On Saturday, 18-year-old Payton Gendron allegedly drove from his town of Conklin over 200 miles to a black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. He then live-streamed his murder of black shoppers, an attack he had reportedly been planning for a long time.
The release of a 180-page manifesto followed as news broke of Gendron’s arrest, along with the murders of 10 people and injuries of three in the shooting.
Authorities say the killings may be a hate crime and the investigation continues. For the left and Democrats, however, this is also all about lax gun laws and the need for gun control.
Democrats: Buffalo Shows Why We Need Stricter Laws to Fight Gun Violence
Democrats are sounding off about how Buffalo shows the need for stricter gun laws. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said it is a “reminder” that much more needs to be done to crack down on guns.
In addition to speaking out against the racist roots of the attack, legislators spoke about the need for gun control laws. This included Senator Kristen Gillibrand, who said “commonsense” gun laws need to pass as soon as possible.
Congressman Ted Deutch of Florida commented that even though some gun crimes and attacks are obviously not able to be stopped, the lack of real action for gun control by the right is “shameful.” He said, at the very least, the Senate should get serious about background checks.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York, meanwhile, said the GOP isn’t really pro-life, since it allows people and crazy “extremists” to own dangerous weapons like that used by the shooter in Buffalo.
Reading this #buffalo killer’s manifesto. He targeted his victims in part because he knew NY has strict gun laws & they wouldn’t be armed.
“NY has heavy gun laws so it would ease me if I knew that any legally armed civilian was limited to 10 round magazines or cucked firearms.”
— Ryan Petty (@rpetty) May 14, 2022
Shooter’s Manifesto Mentions NY Gun Laws
In the manifesto allegedly belonging to the shooter, he mentions New York’s “cucked” gun laws preventing people from carrying high-capacity weapons is part of why he chose his attack in that state.
In other words, he claims knowing there were magazine restrictions and other laws made him feel more confident about being able to kill a large number of people without being stopped.
He said the possibility of “civilian backlash” was lower, due to the concealed carry laws in New York. He also stated in the manifesto that he used an AR weapon because he knows the media “hates” it.
The shooter even hoped the backlash would further divide the country and lead to a race war.
The shooter went on to say his reason for the attack was to stop non-white people from living in the United States. He also spoke out against conservatives, who he said have failed to “conserve anything.”
He declared his beliefs would be most closely defined as “green nationalism” and eco-fascism.
I've been going back and forth on whether to post this. Mass killers should generally not be given the attention they crave. But given this excerpt is about how he chose his target and not his hateful ideology, on balance, I think it is useful information for people to have. pic.twitter.com/R6nf4xv28t
— Konstadinos Moros (@MorosKostas) May 15, 2022
The Bottom Line
The Buffalo shooter is proof that our young people are becoming more and more deranged.
The availability of guns is what the left will blame because they don’t want to look in the mirror at the polarized and hate-filled society they are helping to create.
