When you sold body armor and an assault weapon to that white-supremacist teen, what did you think he was going to do?
Gendron echoed Republicans' "replacement" theory
“…and the choirs kept singing of freedom.” — Richard Fariña
The weapon used in Saturday’s shooting was purchased this year from a vintage gun store near the suspect’s hometown. The names of all of those killed have been released. They were all Black.
The shooter, Payton Gendron, 18, purchased his rifle in 2022, months after making a threat against his high school that led the New York State Police to order a psychiatric evaluation. Gendron wrote as far back as November about staging a live-streamed attack on African Americans. He also practiced shooting from his car and traveled hours to scout out the store in March, according to diary entries he appears to have posted online.
The diary includes tallies of the number of Black people he counted there. He wrote that people who shopped there were from a culture seeking to “ethnically replace my own people.” Although Gendron said he immersed himself in this theory and other kinds of racist content online, versions of these ideas have long been engrained in right-wing politics and articulated by leaders of the Republican Party, including Donald Trump. In August, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich claimed that leftists were attempting to “drown traditional, classic Americans with as many people as they can who know nothing of American history, nothing of American tradition, nothing of the rule of law.”
The gun dealer claimed a background check didn't turn anything up.
The shooter, 18-year old is charged with first-degree murder and faces life in prison. a hero and new recruit for the white supremacist prison gangs if he doesn’t commit suicide first.
The U.S. has seen more than 200 mass shootings this year, including 3 this past weekend.
What else do you need to know?