Retired SEAL: ‘After Parkland, I Reached Out’ and ‘Nobody Wanted to Take Me Up’

** Warning: Explicit Language in Video Above **

Ret. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan, a former CIA contractor and CEO of Vigilance Elite, said he offered his security expertise to authorities in Parkland, Florida, after 2018’s mass murder shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He joined fellow Ret. Navy SEAL Mike Ritland on the latter’s eponymous podcast Mike Drop.

Seventeen persons — including 14 teenagers — were murdered in the aforementioned mass shooting. 

Partial transcript below:

RYAN: After Parkland happened, I reached out. I actually have a whole thing ready, and I called the superintendent and the school board and —

RITLAND: — Nothing —

RYAN: — Nobody wanted to take me up. I was like, “I’ll give it to you for free.” But you know what? Nobody wants to address the fucking problem. What they want to do is they want to fucking use this shit for their political fucking agenda —

RITLAND: — or blame somebody —

RYAN: — I sent an email — I sent a mass email, actually — and it was like, “Here’s what we know, put your fucking political agenda aside, what the fuck are you going to do right now to fucking make your school safe? I can’t be construction. You can’t fucking do a fence, you’ve got to go through approval, somebody’s got to approve the funding. I have a fucking thing I can give you right fucking now.” Nothing.

Ritland added:

The cheapest, fastest, and … most manageable mode of staving off these types of attacks is, frankly, fencing. As much of a hotbed topic as the border wall is — I mean, people that say walls don’t work, I want to fucking punch you in the face — if you put a fencing system similar to what is around prisons around every school. ‘I don’t want to make our schools look like prisons,’ tough shit.  Would you rather have them be shot up?

Scott Israel was sheriff of Broward County, Florida, which includes Parkland, at the time of the shooting. He was subsequently removed from his position by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in January. Israel had been under scrutiny for allowing former deputy Scot Peterson to retire following the Parkland shooting. Peterson stood outside the school building and listened to shots being fired instead of going inside to confront the gunman. By allowing Peterson to resign–rather than be fired–Israel allegedly contributed to a scenario in which the former deputy, aka the “Coward of Broward,” now draws over $100,000 a year in pension.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.