 rifle. Amy police have identified the gunman as a 19yearold former student named nickolas cruz. He was arrested a few miles away from the scene of the shooting. His classmates described him as a loner who was obsessed with guns. Police say social media profile showed very, very disturbing content. The New York Times reports since the sandy hook elementary massacre in newtown, connecticut, in 2012, more than 400 people have been shot in over 200 School Shootings. This is connecticut democratic senator chris murphy speaking during a Senate Debate after the shooting wednesday. This epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of School Shooting after school it only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible. Level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel. And he got after the headlines, we will go to florida for the latest on the shooting. President trump said wednesday he is totally opposed to Domestic Violence, ending days of silence over the case of former white house staff secretary rob porter, who resigned last week after evidence surfaced that he had abused his two exwives. We are leaving. Pres. Trump im totally opposed anyomestic violence of kind. Everyone knows that. It always would not even have to be said. So now you hear it, but you all know it. Amy trumps remarks came as members of Congress Said they would convene Committee Hearings to investigate why white house chief of staff general john kelly allowed rob porter to hold a temporary highlevel security clearance for more than a year, despite accusations of Domestic Violence against him. And the fbi not clearing him. Speaking in a public event with the axios news outlet, Vice President mike pence said the administration could have administration had not handled the rob porter case well. Ine pres. Pence this administration has no tolerance for Domestic Violence, nor should any american. As i said and as the white house has said, i think the white house could have handled this better. I still feel that way. Amy despite thes remarks come a Vice President against growing calls in washington for general john kelly to resign as trumps chief of staff. Vice pres. Pence has done kelly has done remarkable job as chief of staff for president of United States. And i look forward to continuing to work with him for many, many months to come. Amy in syria, u. S. Airstrikes in until her he fired last week reportedly killed scores of russian mercenaries who joined a failed assault on a base held by u. S. And Kurdish Forces in deir azzor. Bloomberg reports that more than 200 soldiersforhire fighting on behalf of syrian leader Bashar Alassad were killed in the fighting, including many russians. Meanwhile, some of the fiercest fighting in the seven year conflict continues to rage in the Northern City of afrin, the rebelheld enclave of eastern ghouta, and other parts of syria. United nations special envoy to syria, staffan de mistura, warned civilians have been wednesday killed on a horrific scale with more than 1000 killed in the first weeof february alone. Been special envoy for four years. This is as violent and worrying and dangerous moment as any that have seen in my time of tenure so far. Amy on wednesday, video circulated on social media showed an aid convoy arriving in the besieged rebelheld damascus suburb of eastern ghouta. The nine trucks were the first to arrive in the area since late november of last year. They held food and supplies for an estimated 7000 people in an area where 400,000 civilians remain trapped by fighting. The latest violence in syria came as the British Charity save the children warned in a new report at least 357 million children or one in six worldwide are living in conflict zones. Campaigner kitty arie says that number is up by 75 from the early 1990s. What were dealing with our on amy in libya, at least 23 people were killed wednesday after a truck carrying an estimated 300 migrants overturned and crashed to the capital tripoli. The crash left another 124 people injured. The crash came less than two weeks after 90 refugees were found drowned off the coast of libya after their ship sank during an attempt to cross the mediterranean to europe. South african president jacob zuma resigned from Office WednesdayEffective Immediately after his ruling anc party ordered him to step down or face a noconfidence vote. The 75yearold zuma had been in power since 2009, but faced widespread calls to step down amidst a number of corruption scandals. Longtime anc leader Cyril Ramaphosa is poised to take zumas place. Ramaphosa once led the National Union of mineworkers under apartheid in the 1980s. He later built a Business Empire that included mining interests, including the marikana platinum mine, where Police Killed 34 workers during a strike in 2012. Ramaphosa is now one of africas wealthiest men, with a net worth of about 450 million. Zimbabwean Opposition Leader morgan tsvangii died wednesday of cancer in south africa at the age of 65. In 2000, tsvangirai founded the movement for Democratic Change which challenged longtime leader Robert Mugabes grip on power. In response, he was repeatedly arrested by zimbabwean authorities and subjected to beatings and torture while in jail. In 2008, tsvangirai withdrew from a president ial election after leading in the first round of voting after mugabes Security Forces carried out a campaign of violence against his supporters. Between 2009 and 2013, tsvangirai served as mugabes Prime Minister in a power sharing agreement. In canada, an allwhite jury has acquitted a white farmer for murdering a young indigenous man from the red pheasant first nation in saskatchewan, sparking protests across canada. In august 2016, the farmer, gerald stanley, fatally shot the cree man, colten boushie, after he and a group of friends pulled up onto stanleys farmland, after they got a flat tire. This is a protester at a demonstration in saskatoon, saskatchewan. A if canada saskatchewan serious about reconciliation, we want more than words and tears. We want action and we want a say of the destiny of our rights for a kids and future generations. Amy back in the United States, Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin is set to face tough questions before house panel today after a government report found he misused more than 120,000 in taxpayer funds to bring his wife along on an official trip to europe that saw the pair visiting castles, taking boat rides, and attending the wimbledon tennis tournament. The scathing report by the u. S. Inspector general found shulkins chief of staff doctored an email to convince an ethics lawyer to approve a 4300 ticket to fly shulkins wife overseas. Investigators also found another of his aides effectively acted as a personal travel concierge, spending many hours arranging tourist activities for shulkin and his wife, rather than conducting official va business. On wednesday, colorado republican Congressmember Mike Coffman called on shulkin to resign, tweeting its exactly corruption and abuses like this that doesnt help our veterans. Shulkin has been summoned to answer questions at the House Committee on Veterans Affairs today. In los angeles, federal investigations immigration agents with ice have launched a series of raids, arresting more than 100 people since sunday. The sweep comes just weeks after a similar series of raids in northern california. The lapd and many other Police Departments across california said they will not cooperate with ice on immigration enforcement, prompting ice spokesperson Sarah Rodriguez to say in a statement that the agency was targeting l. A. And other sanctuary cities because they were uncooperative jurisdictions. A federal Appeals Court has barred a predominantly White Alabama community from forming its own school district, ruling that racial animus led to efforts by gardendale residents to secede from the majority black Jefferson County school district. This case was covered extensively by New York Times reporter nikole hannahjones, who spoke recently on democracy now so in this particular case, there was a flyer about this effort for gardendale to secede from the Jefferson County school system. And it listed a bunch of towns and it said, you know, we have a choice to make. Do we want to be these towns . And it listed several other towns. Or do we want to be these towns . They never mention race, but it is good everyone there that the towns the committee did not want to be like were all heavily black in the towns the community wanted to be like were all heavily white. The white towns had seceded and broken their schools off from the larger system. As a result, their schools in the towns were very white. Amy tuesdays ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of appeals reverses a Lower Court Ruling that would have allowed the secession to proceed. Writing on behalf of a threejudge panel at the 11th circuit, judge William Pryor noted t district urt found at the gardendale board acted with a discriminatory purpose to exclude black children from the proposed school system. Despite thatjudge priowrote, the District Court properly lowed the secession to continue. In new york citymayor bill de blasio said wednesday he hopes to accelerate the closure of the notorious jail at rikers island, which he previously promised to close within 10 years. The plan would see the city build a new jail in the bronx while expanding existing jails in manhattan, brooklyn, and queens. Mayor de blasio said it would also require a sharp reduction in the number of people new york puts behind bars. For this plan to work in addition to the new facilities, we have to keep driving down the jail population. I will say this every time we talk about this issue. Now are at about 9000 individuals in our jail system on any given day. That number must go down to 5000 for this overall plan to work. That is going to take a lot. We believe it can be done. We believe when it is done, it will be crucial to breaking that cycle of incarceration. Amy a 2017 investigation by the Justice Department found that rikers is home to a culture of violence that regularly sees prisoners beaten by both guards and other inmates. Among the cases of injustice that have called attention to rikers is the story of kalief browder, who committed suicide in 2015 at the age of 22 after he was sent to rikers for nearly three years without trial trial when he was 16, much of it in solitary confinement, after he was accused of stealing a backpack. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Nermeen and im nermeen shaikh. Welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. We begin todays show in florida, where 17 people died wednesday in one of the deadliest School Shootings in u. S. History. The massacre at the Stoneman Douglas high school in parkland, florida, was the 18th School Shooting this year according to everytown for gun safety. This means there have been a School Shooting on average every 60 hours so far this year. Amy police have identified the gunman as a 19 euro former student named nikolas cruz. He was carrying an ar15 with multiple magazines of ammunition. In addition to the 17 dead, 15 people were injured. Students described the terror of being inside the school during the shooting. Was in a classroom and all i heard were the gunshots. Then we went outside. We locked the door, turn off the lights. Nermeen once the gunman was captured, students spoke to reporters outside the school. We heard gunshots. We heard people knocking on the door saying they were police, but i guess they were not. They were trying to trick us to come out. The first ones i heard, they were nonstop. A few big shots and everyone just an act. Running everywhere. Amy police have identified the gunman as a 19yearold former student named nickolas cruz, who been expelled from the high school. Cruz was arrested a few miles away from the scene of the shooting. His classmates described him as a loner and a former member of rotc, and abscess with guns. His online media shows disturbing contents, including many photos of his weapons arsenal. Someone using the name nickolas sotsalso posted threatened on youtube, including i want to shoot people with my ar15 and im going to kill Law Enforcement one day. They go after the good people. Adoptive father died when he was young. His adopted mother just died in becamer of the flu e pneumonia. The New York Times reports since the sandy hook Culinary School massacre in newtown, connecticut by 2012, more than 400 people have been killed just of the shooting comes just days after President Trump released his budget, which proposes cutting millions of dollars from the national instant, background checks system. Were joined now by two guests, josh horwitz, executive director of the coalition to stop gun violence. He is the coauthor of guns, democracy and the insurrectionist idea. And Geraldine Thompson is a former Florida Democratic state senator. She represented the orlando district where the 2016 pulse nightclub massacre took place. We welcome you both to democracy now Geraldine Thompson, lets begin with you. You are not far from where this high School Shooting took place. Right near Fort Lauderdale, which, by the way, experienced another shooting where five people were killed just a year ago at the Fort Lauderdale airport. But now at this school, the horror of 17 people being killed three outside the school, 12 inside the school, and then two who were injured who has since died. This must bring back horrific se inies for you from pul 2016, whereas man gunned down 49 people in the club and injured more than 50 others. Yet what has been done . What the loss in florida yet the unfortunately, nothing has happened since the pulse nightclub shooting. I said at that time, and a want to repeat today, that we have got to tighten our laws with regard to gun ownership i