Pro-Gun Activist to African-Americans: "[Guns] for life. Fuck you monkeys."

In the wake of the slaying of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin by concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) has been bombarded with a series of racist messages from pro-gun activists. You can read some of these comments here, here, here, and here.

And the comments are still coming...

Responding to our previous blog on this topic, in which a pro-gun activist described the slaying of Trayvon Martin as "population control," a pro-gun activist left the following comment: "It's good that these apes can't learn how to legally register guns themselves. they just shoot each other down with unregistered guns. /k/ for life, fuck you monkeys." '/k/' is a symbol that is used by pro-gun extremists to refer to weapons, and firearms in particular, on online message boards.

When we posted a photo at the CSGV Facebook page of a pregnant African-American woman with the words "AM I NEXT?" on her stomach, we got this response from pro-gunner "Tango Down" of Boynton Beach, Florida: "If her and her husband raise the child right and raises it to be a good kid and NOT A THUG, if the raise it to respect the law and respect others as it would want to be respected. If the kid is thought right from wrong and doesnt't attempt to kill someone else then it should have no problems!"

Pro-gun activist Terry Barcus of Cheshire, Ohio was more blunt, leaving the message "zimmeman is my hero!!!!!!!!" on our Wall.

That thought was echoed by pro-gunner "LOU1011" at the U.S. News & World Report website. "LOU1011" was responding to a blog posted by CSGV executive director Josh Horwitz about NRA/ALEC "Stand Your Ground" laws entitled "Carrying a Firearm Puts the Community at Risk." "Nothing's changed here," LOU1011 wrote. "A Black thug assaulted a guy on the streets, who defended himself.One less Black thug in this world..thank you Zimmerman!"

Timothy Archetko, a pro-gun activist from Canton, New York, emailed us to tell us how happy he was that Trayvon Martin was dead. "I believe in the 2nd amendment take me off this fuckin [CSGV email] list," he wrote. "I am a concealed carry holder, my license plate is the model of my favorite assault rifle, I bought 5 guns in the past year and just bought 1000 rounds of m16 ammo, I shot hundreds of birds last season. I am glad the unarmed teen was shot he obviously shouldn't have provoked it. You hippies think you can say what you want with no consequences."

The 'N' word also remained popular with pro-gun activists. When the CSGV staff posted a cover photo on Facebook with hoods up to pay tribute to Trayvon Martin, pro-gunner Donald Attis of Halifax, Nova Scotia left two comments. The first was a threat: "BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG." The second was, "Fuck yo coalition nigga! Fuck yo coalition!"

Finally, white pro-gun activists never waste an opportunity to blame the entire gun violence problem in America on African-Americans. Pro-gunner Brandon Ashby Smith of St. Petersburg, Florida wandered by our Facebook Wall to leave the following comment: "By the way, right after Trayvon Martin was killed-- there was like 6 black people who were killed by other black people because they are too stupid to take advantage of free things from the state and they'd rather sell drugs than work."

Pro-gunner Michael Liechty was pointing the finger, too, and wrote the following on CSGV's Facebook Wall: "maybe you should talk to the black communities where most of the gun violence is taking place." The fact that this claim is patently false? Well, being off on that "truth" thing never really bothered the gun guys...

In Wake of School Massacre, Ohio Gunrunner Seeks Profit Over Penance

On the morning of February 27, T.J. Lane, a 17-year-old sophomore, opened fire in the Chardon High School cafeteria with a Ruger .22-caliber Mark III target pistol, killing three students and wounding two others. It was a terrible tragedy—even in a country where mass shootings have become a daily occurrence—that stirred the nation and broke the hearts of residents of Geauga County, Ohio.

Not everyone was focused on mourning and paying their respects, however...

Scott Weber is one of the most profitable firearms dealers in Ohio and an outspoken pro-gun activist. He owns Gunrunner Online Auctions and a gun shop in Burton, Ohio. Before entering the gun dealing business in 2000, Weber taught at a high school and was employed by Beretta to showcase the company's products. He is scheduled to begin hosting a talk radio show this month on WNIR-FM and hopes to develop a TV show about his business that is similar to "Pawn Stars" or "American Pickers."

On the day of the massacre at Chardon High School, Weber recounted his immediate reaction to the shooting on his "Burton Blog":

I stopped my workout and went into the lockeroom and put my coat on. I went to the office desk and got onto a phone and called my gun stores. I got a hold of my manager who was there early. I said, "Make sure everyone has on handguns as usual and our riot guns and M4's are loaded and available. Run security up by 3." "Already done, boss," he said.

Beyond that spasm of paranoia, no grief was forthcoming. Weber used the rest of the blog as a "gotcha" moment:

OK, what have we been saying on this blog for YEARS now? Just because you're in Geauga County, does NOT mean you're safe! And what else have we been saying? Where ever there is a "No Gun" zone, rest assured this is WHERE THE SHOOTINGS WILL OCCUR because the shooter will not encounter any resistance ... As I've said before: ARM YOURSELF. Your life is in your own hands. DO NOT rely on law enforcement to protect you. They come way, way too late..."

It was a convenient (and always timely) message for a man who sells guns for a living...

A few days later, Christopher Evans of The Plain Dealer contacted Weber and asked him if T.J. Lane's access to guns was a factor in the shootings. Both Lane and his family have a long history of violence and criminal conduct. Despite this fact, reports indicate that "about two dozen weapons were discovered in FBI searches of Lane's relatives' homes." Ohio has no "Child Access Prevention" law to hold gun owners accountable if a child or teen gains unauthorized access to their firearms.

Nonetheless, Weber had this to tell Evans:

It has nothing to do with accessibility of guns. I'm not gonna enter that conversation. It's absurd.

But Weber was just getting warmed up. The day after Evans' editorial appeared in The Plain Dealer, he wrote a scathing blog attacking the newspaper and anyone who might agree with its conclusion that access to guns played a role in the tragedy at Chardon High School. Weber started his piece out with a homophobic rant:

I don't read the Plain Squealer ... From what I have heard, they are in big money trouble (no one else is reading them either!) and all they have left is a bunch of "B" and "C" grade "journalists" (I use that term very loosely) who are tremendously LIBERAL and ANTI-GUN. Most are queers from what I've heard, so they often write about promoting queers to marry in Ohio (it's not possible to have such a union, but I hear they are for it-they stick together, these queers).

Weber then began a name-calling tirade that would do a middle-schooler proud:

What I think is hilarious is that far left/communist/Obuma loving journalists-the PD's vast make-up-are FORCED to cover the GUN OWNING REVOLUTION that is taking place right now! ... So I say to all of the gun-hating, lily-livered, bed-wetting liberal "journalists" (read that as typists and hacks) who write anti-gun swill with their stupid terms that they trade back and forth like the empty heads that they are (examples: "Assault Weapons", "Cop-Killer Bullets", "Unlicensed gun dealers", "High Capacity Magazines", "Gun Show Loopholes", "Saturday Night Specials", "Rogue Gun Dealers", etc.) guess what? KEEP WRITING ALL THE SWILL YOU DO BECAUSE YOU ARE CAUSING HUGE RUSHES TO GUN STORES AND AUCTION SITES AND WE LOVE IT! ... Hey, these days you can barely get into the door of a Cleveland gun show, the gun stores are three and four deep on the counters waiting to buy and online sites like mine are BOOMING! Why? Because the gun buyers are saying: "Fuck you!" to the gun writers and the anti-gunner politicians! I get VAST entertainment out of these hack anti-gun "writers" ... I just laugh and then load up my best AR-15 and blast-off a few magazines off my back porch! Salute! And then I strap on my two concealed handguns and off I go!

Finally, Weber concluded with a threat of violence, making reference to a frequent commenter at his blog:

Larry Taylor-writer of [the] letter above is one of the nation's top trap shooters and was a former Navy SEAL. I have shot MANY competitive targets with him. The PD writers would do well NOT to mess with guy... Larry's on MY SIDE and he's one of the GOOD GUYS. I call tell you this: If any of the bed-wetters came around Larry and starting talking anti-gun, this Good American who fought for the Bill of Rights would put their dentist in the next highest tax bracket!

But the day wouldn't have been complete if Weber didn't call for the cash one more time, so he did:

Meanwhile, as Christopher Evans wrote in the wake of yet another shooting in the Cleveland area in which a 13-year-old accidentally killed his 10-year-old brother, "Another family devastated. Another child gone. Only the guns remain."

"A Small Price to Pay"

During a day in which a horrific school shooting occurred at Chardon High School in Ohio—leaving three students dead and two injured—pro-gun activist John K. Haslach of Dunellen, New Jersey left the following comment on the National Gun Victims Action Council (NGAC) Facebook page:

A dead child is a small price to pay to protect our 2nd A rights to stop unjust laws and keep out forgeign invaders!

Haslach wasn't the only pro-gun activist on the attack following the shooting. Hank Fackovec of Woburn, Massachusetts left the following comment on the Facebook wall of Students for Gun Free Schools (SGFS):

People and organizations like SFGFS are responsible for these injured and dead children - If there was an armed teacher - the horror could have been prevented or minimized. Shame on you.

SGFS is an organization that was created to honor Reema Samaha, one of the victims of the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech. "In order to keep her memory alive and try to prevent future tragedies, our mission opposes efforts to allow guns in our schools," SGFS states. The organization's founders include Omar and Randa Samaha, Reema's siblings; Lily Habtu, who was shot in the face and arm at Virginia Tech; and Colin Goddard, who was shot four times during the massacre. The notion that they are responsible for what happened at Chardon High School is beyond the pale. It is equally horrific to suggest that the answer to school shootings is to arm K-12 teachers and instruct them to gun down troubled teens rather than giving them the support and counseling they truly need.

Linda Gaither of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship in Ithaca, New York also became a target of pro-gun activists when she urged Starbucks to reconsider its policy allowing loaded guns in its stores following the Ohio tragedy. Pro-gun activist Devon Siefried of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania lashed into her, writing:

Dance in that blood, Linda. Dance in the blood. You're disgusting.

This horrifying "dance in the blood" rhetoric is, sadly, common among pro-gun activists. Frequently, it is directed at individuals who have lost their loved ones to gun violence. Yesterday, Andrew Johnston (AKA “Weer’d Beard”), who has been mentioned at this blog before, attacked Joan Peterson in a blog entitled, "Blood Dancing 101." Joan lost her sister Barbara in 1992 to gun homicide. In the blog, Johnston claims that Joan and others who advocate for stronger gun laws to prevent tragedies...

...talk about dead victims with zero concern for their situation. This is called “Blood Dancing” and they SHOULD be ashamed of it, but they are not. Are they insane? Yes, yes they are!

Finally, Joan received the following comment from a pro-gun activist Dan Roberts (AKA "Son of the Revolution") at her blog "Common Gunsense." Roberts was responding to a blog Joan posted reagarding the shooting at Chardon High School, in which she wrote, "We can pass more gun laws and we should. Making parents responsible for children getting their hands on guns would help. 28 states have some form of Child Access Prevention laws. Laws requiring mandatory reporting of lost and stolen guns may stop gun owners from being careless with their guns. Safely storing guns should be of utmost importance to keep guns away from the hands of children and teens as well as theft. Guns in the hands of children must first pass through the hands of an adult." Roberts saw this as an opportunity to boast about his six-year-old daughter's proficiency with a bow and gun.

He left a hyperlink that goes to his blog "That Every Man Be Armed" and a piece he wrote entitled, "The Next Top Shot." There he says of his daughter, "I started drilling her on gun safety when she was three. She then moved to trigger time on my lap with my 10/22 by age four, by five she could correctly name all the parts and almost completely reassemble my Ruger .45 by herself and she got her own pink Cricket Bolt Action .22 for her sixth birthday."

Meanwhile, the United States continues to lose more than 3,000 children and teens annually to gun violence.