be a man, talk about it and stop thinking about the nra and your next campaign donation. just stop. everyone knows what you're doing. it's time. that does it for us this morning. stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. >> thanks so much, mika. thanks, joe. to marco rubio, you don't have to step up and be a man, step up and be a human. 17 people are dead. killed. when a 19-year-old recently expelled student goes on a shooting rampage in a florida school on valentine's. >> i know your best friend was shot right next to you. >> yes. >> do you know how she's doing? >> unfortunately, she didn't make it. >> frightened parents rushed to the scene hoping for the best but of course fearing for the worst. >> she was sending us texts like saying i love you, i'm sorry and all that because she didn't

think she was going to make it. >> this morning, kids try to come to grips with memories and images they will never be able to forget. >> i saw two girls dead next to each other, holding hands. there was another body in front of me. it was three on the bathroom door. >> now is the time. fear turns to anger. as another american community is forced to come to grips with another shooting targeting kids. >> i'm absolutely sick to my stomach to see children who go to school armed with backpacks and pencils lose their lives. >> we need to be more than sick. we need to be more than sad. we need to do something. we begin today with a new version of a story that we have all heard many, many times before, 17 people killed. at stoneman douglas high school in the state of florida.

despite the fact that the gunman had been expelled from that very school. despite the fact that school officials had warned teachers about this young man. despite the fact that he had posted pictures of guns and knives online. and yet he was able to bring an assault rifle that he bought legally and countless magazines to his former school and carry out the 18th school shooting this year. 18 school shootings in 1 1/2 months. on february 14th, a day when we celebrate love, 18th school shooting. we just learned the president will address the nation on the shooting at 11:00 a.m. just two hours from now. in the meantime, our team's here to try to break down what we have learned so far. i want to start with my colleague, ali velshi, who is in parkland, florida. ali, give us the latest from the scene. >> stephanie, this is the third time you and i have been together either in the same

place or on air with this kind of thing, a mass shooting. this is the third p third worst mass shooting in history. the 18th school shooting this year. i'm at the site of the school around the corner here. the reason the press conference is probably a little earlier, at 10:15, when we'll get the next update, is because, as you said, the president is going to talk at 11:00. here's what we know. 17 people are dead. 15 are injured. of those 15, five are in critical condition. there's still a lot of mystery around what happened here. first of all, just the horror of the idea that this student, 19-year-old nicholas cruz, former student, who was expelled from the school, came out, shot some people outside the freshman building of the school here, and then went inside, pulled the fire alarm and shot others according to what we're hearing. we have some snapchat video. i have to tell you, to warn our videos, this is really unpleasant, really hard to watch, but that's the age we're in. everybody's got a phone.

this is of the aftermath of the shooting. take a look. >> holy [ muted ]. [ gunshots ] >> oh, my god! [ gunshots ] [ screaming ] >> it is impossible to watch that. it is impossible to think about what those students were thinking, stephanie. we know there were texts sent from students to their loved ones, to their parents, telling them what was going on. as we know, last night on tv, we were watching this in real time, it is devastating. but we're finding out more about the young man who was arrested, 19-year-old nicholas cruz. he was expelled from here after a number of incidents. we're going to talk a little bit more about those later. but the fact is, there were students who we've spoken to who said they knew he was troubled. they knew he was a little bit unusual. here's what some of them said. >> when i was in the vocational school, the alternative school, he went ahead and showed me his

guns and how he would shoot them around for fun. >> he's just always been a really crazy kid. i heard some people say one day he would have done this. unfortunately, i think that was today. >> so stephanie, that's where we are right now. even when i checked in last night at my hotel, the woman at the front desk was asking me about coming here to cover this and she said, you know, my 11-year-old daughter asked me to explain this, asked me what she's supposed to do. her 11-year-old daughter gets it in school. what they're supposed to do. going into a closet. how to hide. how to avoid an active shooter. this is something, you know, we've reported on too many times and we're hoping we never have to but we know we will, stef. >> i don't want to believe we will, ali. something has got to change. we are hearing that the shooting nicholas cruz is likely to appear before a judge at 1 p.m. this afternoon. i want to go to washington and nbc's tom costello who is following this investigation. tom, it is rare that a gunman is taken into custody alive.

what do we know about this boy? >> by some accounts, we understand he actually tried to blend in with the other students who were running, fleeing from the scene, and he was apprehended by a local police department about -- less than a mile away from the scene. 19 years old, nicholas cruz. we are told by law enforcement authorities that he had gas masks with him. he also was armed with an ar-15, multiple magazines, smoke grenades and gas masks. and he had apparently pulled the fire alarm and that caused yet again more people to flee from their rooms and what they thought was a fire drill but it allowed him according to senator bill nelson, allowed him more targets, if you will, to pick off. we can also tell you he legally bought that ar-15. his mother died back in november. his father died six years ago. so he was living with a family friend. and he had a history of making threats at that school. in fact, he talked a lot about guns. and he also talked about killing animals according to some students there.

we've talked to students as ali said who said they were really not that surprised to find out that he was the gunman. look at his instagram photographs. these we came across last night. they show him not only talking about a gun and showing off at least one gun but also knives as well. and buzz feed reporting that the fbi was warned last september that somebody by the name of nicholas cruz had made a post on youtube in which they said, quote, i'm going to be a professional school shooter. that was from 36-year-old ben benight who alerted the fbi. they according to ben talked to him the next day and now they've since contacted him again and said they would like to talk to him again. we don't know if that's the same nicolas cruz but the coincidence is striking. nikolas cruz will be appearing today, charged with 17 counts of murder.

14 we believe counts of wounding. the charges are likely to go from there. yet again, a troubled young man who had been kicked out of the school who had a history of some would say mental instability. by some accounts was being treated for some mental instability and had a history making threats and a preoccupation with guns. yet again is behind a mass school shooting in america. >> a young man who said he wants to be a professional school shooter. we are done saying his name here. he's famous enough. joining me now is the mayor of parkland, florida. mayor, i am so sorry for what you and your community are facing. i know you were at the school just 15 minutes after the shooting. what did you find? >> when i got there, ems and the police were setting up the perimeter. they were just starting to set

that up. parents were slowly making their way toward the school. they hadn't heard from their children. they didn't know what was going on. and as minutes went by, they were starting to receive texts from their children. so they at least knew they were safe. at that time, shooter had not been apprehended so it was very scary for all of us. >> parents said good-bye to their kids. they hugged them. these are teenagers. anxious about their crushes. so many kids didn't even come home from school yesterday. i know you knew many of the parents and the students. tell us how they're doing. what are they telling you? >> excuse me, i'm sorry? >> what are the families telling you? i know you know a lot of the people in the school. what have they told you? >> yes, they're shocked, they're devastated. i don't know how any parent copes with the loss of a child. we are working on -- we have services here. grief counseling here.

the attorney general's office is here. the red cross is here. it's our job now to make sure our residents and families who lost loved ones and the families affected by this tragedy have all the support they need from our community. >> president trump is going to be speaking at 11:00 a.m. today. i want to read you in part what he tweeted this morning where he wrote so many signs that the florida shooter was mentally disturbed. even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. must always report such instances to authorities again and again. what is your reaction to that? because to the president's point, people did know. we heard from other students who said, we predict this would happen. >> right. first of all, i think first and foremost we need to remember that people lost family members. i think we get so caught up in politicizing debates one way or another that we're forgetting

the people who really need our help now and who need our support and services right now. secondly, yes, that's great, if you see something, you say something. i don't know what the police are able to do if you tell them there's somebody who has suspicious behavior but they haven't done anything yet. >> did you know the gunman or his family? >> i did not. >> i want to share something. because according to the miami herald, a math teacher at the school said this. we were told last year he was not allowed on campus with a backpack on him. there were problems with him last year threatening students. and i guess he was asked to leave campus. after he was expelled from school, were there any steps taken to make sure he didn't come back and do something like this? i understand if he hadn't committed a crime, what could you do, but if he's expelled and not allowed in the school with a backpack, if i was a parent at the school, i would think that there were measures taken to get him away from that school.

>> right. in florida, all the schools are run by the county, so that's a separate system from the city and that's governed by the broward county schools so they would be the ones you need to ask that question to. >> do we know how he got into the school? >> i do not know how he got into the school. this is still an active investigation. and there's certain information the police are not releasing at this time. >> all right, mayor, again, i am so sorry for the tragedy your community is facing. and i appreciate you taking the time to speak with us this morning. >> thank you. >> all right. want to bring my panel in. jim cavanaugh, retired 30-year veteran of the atf. elite jordan, msnbc political analyst and "time" columnist. and bill cohen, a "vanity fair" special correspondent. elise, glad to have bill here, today is a day when it's tough to run a tv show when you're

speechless. jim, what is the focus of the investigation right now? i mean, it's stunning when you hear the track record, the history, of who this man was, is, and yet there he was, able to buy the kind of weapons he had and march back into the school he was exspreled from. >> right. well, he has 17 first degree murder counts. i used to be a florida cop. they're going to put him in the express line for the death penalty down there. he's going to get convicted. he may -- he may get out of that if he has autism or some other disability. but he's going to get convicted of all these murders. we have to look back, though, at how to stop it. stephanie, tom's report, buzz feed reporting in the daily news in new york that he had posted in september i want to be a professional school shooter. we call that criminal intent. that's criminal intent. now, there's some gaps here. federal law prohibits a person with the intent to commit a

felony -- if you have the intent to commit a felony, you cannot receive, ship, transport, firearms in interstate commerce. you cannot receive firearms. if he acquired firearms or ammunition after his intent can be proven and his intent was, if that's him, we're not sure, we're not sure on this youtube posting in september, as buzz feed and "new york daily news" report, if that was his posting, that's clearly, clearly, no question, criminal intent. i don't mean to be too technical but it's title 18 united states code 924-b. if you have the intent to commit a felony and you ship, receive or transport firearms. so if he acquired guns or ammunition after that intent and it can be proven, he could have been stopped is what i'm trying to say. what happens if that was reported to authorities? the fbi -- what's the right way to do it? we don't know exactly what the fbi did and i'm not casting blame on them. maybe they did everything they

could do. i hope so. but the right way to do this is when it comes to the fbi office, you call the interested parties. get a little meeting. this is the way we used to do it. you call the school board. you call the sheriff's office. you call atf. you get the fbi. you sit down. okay, we got a guy, he says he wants to be a professional school shooter. here's the guy. what do we know about him? the school starts telling you what they know. the deputies start saying what they know. the fbi says okay, we know this. atf says we'll check on this. that little crew then can find out what really is going on. if it's uncovered that he had these guns, which he's posting them on instagram, photos of his guns. and there is a federal violation, like 924-b, he can be arrested, charged, the guns can be taken. and yet another killer interrupted. i'm not saying it is so in this case. it depends when he receives the guns. it's a law we need to change.

lawmakers need to help us. >> the question is when are we going to change those laws? thoughts and prayers are nice. but this is a moment for action. bill cohen, i want to share part of a "new york times" article today. they write, people who knew cruz described him as a troubled kid who enjoyed showing off his firearms, bragging about killing animals and whose mother would resort to calling the police to have them come to their home and try to talk some sense into him. so the school knew about him. police knew about him. you and i have children. the only time my children are not with my husband and i and their caregivers is when we send them to school and we assume they're safe there. the "new york daily news" cover today is a gun pointed out at us saying this is us. is this us? >> i'm afraid, stephanie, at the moment, it is us. it doesn't have to be us. this obviously has to stop. and it has to stop now. the thing is, we used to have an

assault weapon ban in this country. i had a friend from high school in 1993 who was murdered in cold blood in '01, that resulted in the 1994 assault weapon ban. we've had this law. this can be done again. this is not hard. the republicans in congress need to pass this assault weapon ban now. there's no reason this kid whose name we shall not use anymore have access to that kind of weaponry. >> elise, where, what, what will we hear from leadership today? the president is going to speak. the president has already said on twitter this isn't that hard. if it's not that hard, why didn't republicans do anything after steve scalice was shot? after we saw a shooter at a softball game? after pulse nightclub when democrats had to sit in, republicans did nothing.

nothing happened after las vegas when hundreds of people were shot at, 50 people killed. what could the president tell us today? >> i think we're going to probably see an expansion of what president trump tweeted this morning when he was saying that people in the community need to be raising alarm bells. >> they did. >> but they did. and so i think the american people are looking for a commonsense solution here. i don't understand and i'm a strong second amendment supporter. don't understand why it's harder to get a driver's license than it is to be able to go and buy an ar-15. simply do not understand that. and also, i don't understand why the second point, look at us as a society, this is a child, a teenager who had bragged about killing animals, harming animals. he's reportedly abusive to his girlfriend. you look at the pattern and the commonalties in all these mass shootings over the last couple of years, it's ar-15s and it's

abusing animals and abusing women. >> i want to bring in david. a senior at marjorie douglas high school. david, i'm so sorry for what you've experienced in the last 24 hours. how are you doing? >> i'm doing relatively okay i would say. some of my fellow classmates, especially my sister -- my sister actually had two of her best friends die in this horrific incident and it's been awful for her. and that's why i'm really speaking out today. i don't want something like this ever to happen again. i want us to take action. i don't want this to be just another mass shooting. i want this to be the last mass shooting. >> wow, david, you are a well-spoken young man. where were you yesterday when the shootings started? >> so yesterday, i was in my ap environmental science class. we had just taken out all of our notes and we were about to pack up to leave school. we hear a pop. it happened tobd be an echo

through the hallway. as soon as she closed the door, the fire alarm was pulled. so this sick man could come and get more soft targets. not thinking critically, we walked outside, and that's when he started taking down even more people because of the fire alarm going off. luckily when we were actually going out to our fire evacuation zone, and as we were headed out there, a flood of people started heading in the opposition direction saying go this way. as we were running like in this one direction, we happened to be running towards the shooter. but thank god there was a janitor there that told us not to go any further because the gunman was right there. and he told us -- he got us all into one classroom with the help of someone and i think they saved easily 40 lives just with one minute of action. that's what i want to really push through. is the fact that just one small minute of action can make a huge difference and that's what i want people at home to know.

they can make a difference in their community. they can do that. by calling other congressmen. talking to government legislatures. and letting them know this is not acceptable. because everybody's getting used to this and that's not okay. there have been 18 more mass shootings than there needed to be at schools and that's more -- that's i would more than we need. and it needs to come to an end. because the next thing you know if you let this keep happening, it's going to be your kid that's next. >> my god, david, you've got a better action plan than our own elected leaders. so while you were in the school, you said your sister was also there. did you know where she was? this had to be a terrifying time. >> it was absolutely horrifying. we actually thought it was a drill initially because we had been hearing. we had been hearing about a possible code red drill which is essentially a drill where we have an active shooting, an active shooter drill, to ensure we can survive this type of situation. but once we were all in the room and we started seeing the

headlines, we realized this was anything but a drill. this is life or death. that actually was when i started recording. because i realized, if i died and everyone else around me died i wanted to have our voices heard. if we couldn't carry on our voices would echo through those videos i recorded. i wanted that to be known to the people. because people get used -- people get used to what's going on and that's not okay. what happens when you do that is children are dying and they will continue to die unless we stop it, stand up and take action. >> so david, i am blown away with how eloquent you are. i mean, it's stunning to me. so when you were in that room, you heard -- walk me through. you thought it was a drill and you only knew it was real from looking at headlines in your phone? >> yes, on our phone. we saw it on twitter. once it was eventually trending. we also saw multiple headlines coming from local affiliates.

i think it was channel 7 here. just all of them coming in and us looking them up and that's how we were really able to find it. and that's how we knew this was anything but a drill. >> when were you first able to reach your family and let them know you were okay? you were inside the school, your sister was? >> yes, so my sister had actually called me to assure me -- she wanted to make sure i was okay actually because i still thought this was a drill and it was no big deal. she was actually hiding in the back of our tv production set of the newscast where i'm actually news director for our school, wmsd tv. i was able to reunite with my father, who's a former fbi agent, and my sister eventually later. but first, i reunited with my father after the squad had come in and told everybody get your hands up and we all ran out of there as fast as we could. i realized this was not a drill. this was a major situation and a

situation that should never, ever have happened again. it's absolutely frustrating. the state that this country has been allowed to come to through the work of politicians honestly just saying yeah, thoughts and prayers go out to people and we're going to propose all these ideas. we don't need ideas. we need action. we need action from our elected officials and we need action from the civic public. because without that, this is going to happen again. >> wow. david, without saying the name of this gunman because he certainly doesn't need more attention, young heroes like you do, did you know this young man? >> i did not know this young man. although did i know people that knew him. based off what i heard from them, i've heard he was a loner, a socially awkward person and a person that sadly we've created this archetype in society where we have the stereotypical school shooter and that's kind of what this man seemed to be except the only difference this time he wasn't taken out and killed, he actually survived and didn't kill himself.

>> it's an awful reality that there are so many school shootings. when you go to school on a daily basis, do you feel safe? when you went to school yesterday, did you think something like this could possibly have happened in your school? >> i think this could have possibly happened in any school. and that's the sad reality of the situation this country has come to. the fact we've had 18 this year and it's only february is absolutely unacceptable. the fact that i'm not even that surprised that it happened, the fact it happened at another school is not surprising at all to me and that's absolutely terrifying and it's something we have to change. >> david, as terrifying and awful, awful as this is, there's a small silver lining that tomorrow the young leaders of tomorrow are extraordinary people like you. i'm so sorry that you had to experience this. and i feel one shred of optimism knowing that in the future our

country's going to be led by young men like you. david, thank you so much for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> all right, we're going to have much more on the florida shooting. a mother of one of the children killed in sandy hook will join me. what she is feeling as she watches another community go through a senseless tragedy. a community that knew this young man was a risk. much like the same risks people in sandy hook knew before they experienced a deadly shooting. we'll diswith us what we need to do to stop this from happening again. it's not just about talk anymore. let's hope. as we go to break, the flag at the white house was lowered to half-staff. in a little over 90 minutes, the president is expected to address the tragedy and we will bring it to you live. we need more than a flag, sir. we may be one of the world's most familiar companies, but we make more than our name suggests. we're an organic tea company. a premium juice company.

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welcome back. one of the deadliest school shootings in u.s. history. again, another school shooting on valentine's day. 17 people dead. 14 others injured. when a gunman burst into marjorie stoneman douglas high school and just started shooting. the young man is now in custody.

and charged with 17 counts of murder. my colleague tammy litner, gabe gutierrez all join me from florida. tommy, you arrived in parkland right after the shooting took place. explain what you saw. >> a very different scene right now than what i arrived and saw yesterday. yesterday there were parents standing out of their cars lining the road, trying to get to the school. obviously they could not get there because the roads were blocked off. frantic parents desperate to see their children, hug their children, know that they were okay. i can tell you some of those parents had texted and talked with their kids but a lot of them still didn't know if their children were okay and this went on nows. stephanie, this scene played out. parents coming to the school not knowing if their kids were okay hour after hour after hour. the reason this went on for so long, keep in mind, after a school shooting like this happens, you know they have to go through and they have to talk to each of those kids because

they're witnesses. they have to find out what they know. they do this before they let the kids go home to their parents. after that, they send them to a staging area where they can meet up with their loved ones. as of 10:00 last night when we were out there doing live shots, i was talking to parents that still had not seen their children. it was a big chaotic. one reason for that is we had 17 people that were dead. those names had not been released. we also had 14 people that were scattered around in different hospitals. so a lot of frantic hospitals, a lot of frantic parents, a lot of students that also did not know if their fellow students were alive or dead. and today the realization is setting in as the names are becoming public and people are realizing just the extent of this tragedy. stephanie. >> gabe, give us the latest on the scene this morning. >> the investigation -- >> gabe. >> hi, stephanie, good morning.

yes, the scene, active investigation going on right now. overnight, the fbi executed a search warrant on the suspect's home not far from here. you'll recall he actually got out of the school, police say, and managed to mix in with a crowd of students and was arrested about an hour later. this morning, i spoke with florida's governor who says one of the focuses of the investigation will be to see if any warning signs were missed. just after that, i spoke with the broward county school superintendant who says in his mind he does not believe any warning signs were missed. still, many of the students we have spoke within say this gunman had a troubled past. he had been expelled last year. authorities say that was because of disciplinary issues. the superintendant also tells me the suspect had actually taken an uber car as he planned the massacre and that's how he got to the school. he shot three people outside as his rampage began, then went

inside, shot 12 more. on the scene, this community is grieving. this is a school of about 3,000 people. recognized as one of the safest schools in florida. so now the investigation as to the motive, why did he do this, stephanie, we often cover these school shootings and sometimes we never figure out exactly why. but that's what investigators are trying to get out right now. florida's attorney general has also said that state authorities will payfunerals of those killed here. the school will close for the rest of the week. there are grief counselors on hand. to help this community heal. >> katie, you're at the hospital in pompano beach where victims are being treated. what can you tell us about victims, besides the 17 who perished there are 14 other people who are hurt. >> that's right, stephanie, as gabe said, this is a community that is deep and grieving in shock and sadness. there are still family members with loved ones who are hoping and praying that these survivors

will be able to recover, will be able to make it through this tragedy. right now, we are aware of five of those injured in the shooting that are in critical condition at this point. another ten that were transported are said to have nonlife threatening injuries. some of them have been discharged, though we haven't been able to get information confirmation on that yet. what we have learned is they are still hospitalized, some of them, and hopefully at 10:30 there will be a surgeon joining the sheriff's department in a press conference and we will be learning more about who these injured victims are. we don't know age. we don't know gender. we don't know if they are all students, teachers. we're hoping at this press conference, there will be some light shed on those details as well. here at the hospital yesterday, it was quite a chaotic scene. there was a huge police prese e presence. this entire hospital was put on lockdown. only those connected to the injured -- the victims inside were allowed inside the perimeter of the hospital. that is not the case today.

as you can see, this is sort of business as normal back at the hospital. but certainly a somber tone here. as many are hoping and praying that those inside are going to be able to recover from this. stephanie. >> all right, katie, thank you so much. gabe, tammy, we'll be checking in with you in just a few. we're going to take a break. up next, a sandy hook mother joins me on what needs to be done to prevent future tragedies like this. but first, listen to this teacher who survived the shooting. >> like the latest statistic on, you know, on school violence and as a society, you know, as americans we're failing our children. we're not keeping them safe. and congress is failing us and the government is failing us and something has to be done. more checking-in or checking out things. that triple-double thing doing it yourself or tagging a friend thing. more revolutions in the making thing.

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has the exact nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute to help reduce the risk of progression of moderate to advanced amd backed by 15 years of clinical studies. that's why i fight. because it's my vision. preservision. thanks for staying with us. i am stephanie ruhle. we're following the latest developments in florida after a gunman opened fire killing 17 people at a high school. a news conference scheduled to take place soon. first, i want to bring in a very special woman, nicole hockley, her son dylan was killed in the sandy hook elementary school shooting back in 2012. nicole, thank you so much for being here.

>> thank you, stephanie. >> i cannot begin to imagine what these last five years have been like for you. you lost your 6-year-old son dylan. when you saw the school shooting in florida, the deadliest in the united states since sandy hook, what goes through your mind? because i know after sandy hook you and your community banned together and said we have to stop this and clearly it hasn't stopped. >> it hasn't stopped. and that is so frustrating. someone tweeted at me yesterday gun violence is just something it's part of america. i don't accept that. we know these acts are preventable. we know there are things we can do, that students can do, that teachers can do, that legislation can do as well. we just have to take all these noisy arguments that go nowhere off the table and just focus on

the real solutionings thutions to put in place to keep kids safe. >> you're the managing director of the sandy hook promise. sandy hook's promise is working to make schools safer. for you, this is not about gun control. this is about understanding the person behind the gun. and you point out the similarities here. the community in broward knew the shooter posed a threat. just as your community knew the shooter was a threat in new town. but the problem is how to deal with that threat. this is where you say extreme risk protection orders. erpos are coming into place. what is that? >> an extreme risk protection order is a really powerful commonsense legislation. what it means is when you see a threat, if the school is observing a threat, if a family member is observing a threat, someone who poses a risk to themselves or someone else, then there is a process to temporarily separate them from

their weapons until they're out of crisis and once they're fine and deemed fit, they can have their weapons back. because guns are not going away. there's 300 million guns in america. taking them away is not a solution. arming more people and putting guns everywhere also not a solution. no evidence to say that makes anyone safer. arming teachers and students. not a great idea. let's arm them instead with tools and knowledge so they know how to prevent these acts before they happen. this is what we need to be focused on. it's a state led legislation. only currently in four states. 19 other states are looking at it. florida needs this. first we need to teach people how to know these signs. an erpo can ensure there's a due process in place to ensure that those signs are then acted on. >> well then talk through the stop school violence act because it was introduced on the house

floor last month. how specifically will this bill help our kids? because for many of us, if i read another tweet from a lawmaker that says my spouse and i send our thoughts and prayers, i'm going to simply lose it. >> i'm with you on that, stephanie. thoughts and prayers are incredibly important but if they're not backed up with action, then they're meaningless. the stop school violence act is an investment in our kid's future. it is funding for early prevention and intervention programs within schools. it provides funding for anonymous reporting systems. so that if a student sees a threat they know how to take it seriously. they understand what they're seeing. there's a tool for them to report it. this is funding that we need. we spend so much money as a country on active shooter drills and training. i'm not diminishing the importance of that. imminent danger is something we need to deal with. wouldn't it be a much better place for us to be focused on

preventing these acts from prevention in the first place. all these thoughts and prayers, tweets, while the nra continues to fund our government leaders, not just republicans but in both parties, why is it that the nra is as powerful as there are, as they are and there are many responsible gun owners that think they've gone too far? >> i truly believe the nra leadership does not speak for the majority of its members. it's an extreme minority voice but a very loud voice and a very organized voice. we need to put up the other options for gun owners and nongun owners. we need to put up other options to our legislators and say there are things that you need to do

that protect our kids now. and it's not about the gun lobby. it's not about gun control. it's not about guns everywhere. this is about what we can do together. and there's a stop school violence act. there are democrats and republicans supporting it. it's a bill that should get through and be passed into law quickly. erpos, fantastic state legislation. the nra is not a factor in the conversation about extreme risk protection orders. it's about people and that can happen. i kind of minimize the nra leadership. they are not part of what i'm focused on. i'm focused on talking to people and saying there are things you can do regardless of the nra, regardless of politicians who might not know which side of history they want to be on right now. there are things you can do. >> there is something our president can do. he's going to speak at 11:00 a.m. today. what do you want to hear from

him? >> i want to hear action. i know -- i'm sure president trump will be talking about and offering his condolences. this is an incredibly devastating crisis in our country. and all of our hearts are with parkland. i'm sure he will say that. i want to hear his action plan. we've heard his action plan on other elements. what is he going to do about the problem we have right now that is killing over 30,000 people every day that killed 17 beautiful lives yesterday and god knows how many other lives yesterday in shootings that we're not even hearing about. there are things we need to do. get the political rhetoric out the door. get those fights off the table. i'm not interested anymore. it doesn't matter. people are dying and there are actions we can take to save them today and that's what i want to hear from the president. >> nicole, thank you. the irony yesterday before the shooting, you tweeted this valentine's day, #giving it all

i've got for dylan, for jake, for sandy hook, for a safer future. and then just a few hours later, look what we saw. nicole, thank you so much for your live's work. for trying to prevent us and our children. i sincerely appreciate it. >> thank you, stephanie. >> this is a hard day to have this job. okey dokey, we are continue to follow the tragedy. we will be right back. i accept i don't conquer the mountain like i used to.

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let me just note once again for my colleagues, that this happens nowhere else other than the united states of america. this epidemic of mass slaughter. it only happens here not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck but as a consequence of our inaction. we are responsible. as a parent it scares me to death that this body doesn't take seriously the safety of my children. >> less than 24 hours after 17 people died in another school shooting, this time in parkland, florida, and the conversation on

capitol hill is about prevention. msnbc's garrett hague is live on capitol hill. i love to hear from ted cruz, marco rubio, rick scott. i know you have not spoken to them as of yet but you did speak to senator chuck grassley, what did you learn? >> reporter: yes. we're working on that. chuck grassley is ahead of the judiciary committee, any action that would come through the senate that would deal with the issue of guns would have to pass in front of his desk. so i asked him about this a little while ago and after the usual discussion of how we need to wait for all the facts, how we need to get to the bottom of what happened here, the senator did say there was one specific element to this that he thinks can and should be addressed by the u.s. congress and that's the issue of mental health. take a listen. >> we have not done a very good job of making sure that people that have mental reasons for not being able to handle a gun getting their name into the fbi files and we need to concentrate

on that. >> reporter: if that sounds familiar, this is a conversation that's been going on on capitol hill for a very long time with very limited results, even now there's a bill that was passed through the house after the shooting in texas last fall to help tighten up the criminal background check system that's still sitting in the senate and has not been moved to the floor. talk this morning, but so far just talk on the issue of prevention. >> just talk. i mean, it is important to pray, it is important to wish the best for those who are in the hospital and of course send our deepest condolences to that community. i'm just so confused when we continue to say it's too soon. it's not too soon, 17 people died yesterday. thanks garret. up next, on a dark day like this, good news is in need more than ever. today in the famous words of my favorite, mr. fred rodgers, we're going to focus on the helpers.

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as we're running in this one direction, we happened to be running toward the shooter. thank god, there was a janitor there that told us not to go any further because there was -- because the gunman was right there and he told -- he got us all into one classroom with the help of another person. they saved easily like 40 lives. >> what a day. no matter what, even in our

darkest hours there is always even a shred of good news some where. that young man was david hog who no doubt will be a leader in this country one day, a student who joined me earlier this morning with some extraordinary stories about the faculty and staff of marjory stoneman douglas who stepped up to protect their students when the gunfire broke out. they got their kids out had they could. when they couldn't they barricade classrooms, pulled kids out of hallways and kept their students calm in the face of eminent danger. as my all time favorite mr. fred rogers famously reminded us, when bad things happen, look for the helpers. the staff of marjory stoneman douglas certainly qualify and to government leaders out there, especially in the state of florida, get ready. david hog, he's coming for your job. that wraps us up this hour. i'm stephanie ruhle. thank you so much for joining

me. i will see you again at 11:00. we got an update. what we've been talking about this morning with david hog who stephanie was just talking about who's telling us that horrific high school shooting. we'll bring that to you live when it happens. we'll bring you the president's address to the nation one hour from now. a scene that has played out too many times before. the flag on top of the white house lowered to half staff. we got our catie beck on the ground at the scene. tom costello has the latest on some of the disturbing details we're learning on the suspected shooter. alley, you're there outside the high school. you've been talking to people all morning long and we know that we're going to see the suspected shooter again later on this afternoon in court. >> reporter: