Take Two breaks down the continued developments in the wake of the mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.
What the FBI knows about active shootings
The shooting in San Bernardino is part of the collection of such incidents to happen in the U.S. this year.
When it comes to active shootings, what patterns emerge when it comes to who is behind them, and when they happen? J. Pete Blair is the executive director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) at Texas State University. He is also the co-author of the FBI's active shootings report. He joined the show to breakdown what the FBI has learned about active shootings.
Mass shooters vs. active shooters: They aren't considered to be interchangeable, Blair said. "Probably the easiest way to think about an active shooter incident is it's an attempted mass murder," Blair said. "And we don't put a limit on the amount of people shot or killed, because we think we can learn as much from incidents where very few people were shot or killed as we can from incidents where a lot of people were shot and killed."
In the last five years, there have been an average of 18 active shooting events per year: "The median number of people shot per event is four," Blair said. When it comes to the number for 2015, Blair said the FBI is still evaluating the data.
The demographic tends to be male: "Outside of that, we see attackers from every major racial and ethnic group in the United States, and about in their proportion with their representation in the population," Blair said, adding that the ages in the FBI dataset range from 13 to mid-80s.
Active shootings typically happen during business hours: That's when people will be there, Blair said. The FBI has not found a pattern in a typical day of the week that active shootings occur.
To hear more about what the FBI knows about active shootings, click on the blue audio player above.
What we know about the weapons used in San Bernardino
There is still much we don't know about motive behind the attacks in San Bernardino, but at a press conference on Thursday, the chief of the San Bernardino police department revealed new information about the weapons used in the Wednesday attack at the Inland Regional Center.
KPCC reporter John Ismay joins Alex Cohen to talk about the guns used by the shooters, the pipe bombs and how easy it is to get a hold of both of those things. John has personal experience with the latter, as he's a former Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer.
To hear the entire conversation click on the link embedded at the top of this post.
Local Muslim community reacts to San Bernardino shooting
This morning's edition of the "New York Post" featured a harrowing image from the streets of San Bernardino with two words scrawled in huge font: "MUSLIM KILLERS."
Though we still have no idea what the motive might have been, the two suspects in this mass shooting were believed to be Muslims. At a press conference last night, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the attack.
Edina Lekovic of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and Dr. Ahsan Kahn, president of the L.A. chapter of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, joined Take Two for a conversation about what the San Bernardino shooting means for Muslims in the U.S.
To listen to the full interview, click the blue player above.
Will San Bernardino shooting spur gun control measures? Lawmakers disagree
President Obama, Senator Dianne Feinstein and more lawmakers are calling for stronger gun control measures following Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino that killed 14 victims.
California Congressman Xavier Becerra is among those asking his colleagues to bring the issue to the House floor.
"At least let members of Congress take a stand one way or another on whether it's time to make sure we have universal background checks on anyone who wants to purchase a gun in the United States," he says.
"It's taking steps wherever we can," he says. "Simply having a lot of assault type weapons out there doesn't help."
But other lawmakers in the state do not share the same sentiment.
"I'm wholly offended we're talking about this right now. Right now, my heart aches for the family of the victims," says state Rep. Marc Steinorth, who represents San Bernardino. "It's wholly irresponsible to use this senseless tragedy to try and move forward someone's political agenda."
All four of the weapons involved in the mass shooting were obtained legally, and California has some of the strictest gun control measures in the country.
"You can't stop people from doing bad behavior," adds San Bernardino county supervisor Curt Hagman. "When illegal activity is going to happen, to have a violation or misdemeanor [in your background] is not going to stop a murderer from taking someone's life."
Why we pray after mass shootings
In the immediate aftermath of Wednesday's violence in San Bernardino, bystanders witnessed an uncommon display of overt spirituality.
Outside of the Inland Regional Center, several members of the community gathered in prayer amid the chaos.
Southern California Public Radio’s Maya Sugarman was there and caught one gathering on video.
Marie Cabrera, Sonya Gonzalez and Kenneth Kilpatrick pray outside #SanBernardino shooting scene pic.twitter.com/vtcutoYR3p
— Maya Lin Sugarman (@mayasugarman) December 2, 2015
Prayer in the wake of tragedy is not new in this country, but the backlash online this time has been swift. Several Twitter users criticized politicians calling for prayer.
Think and pray about passing sensible gun reforms, Dr. Paul https://t.co/16czqfbH8n
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) December 2, 2015
@HouseGOP how much to get you all to stop praying and start passing some gun control laws? Ooooh MB I forgot the @NRA owns those asses
— Freshh Donuts (@needle_dropper) December 3, 2015
@mayasugarman @NPR obviously praying isn't making these things stop #moreguncontrol
— Patrick Davis (@Pilloopants) December 2, 2015
Why does the country continue to pray after mass shootings, and what role does faith play when trying to make sense in a turbulent time?
Why we pray
Brie Loskota is the managing director at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC. She says people turn to religion in times of tragedy because it provides four essential things: community, rituals of hope, moments of personal transcendence and deeper purpose.
"Prayer is a ritualized way in which people are able to bring those four elements of religion together and really shape meaning and create community when things feel out of control," Loskota says.
The role of prayer
Rev. Sandy Tice is the pastor at First Presbyterian Church in San Bernardino, located just minutes from the site of the shooting. She says the point of prayer is often misunderstood.
“Prayer does not make things stop,” she says. “I don’t think we pray believing that suddenly the world will be cheery and perfect. Prayer — in my view — is an act of defiance in a situation like this. It’s a way of saying ‘no.’ Look, prayer doesn’t stop things like this. Neither do our best-laid plans as governments and law enforcement officials. There is a lot of darkness and I’m not sure I know a way to stop it, but I refuse to stop praying and longing for the light.”
Prayer is not magic
Loskota says she understands why people get upset with those who suggest prayer, but do little else.
“If you’re praying that I am fed, yet you have the ability to feed me, then your prayer would seem hollow to me,” Loskota says. “The words in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, ‘I was hungry and you fed me,’ not ‘I was hungry and you prayed for me.’ There’s an impulse that is supposed to compel people to action — that they are empowered through their sense of prayer and clarity that comes with it — to do good things in the world and transform the world,” Loskota says.
Loskota adds that prayer isn’t a “get out of action free card.”
“Religion is not treating prayer as magic … humans still have obligations to transform the world,” Loskota says.
Healing a community
When leading her congregation this Sunday, Rev. Tice says she plans to address head on the evil that befell the community.
“In our tradition, Advent is a season of longing for peace on earth, among other things,” Tice says. “And we proclaim that God actually dwells in the world as it actually is, not as we wish it would be. We will read texts like ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it,’ and we will sing together … Words of Desmond Tutu set to music by John Bell, ‘goodness is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death.’ That’s what we will hold onto on Sunday I think.”
Press the blue play button above to hear the full conversation.
Investigators search Redlands home tied to shooting suspect
In the city of Redlands this morning, police and investigators were still at the scene of the property registered in the name of Syed Rizwan Farook.
Police suspect the 28-year-old and his wife carried out yesterday's mass shooting in San Bernardino that left 14 people dead and 21 injured.
SWAT teams surrounded the residence following a tip yesterday afternoon. The two suspects then fled in a SUV. Both died in a gunbattle with police when they stopped in a residential neighborhood in San Bernardino.
Southern California Public Radio's Brian Watt joined Take Two with an update from Redlands.