The Gun Beat: Thousands of people including high school students and parents protested in Fort Lauderdale yesterday, calling for tighter gun control after the Parkland school massacre in which 17 people were killed.

On the steps of the federal courthouse, student Emma Gonzalez led a call and response saying, “They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun.” Together with the crowd she shouted, “We call BS!” Blaming President Trump and the National Rifle Association, the crowd chanted, “Shame on you!”  Protesters carried signs saying, “Not One More” and “Your prayers are not needed.”

After the 2014 massacre at a Newtown, Conn. elementary school, many gun control advocates thought their time had come, but nothing happened. Now there’s a rising movement among high school students who can speak up in a way that little children could not.  Organizers have called for a “national day of action” on April 20^th in which students would walk out of school for 17 minutes in memory of the Parkland victims. April 20^th is the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado in which a dozen students and one teacher were killed. Another group is trying to organize a walkout on March 14.

Mental Health: Politicians who refuse to do anything about gun control are saying the focus needs to be on mental health. Nikolas Cruz, the accused Parkland, Fla. School shooter was the subject of a tip given to the FBI that they did nothing about. But Cruz was visited by the Florida Department of Children and Families, which had been alerted to Cruz’s disturbing social media posts. The social workers found that he was a low risk for harming himself or others.

Despite school mates who thought Cruz was a candidate to become a shooter, the family he lived with said they didn’t see the violent side of him. “We had this monster living under our roof and we didn’t know,” Kimberly Snead told the South Florida Sun Sentinel Saturday. “We didn’t see this side of him.”

The Russia Thing: President Trump was busy on Twitter yesterday, pointing out that the Friday indictment of 13 Russians for trying to sway the US election does not include any Americans. He also wrote, “Funny how the Fake News Media doesn’t want to say that the Russian group was formed in 2014, long before my run for President.” Well, that’s a lie because the press has reported that.

But anyway, Trump is saying the lack of any charges involving collusion with his campaign means it didn’t happen. Deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said on Fox News, “This makes it clear and concise for the American people and proves the President correct. No collusion between Donald Trump, his campaign and Russia.”

That’s not at all what the indictment means or says. It does not say one way or the other whether there was collusion. It doesn’t deal with the subject. Neither does the indictment give an evaluation of whether the Russian computer campaign influenced the outcome of the election. What the indictment does do, however, is destroy Trump’s claim that Russian election influencing is a hoax perpetrated by his political enemies.

The President has expressed no outrage that a foreign power interfered with the American election. Last night he was in twitter conflict with his national security adviser, Gen. HR McMaster, who said the indictment proves the Russian election hacking took place.

Trump tweet-blurted, “General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems.”

The Social Network: The Russia indictment says that the campaign to sow discord in the US election depended heavily on Facebook and Instagram. They took advantage of Facebook’s ability to target an audience.

Venture capitalist Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook, told The NY Times, “Mueller’s indictment underscores the central role of Facebook and other platforms in the Russian interference in 2016. In its heyday, television brought the country together, giving viewers a shared set of facts and experiences. Facebook does just the opposite, enabling every user to have a unique set of facts, driving the country apart for profit.”

Five Rings: US Olympic hockey coach Tony Granato refused to shake hands with his Russian counterpart after the Russians beat the Americans 4-0, denting their chances for a medal. Granato was upset because the Russians were still trying to run up the score with two minutes left on the clock.

Speaking of the Russians. While their official Olympic team was banned for doping, plenty of Russian athletes have been allowed to compete under the generic banner of “Olympic Athletes from Russia” — OAR. The roughly 100 Russians have won 10 medals so far, none of them gold. — US Skier Ted Ligety, who won a gold medal in Turin 12 years ago and is considered the world’s best at giant slalom, fell 2 ½ seconds behind the leader in his first run and finished a disappointing 15th. Marcel Hirscher of Austria who the gold.

From the Green: Joe Zimmerman writes in The NY Times that President Trump is bad for the game of golf. “Golf was so close! It was so close to moving beyond that stereotype — the image of a rich, old, unathletic white man making sexist jokes and trading real estate tips.”