Austin gunman had ties to fundie terrorist group

[lemonhead]

http://www.keyetv.com/news/features/top ... tml?wap=0&

(Not breaking because it's a news site)

This is my hometown--I have insomnia so was up watching the news in the middle of the night as it happened. I'm so glad he was the only one who was hurt. This guy was a member of the Phineas Priesthood; never heard of them but apparently they are an ultra fundie, anti-Semitic terroristic Christian group and the shooter was a member. Anybody heard about them before this?

I luuurrrves to snark on fundies but I forget that sometimes they truly are dangerous and deadly :cry:

[Sobeknofret]

I had heard of them before this. They've got ties ti the Christian Identity/Aryan Nations groups, and they've been active since at least the mid-90's. Terrifying group- they're basically free range murderers.

[lemonhead]

Terrifying group- they're basically free range murderers.

What's really sobering is that the more I dig into this group, the more resemblance I see to some of the whackadoodles we talk about here. For example, their "handbook" so to speak was written by a guy named Richard Kelly Hoskins. He is a self-published author who sells both his own works on his website as well as those of other authors with whom he presumably feels a kindred spirit. One of those authors is Charles Weismann, who once upon a time co-wrote an article with Douglas Wilson on "Christianity and Race."

These Phineas Priests seem to be just a couple of steps removed from the dominionist, racist, homophobic, misogynistic people we snark on here like DPIAT, Geoff Botkin, et al. Just slap on some wholesome smiles and a slick website and they can pass for nearly normal...until someone breaks out the machine guns and goes on a shooting spree :roll:

[Coco]

Even fundies who appear tame, like Scott Brown, are flirting with that extremist line between conservative and crazy. Isolated people who believe in an angry, vengeful God are scary.

[Howl]

What's really sobering is that the more I dig into this group, the more resemblance I see to some of the whackadoodles we talk about here. For example, their "handbook" so to speak was written by a guy named Richard Kelly Hoskins. He is a self-published author who sells both his own works on his website as well as those of other authors with whom he presumably feels a kindred spirit. One of those authors is Charles Weismann, who once upon a time co-wrote an article with Douglas Wilson on "Christianity and Race."

These Phineas Priests seem to be just a couple of steps removed from the dominionist, racist, homophobic, misogynistic people we snark on here like DPIAT, Geoff Botkin, et al. Just slap on some wholesome smiles and a slick website and they can pass for nearly normal...until someone breaks out the machine guns and goes on a shooting spree :roll:

Good researching, Lemonhead, and very good points.

Fortunately, this guy wanted death by cop, but not, seemingly, to mass murder. Also, if you're wondering how an ex-con gathered an arsenal and ammunition to go with:

Duh, TEXAS

Duh, GUN SHOWS (n Texas, no background check required to purchase a weapon at a gun show)

Duh, INTERNET sales

After reading through the Southern Poverty Law Center's list (below), it is no coincidence that McQuilliams targeted the Mexican Consulate.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has a terrifyingly long list of thwarted domestic terror attacks/shooting sprees since Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The incidents march along steadily from 1995 right up to June, 2014. I'm sure the Austin incident will be added at some point.

Check it out here: Terror From the Right: Plots, Conspiracies and Racist Rampages Since Oklahoma City

Essentially, these people are

Pro murder/Anti abortion (cognitive dissonance much?)

Anti anyone Jewish/not white

Anti government/police

Paranoid and filled with hate

Usually some element of christian patriotism

Really, really want to kill people and blow stuff up

[BrownieMomma]

Good researching, Lemonhead, and very good points.

Fortunately, this guy wanted death by cop, but not, seemingly, to mass murder. Also, if you're wondering how an ex-con gathered an arsenal and ammunition to go with:

Duh, TEXAS

Duh, GUN SHOWS (n Texas, no background check required to purchase a weapon at a gun show)

Duh, INTERNET sales

After reading through the Southern Poverty Law Center's list (below), it is no coincidence that McQuilliams targeted the Mexican Consulate.

Because this is a little skewed...

Gun sales between private citizens is not regulated anywhere of which I am aware. Gun shows, unfortunately, are indeed considered privater sellers and not dealers. More regulation on gun shows would be a good thing IMO.

Internet sales will be harder to regulate.

People who want guns for evil purposes will get them. Or find alternatives.

The article states that McQuilliams shot at the federal courthouse, the Mexican consulate, and Austin PD. This is hardly "targeting the Mexican consulate."

He also did this in wee morning hours instead of during a workday. He had two horses? Why?

Clearly mentally unstable person.

[Sobeknofret]

For some reason, this kind of thing is what I keep expecting Kevin Swanson's church to produce. I'm not sure why I keep thinking it, because to the best of my knowledge Swanson isn't racist, but he fits the personality type that the virulent anti-Semites/white supremacists flock to. The Christian Identity movement is frightening to me.

[TXGirlInAMaterialWorld]

A little too close to home for me- who knows how many nutters like this are out there.

[lemonhead]

A little too close to home for me- who knows how many nutters like this are out there.

My iPad just ate my lengthy and oh-so-eloquent response :( And I have had one too many glasses of wine to type it all out again.

But yes, I agree about too close to home. I like to think of Austin as a blueberry in the middle of a cherry pie, but the state seems to attract nut jobs like software engineers to San Jose.

And Swanson and all his buddies in CO are scary crazy as well.

Re the horses: it was a mounted police officer who was putting away his horses who shot and killed the gunman in his heart, while the officer was holding the reins in his other hand. I see a commendation/promotion/speaking engagements in his future.

[Firiel]

You know, this reminds me of something I heard on NPR the other day about Boko Haram. There was a story where the reporter visited a Boko Haram school and laid out their principles.

I was struck by just how similar their tenets were to the tenets of the homeschooling Christian fundamentalists we read. Obviously, most of the fundies we follow don't actively promote violence to achieve their cause, but hearing the other similarities made me feel as if violence was simply one (small) step away.

[Howl]

The article states that McQuilliams shot at the federal courthouse, the Mexican consulate, and Austin PD. This is hardly "targeting the Mexican consulate."

He also did this in wee morning hours instead of during a workday. He had two horses? Why?

Clearly mentally unstable person.

If you read through the Southern Poverty Law Center listings, you'll note that these groups and individuals hate anyone non white, like (for example) Mexican immigrants. So yes, he shot at the Mexican consulate as one of several specific targets. The police found a list of targets in his room, so no mystery there. He was an ex-con struggling to find a good job. He felt like immigrant groups received more assistance than he did and took jobs that belonged to him. In reality, he couldn't pass a criminal history background check because he'd served time for robbing an armored car.

The Austin police patrol that downtown area on horseback. The policeman who shot McQuilliams was holding the reins of two police patrol horses, and somehow managed to shoot McQuilliams through the heart from a distance of 300 feet (the length of a football field) using his service revolver, at night, in an urban setting.

My sense is that McQuilliams did not want to kill people, or he would have done it, big time. He shot at empty buildings, at night. His main purpose that night was to commit suicide. He had written "Let Me Die" on his chest.

I don't consider my comments on Texas gun policy skewed; they are indeed factual.