AR-15-style rifles in a gun store (image via Depositphotos)
House Committee To Consider 3 Gun Control Measures
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| (stock image via Unsplash) |
Members of the House Judiciary Committee plan to return from their summer break early to consider three gun control bills in response to the latest rash of mass shootings.
Via Roll Call:
The committee announced Friday it will mark up a bill to outlaw large capacity magazines and other ammunition feeding devices, along with a bill that would prevent people who have been convicted of a misdemeanor hate crime from owning a weapon.
And the committee also will consider a bill that would establish a grant program to encourage states to adopt laws that allow courts to take firearms away from people suspected of being a danger to the public, so-called red flag laws. That bill also would incorporate provisions from a similar bill that would allow federal courts to issue such protective orders.
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., announced the panel also would hold a hearing on “military-style assault weapons” on September 25.
Even if the gun bills make it out of the House, don’t expect Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring any of the measures to the floor of the Senate any time soon without Trump’s clear support.
Although the Donald has indicated he might get behind “red flag” laws in the aftermath of recent gun violence.
Missouri Man’s ‘Social Experiment’ Packing Guns, Wearing Body Armor, Results In Terror At Walmart
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| Dmitriy Andrechenko (mug shot – Greene County Sheriff’s office) |
Just days after two mass shootings that left at least 31 dead and 53 more injured, Dmitriy Andreychenko decided he wanted to try a ‘social experiment’ at his local Walmart in Missouri.
According to the Washington Post, his wife told him it was a bad idea. His sister reminded him that the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, less than a week earlier had occured at a Walmart.
But Andreychenko, 20-years-old, decided to move forward with his plan.
So, with a military-style rifle strapped to his back, a semiautomatic handgun on his hip, and over 100 rounds of ammunition, he headed into his local Walmart clad in body armor this past Thursday.
He began walking around the store with his cell phone held in front of him recording the store’s customers.
Anyone reading this think folks might panic at the sight of all this after a maniac had just killed 22 people at a Walmart?
The manager of the store told an employee to pull the fire alarm to get people out of the store. Andreychenko headed for a side exit but was apparently stopped by a former member of the military who held him at gunpoint until police arrived.
Andreychenko told police he wanted to see if his 2nd Amendment rights “would be honored” in a public place. He told investigators he didn’t anticipate the customers’ reactions.
“This is Missouri,” he reportedly told investigators. “I understand if we were somewhere else like New York or California, people would freak out.”
I refer you back to the top of this story where his wife and sister tried to tell him just that.
Andreychenko has been charged with making a terrorist threat, saying he “recklessly disregarded the risk of causing a building evacuation by knowingly sowing fear in the wake of the El Paso mass shooting at the same retail chain,” according to the Washington Post.
Note – Missouri is an open-carry state. Not only that, but since 2017, people in the Show Me state have been allowed to carry concealed weapons without a permit in most locations.
Those laws, however, don’t entitle individuals to pull the gun equivalent of raising a false fire alarm in a crowded theater.
“Missouri protects the right of people to open carry a firearm, but that does not allow an individual to act in a reckless and criminal manner endangering other citizens,” Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said in a statement.
Andreychenko’s second-degree felony charge carries up to four years’ imprisonment and a fine of as much as $10,000. He is being held on $10,000 bond with the stipulation that he may not possess a firearm, according to the prosecutor.
The 20-year-old social experimenter didn’t shoot anyone, but a police officer and another driver were seriously injured in a traffic accident as the officer was heading to the Walmart with lights and sirens on. Both the officer and driver had to be taken to the emergency room after suffering “severe injuries.”
On top of possible jail time, Andreychenko is now reportedly banned from Walmart stores.
“This was a reckless act designed to scare people, disrupt our business and it put our associates and customers at risk,” the company said in a statement. “We applaud the quick actions of our associates to evacuate customers from our store, and we’re thankful no one was injured.”
Speaking to CNN, Springfield Police Lt. Mike Lucas said Andreychenko “certainly had…the potential to harm people.”
“His intent was not to cause peace or comfort to anybody that was in the business,” Lucas said. “In fact, he’s lucky to be alive still, to be honest.”
Many folks thought back to November 2014 when 12-year-old Tamir Rice, an African-American boy in Cleveland, Ohio, was shot and killed by police was he was playing in a park with a toy gun.
And then there’s the shooting death of John Crawford in Ohio who was shot by police for holding a pellet/BB gun at a Walmart store.
The black folks are shot dead, the 20-year-old white guy packing all kinds of heat and in body armor is taken into custody without any harm.
America is a place where a white man can walk into a Missouri Walmart with body armor, a loaded rifle and 100 rounds of ammo to scare the shit out of people and he gets arrested without a scratch on him, but a 12-year-old black child was shot and killed for playing with a toy.— Adam Best (@adamcbest) August 9, 2019
An armed white man with body armor walks into a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri. No shots were fired.An unarmed black man named John Crawford walks into a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio, near Dayton, and looks at a BB gun. Police killed him on the spot.https://t.co/kDiJppFk5f pic.twitter.com/BZsfRiwDBy
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 9, 2019
“Aren’t you glad the firefighter had a gun?”Yes, I am glad the FIREFIGHTER who is TRAINED to deal with situations of mass panic had a gun. #Missouri #Walmart
— Jennifer Wilczynski (@JenWilcz) August 9, 2019
Nashville Gay Bars Receive Ominous Hate Mail With Images Of Donald Trump & An Assault Rifle
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| (screen capture via NewsChannel 5) |
NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee, reports that a disturbing flyer with an image of a gun has been sent to at least several gay bars in the city.
Melvin Brown, owner of the bar Stirrup, told the local news channel he received the flyer in his mail last Thursday.
The flyer depicts the letters “LGBT” but instead of representing ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender,’ above each letter are images of the Statue of Liberty, a gun, a beer bottle and Donald Trump.
On the back of the flyer was a stamp of the word MAGA, the common Trump campaign slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ and a return address that led reporters to a vacant lot in downtown Nashville.
“When you put a picture of an assault riffle on there, which was used in the Pulse shooting, and you mail it to every LGBT bar in Nashville – that is coming from a hateful place,” said Brown. “To say that it’s disturbing is an understatement.”
The flyer, which some are calling ’targeted hate mail,’ didn’t mention or appear to be associated with any particular political campaign, but Brown says he believes it was inspired by the midterm elections.
“The midterms are right around the corner and I think somebody is trying to incite a reaction,” Brown added.
At least four gay bars in the Nashville area have reported receiving the flyer.
Watch the report from NewsChannel 5 below.
Man With Assault Rifles And Explosives Arrested In Advance Of LA Pride
UPDATE: The LAPD has released the man’s name – James Howell of Indiana – and his mug shot.
Los Angeles police are reporting a man in possession of explosives and assault rifles has been arrested out of concerns for attendees at Los Angeles Pride.
Early Sunday, Santa Monica police received a call of a suspected prowler near Olympic Boulevard and 11th Street. Patrol officers responded and encountered an individual who told officers he was waiting for a friend. That led officers to inspect the car and find several weapons and a lot of ammunition as well as tannerite, an ingredient that could be used to create a pipe bomb.
The car had Indiana plates. The man made comments that he was in town for the Pride event in West Hollywood this weekend. The source said authorities did not know of any connection between the gay nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., early Sunday morning and the Santa Monica incident. The investigation has been taken over by the FBI. The source said the man appeared to be white.
A city official in West Hollywood also confirmed the arrest and stressed that officials were beefing up security at the gay pride event.
“They found him with weapons that were very disconcerting,” said the source, adding officials are “taking the appropriate safety precautions.”
The parade comes hours after the attack at the Orlando club that killed 50 people. At least 53 were injured in the deadliest shooting in modern American history after a gunman took hostages. The gunman has been identified as 29-year-old Omar Mateen, a U.S. law enforcement official said.
One source in West Hollywood said there was discussion of calling off the parade but that officials decided to go forward, with heavy security including undercover officers in the crowd.