The Firing Line: The latest official in the crosshairs of the gun control debate is Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, whose department has been accused of incompetence and even cowardice in heading off the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School.

Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran and 73 Republican colleagues called for Republican Gov. Rick Scott to suspend Israel.

“Sheriff Israel failed to maintain a culture of alertness, vigilance and thoroughness amongst his deputies,” Corcoran wrote in a letter released Sunday. “As a result of Sheriff Israel’s failures, students and teachers died.”

The lone deputy on duty at the high school stayed outside during the shooting. Two other deputies have been suspended for possibly mishandling complaints about the shooter, Nikolas Cruz. The sheriff’s department received 18 calls about Cruz’s erratic and threatening behavior between 2008 and 2017 and did not, or could not, do anything to alter the ultimate course of events.

Sheriff Israel told CNN’s Jake Tapper that everything is being investigated and he has given his department “amazing leadership.” He said, “Of course I won’t resign.”

The National Rifle Association took the opportunity to focus on the police response rather than the shooter and his ability to buy an efficient killing machine. Dana Loesch, the NRA’s spokeswoman, said, “I wish that as much attention were given to the Broward County sheriff and their abdication of duty as trying to blame 5 million innocent law-abiding gun owners all across the country for this.”

The Gun Beat: A new Quinnipiac University poll says American voters favor a a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons by a margin of 67 to 29 percent.

Some other nuggets from the poll:

–  American voters support stricter gun laws by 66 to 31 percent.

–  Support for universal background checks for gun buyers is 97 to 2 percent.

–  Mandatory waiting periods for all gun buys, 83 to14 percent.

– Congress needs to do more to reduce gun violence, 75 to 17 percent.

Hermit Kingdom: The White House yesterday responded to a North Korean overture for talks with an ultimatum to get rid of nuclear weapons. The Trump administration “is committed to achieving the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the White House said in a statement. “We will see if Pyongyang’s message today, that it is willing to hold talks, represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization.”

He’s a Xi: The Chinese Communist Party announced plans to remove the two-term limit for its top leaders, making it possible for Xi Xinping to serve as president indefinitely. Xi is in his second five-year term. This probably means that he has already amassed enough power to re-write the rules in his own favor.

Five Rings: The Winter Olympics came to a close last night with another grand celebration and Ivanka Trump representing the US government in the bleachers. Unlike Vice President Mike Pence, she stood and clapped as the combined North and South Korean athletes entered the stadium.

In the last 15 minutes the athletes broke into a giant dance party with American skier Lindsey Vonn leading a conga line. Sadly, the North and South Korean athletes return to separate sides of the demilitarized zone.

Basically, Norway killed in these games. They won 39 medals, 14 of them gold. Cross country ski racer Marit Bjoergen

won the 30 km mass start, earning her 15^th Olympic medal and became the most decorated winter Olympian of all time.

The Americans finished fourth with 23 medals, and if you go by medal count, that was their worst performance since 1998. But the Americans put in some great performances. Shaun White won his third gold medal in the halfpipe; Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall won America’s first gold in cross country skiing; skater Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman to land a triple axel in the Olympics.

The “Olympic Athletes from Russia” took 17 medals. Not bad considering the Russians were officially disqualified for doping.

Back to School: The students of Stoneman Douglas High School return to class today. Over the weekend the school’s hockey team … yes, this South Florida school has a hockey team — won the state championship.

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