proposed laws

PA Bill Number: HB829

Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;

Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;

Last Action: Signed in House

Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024

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Chabad of Poway Shooter Inspired By New Zealand Massacre :: 08/03/2019

We hear a lot of rhetoric about how President Trump is somehow responsible for the upsurge in racially-motivated violence, that there even is racially motivated violence. In particular, those who have opened fire at synagogues like the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh or Chabad of Poway in California.

However, we do know where the Chabad of Poway killer got his inspiration, and it’s from the same source many of us figure mass shooters get their inspiration. He got it from another mass shooter.

Four days after a man killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand, court documents show a San Diego college student expressed regret in a text message that he missed watching the livestream video of the attack and praised the shooter’s writings as “spot on with everything,” and something everyone should read.

Five days later, authorities say [the Chabad shooter] set a mosque on fire in Escondido, north of San Diego, where seven people on a retreat were sleeping inside and escaped safely. A month later, they say Earnest opened fire during a Passover service on April 27, killing one woman and injuring three people, including the rabbi.

The details in search warrants released Wednesday give the clearest indication yet that Earnest was inspired by shooter [The New Zealand killer] and acted on that hatred within days of the New Zealand killings. A California state judge ordered the 338 pages unsealed at the request of five news organizations, including The Associated Press.

The Chabad killer went on to tell a friend that while he’d read only a portion of the New Zealand gunman’s manifesto, “I’ve only read a little but so far he’s spot on with everything.”

In other words, he was inspired by the Christchurch killer.

Now, how does this apply to other mass shootings? I’m not sure it does. New Zealand, Chabad of Poway, and the Tree of Life massacre were all cases of racially motivated terrorism. They weren’t about angry people lashing out or any of the other things we tend to associate with mass shooters. These were white nationalists who sought to terrorize those who their insane ideology considered unfit to live.

This is something we need to try to counteract, but not through legislation and restriction on civil liberties. Especially since the New Zealand killer said that he wanted gun control to be passed here in the U.S. in order to spark a civil war.

Won’t your attack result in calls for the removal of gun rights from Whites in the United states?

Yes, that is the plan all along, you said you would fight to protect your rights and the constitution, well soon will come the time.

No, gun control isn’t the answer. Calling everyone you disagree with a Nazi won’t either. Neither will trying to deplatform people you disagree with. What’s needed is real debate on even tired old issues like race, religion, immigration, and any other topic that will let us shine the light on those with legitimately hateful ideologies so everyone can see it, then destroying their arguments with facts.

That is how you defeat people like this and stop at least these kinds of attacks from taking place.

Tom Knighton is a Navy veteran, a former newspaperman, a novelist, and a blogger and lifetime shooter. He lives with his family in Southwest Georgia. https://bearingarms.com/author/tomknighton/

https://bearingarms.com/tom-k/2019/08/03/chabad-poway-shooter-inspired-new-zealand-massacre/