How do you tell a 10-year-old little girl who got a Ruger 10/22 with a pink stock for her birthday that her rifle is an assault weapon and she has to turn it over to government or be arrested for felony possession?
It bubbled up from the darkest online corners then began to take off: conspiracy theories about Parkland students who've spent the past week on TV demanding action on the gun violence that killed 17 and reawakened a national debate.
By late Tuesday afternoon, the conspiracy climbed to a new level when an aide to state Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa, was fired after emailing a Tampa Bay Times reporter with a stunning assertion: "Both kids in the picture are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen."
Benjamin Kelly referred to a picture attached to a Times story, posted online hours earlier, about how Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students were drawing attacks for their outspokenness. The picture showed David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez speaking on CNN.
Asked for backup to his claim, Kelly sent another email — again from his official myfloridahouse.gov account — that included a link to a conspiracy video on YouTube. The video showed Hogg in a news clip from California over a dispute with a lifeguard involving a boogie board. Hogg had posted a video of the confrontation with the lifeguard on YouTube and it "went viral," a news reporter said. Now, conspiracy theorists have questioned what Hogg was doing in another state, some branding him a "crisis actor."
Wrote Kelly to the Times: "There is a clip on you tube that shows Mr. Hogg out in California. (I guess he transferred?)"
"I haven't experienced anything that the hearsay has (claimed), so why would I communicate something that wasn't true for me?" Travolta said. "It wouldn't make sense, nor would it for Tom, I imagine."
Travolta called Going Clear a product of "people who were disgruntled with their experiences" with Scientology, while the church "has been nothing but brilliant for me."
"I've been so happy with my (Scientology) experience in the last 40 years," he said, "that I really don't have anything to say that would shed light on (a documentary) so decidedly negative.
"I've been brought through storms that were insurmountable, and (Scientology has) been so beautiful for me, that I can't even imagine attacking it...."
The two-time Oscar nominee claimed to have used Scientology to aid others in crisis, another reason he won't see Going Clear.
"I've helped so many people through hard times," Travolta said. "Loss of children, loved ones, physical illnesses. Through many tough, tough life situations I've used the technology to support them and help them. It's always worked.
"So, why would I even approach a negative perspective? That would be a crime to me, personally, to do that."
Travolta, 61, keeps a primary residence in Ocala, often visiting Clearwater for Scientology training at the church's headquarters. Five days a week, when he isn't making a movie somewhere too far away to commute.
"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending."