Great. Just What We Need

From this AP article:

One friend, Edward Perkovic, said the gunman feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on the way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon.” Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he “wasn’t violently against Obama.”

Perkovic, a 22-year-old who said he was the gunman’s best friend, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, “Eddie, I am going to die today. … Tell your family I love them and I love you.”

Perkovic said: “I heard gunshots and he hung up. … He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot.”

Vire, 23, said the gunman once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn’t successful. Vire said his friend had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.

He was wearing a ballistic vest, and used the AK-47 in the shooting.  He was also stockpiling.

Mr. [Asshole] told him he bought his guns “because he felt the quality of life was being diminished,” Mr. Vire said.

“He said he’ll be ready if there’s ever an invasion of the United States and that he had stockpiled foods and guns for that eventuality.”

He apparently also had a failed Internet Podcast.  If you wonder why I’m so against the use of explicit threat of violence in defense of gun rights, this is the reason why.  You don’t know what nutball out there’s going to take it seriously, and not get the subtle nuances of “Fort Sumters” and whatnot.  I’m not saying this is anyone’s fault, and free speech is free specch, but there’s a danger in fanning the flames of some people’s paranoid delusions.

16 thoughts on “Great. Just What We Need”

  1. I’d go crazy if my podcast failed.

    WTF, O?

    Maybe I’ll start a podcast so it can fail.

    Some people’s kids…

  2. Even if you’re not blaming the Threepers here, you’re treading awfully close to the collective responsibility mindset of the people who want to ban guns and action movies because of what some nutball might do. If we start self-censoring everything which may excite someone somewhere, we may as well just cut out our tongues. If the guy is as crazy as the media is making it out to be, he could have just as easily snapped over delusions of Obama putting gay Islamic fluoride in the drinking water.

  3. I’m not calling for censoring anyone, so much as asking folks to be mindful of what they say. A lot of what I’ve seen. Borders on threats, and incites to violence. The risk in that, as I see it, is that someone with less judgement, and perhaps a few emotinal problems jumps the doesn’t get the nuance, and jumps the gun.

    I don’t think McVeigh was anyone’s fault either, but he seemed to be awfully influenced by Christian Identity ideology, and nonsense like The Turner Diaries.

    I woudn’t advocate censoring those things, but the presence and promotion of those ideas can have consequences.

  4. Sorry. I didn’t mean to say you were calling for censorship. By self-censorship, I meant personally watching what oneself says.

    You may have a point when it comes to overheated rhetoric, but there are some things which can’t be sugarcoated. If we spend too much time doing the politically correct dance around certain topics, we may eventually end up to the point where even talking about (or showing a picture of) guns is considered “inciting violence.” See also: most schools, England, etc..

  5. I hav e not read the news report , just snippets. But it seems this guy placed his anger against authority and picked cops. Seems to be suicide by cops. To a lot of minds cops are not innocent but the equivalent of military so a legitimate target.

  6. illspirit said it before I got a chance to say it. He also said it a lot nicer than I would have. :-)

    On a related note, Anthony Martin’s Examiner column has a valid argument around this topic.

    “Why should we, as gun owners and freedom advocates, allow lunatics such as the one in Pittsburgh who shot the cops to dominate the debate about firearms and the armed resistance to government movement?

    That crazed lunatic in Pittsburgh no more represents me and 99.99% of gun owners than terrorist William Ayers represents most of those who voted for Obama.”

  7. Maybe the dude was just crazy. I know many people hold a subset of the views that the shooter did, but none of them ever go and shoot up the police force.

    It seems that there’s this tendency in the US to not focus on the shooter but to to blame the shooter’s weapons, the shooter’s favorite music (especially if it’s metal, “gangsta” rap or marilyn manson, etc), the shooter’s political views (especially if they’re on the fringes, doubly so if they’re anti-government conspiracy nuts) or the shooter’s circumstances (especially if they lost their jobs, etc).

    Well, guess what? None of that stuff is unique. Every day thousands of people with similar political views, similar tastes in music and video games and similar financial situations get through the day without shooting anyone.

  8. Also, it might help to point out that domestic disturbances can result in loss of firearms rights. So this guy wasn’t a total nut in that regard. Thank senator lautenberg for that.

  9. Snowflake sez: “He apparently also had a failed Internet Podcast. If you wonder why I’m so against the use of explicit threat of violence in defense of gun rights, this is the reason why. You don’t know what nutball out there’s going to take it seriously, and not get the subtle nuances of ‘Fort Sumpters’ and whatnot. I’m not saying this is anyone’s fault, and free speech is free specch, but there’s a danger in fanning the flames of some people’s paranoid delusions.”

    Uh, huh. Here’s my take on it:

    http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2009/04/he-was-frigging-nazi-whats-so-hard.html

    BTW, it’s Sumter not Sumpter. He was a frigging NAZI, Snowball. He frequented Stormfront and believed in white supremacy and anti-semitism. And like the Southern Preposterous Lie Center, you DARE to deliberately elide the differences between such a piece of filth and us because it suits your agenda?

    Typical. What makes you any different from Morris Dees? Hint: he gets paid money to do it and you do it for free.

    Mike Vanderboegh
    III

  10. Fellas, kindly notice how these occasions always cause us to do everything we can to distance ourselves from the shooter du jour. Mike says our boy was a NAZI and I suppose there’s some evidence to support that statement but where does the evidence come from and what has it been filtered through? Were any of us personal friends with him or are we going to believe whatever the media tells us? If the media says they have interviewed his mother or a personal friend to get the sound-bite they’ve presented to us – should we believe them?

    “No Fort Sumter.” Makes sense to me but what’s your Fort Sumter – or mine – or his? Let’s face it guys; we don’t know what we’re talking about here. We only “know” what we’ve been spoon-fed. Anybody remember the stories we were fed during Ruby Ridge or Waco?

  11. I’m not trying to make the same kind of analogy Dees would make, in that I don’t think anyone’s rhetoric drove this particular killer to do what he did. But I think the danger is real, and what the media is going to do with this case highlights the danger. What if the mother had, instead, turned him in for obtaining his guns through unlawful private transfers, which unfortunately is possible in my state. The police show up to enforce and unconstitutional law, and mean to take the weapons and charge him. Is he at that point justified in shooting the police officers dead? Did the killer think the police would take his guns? Did he view in that instance violence was justified?

    It’s a fine line, and the problem is, emotionally disturbed people aren’t going to get the subtle differences. That’s why I stay far from that line, rather than dance along it. Whether we’re responsible for an emotionally disturbed individual or not, and I don’t think we ultimately are, the media and politicians will definitely try to make those connections. They might not get the subtle differences either.

  12. Honestly, we’re far better off not going down this path, N.U.G.U.N. The less is known about his online activities, the better off we’re all going to be. If anyone does find his podcast, whatever you do, don’t post it here. That’s the last thing I need.

  13. The best thing is for people to move on. Nothing to see here. Just a whack job cop killer. Move along. Feeding his infamy is just going to entice other whack jobs.

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