Thursday, February 07, 2013

Family Research Council Shooter Planned Shooting Spree

Family Research Council is a registered anti-gay hate group that devotes much of its efforts and funding to disseminating lies and untruths about LGBT individuals.  Indeed, if FRC were to have its way, all gays would be viewed as diseased vermin out to destroy America.  FRC also does all in its power to block anti-gay bullying legislation.  Personally, I suspect that every time news of another gay teen suicide hits the news media, there is rejoicing at FRC headquarters.  And for newer readers not familiar with FRC president Tony Perkins, the man has a history of working with white supremacists.  Gays are not the only people that Perkins and company hate and despise.  Last summer, however, FRC received a surprise.  Rather than turning a gun on himself in suicide, Floyd Lee Corkins II showed up at FRC headquarters intending to shoot as many people as possible.  Fortunately, Corkins was not successful and only one security guard was non-fatally injured.  The situation is ironic in two ways.  First, FRC's agenda of making life a living Hell for gays nearly backfired in a major way.  Second, Corkins took advantage of Virginia's ridiculously lax gun laws - something that both FRC and it's evil affiliate, The Family Foundation support - to purchase the guns used in his planned shooting spree. The Washington Post looks at Corkins' plea deal entered into yesterday.  Here are some story highlights:

The shooter of an unarmed security guard at the Family Research Council headquarters last summer was on a mission to target organizations he viewed as anti-gay, and he obtained a gun days before he tried to carry out a plan to kill “as many people as possible,” according to newly disclosed court documents.

New details about Floyd Lee Corkins II emerged Wednesday in federal court, where he admitted to the politically motivated shooting at the conservative think tank in downtown Washington. Corkins, 28, pleaded guilty to three felony charges: a federal charge of transporting a firearm and ammunition across state lines and D.C. charges of assault with intent to kill and committing an act of terrorism while armed.

He drew up a list of four conservative groups and loaded a backpack with a 9mm SIG Sauer pistol, two magazine clips and 50 rounds of ammunition.

“Were it not for the heroic guard who tackled Floyd Corkins, he could have succeeded in perpetrating a mass killing spree in the nation’s capital,” U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said in a statement. “This case highlights the dangers of access to high-capacity magazines that allow killers to inflict carnage on a mass scale in the blink of an eye.”

Corkins, who told the judge Wednesday that he is taking medication and being treated for “severe depression,” was so angry at the anti-gay-marriage positions of the Family Research Council and the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A that he devised a scheme involving both.  .  .  .  .  his goal was to target people opposed to same-sex marriage and “smother Chick-fil-A sandwiches in their faces,” according to a plea agreement he signed in December.

The court documents show how Corkins methodically tried to carry out his plan. For years, he told FBI agents, he had been thinking about “perpetrating similar violence.” “He initially wanted to make a bomb, but did not have the patience to do it.”

Six days before the shooting, Corkins purchased the pistol from Blue Ridge Arsenal in Chantilly. While there, the French television station France 2 happened to interview Corkins as he held and pointed the pistol as part of a story on how easily firearms can be bought in the United States.

I in no way condone what Corkins attempted to do.  However, his attempt shows that once in a while those who disseminate hate may much to their own surprise reap what they sow when victims of their hatred decide to strike back in a lethal manner.  It also underscores the need for serious gun control laws in this country.. 

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