Another public shooting left two police officers and an innocent woman murdered, with the two shooters dead after committing suicide in Las Vegas yesterday, all in the name of GOP-backed gun rights. More shots have been fired and now five people are dead, but the right wing is going to keep protecting people like this. This time, a mass shooting has arrived on the GOP’s doorstep.
The shooters, a man and woman, murdered two Las Vegas Metro police officers in cold blood while the officers were sitting down to lunch at CiCi’s Pizza. They then walked into a Walmart and killed a woman who was shopping before executing their suspected “suicide pact.”
Their actions and words during the shooting point to a right wing political agenda behind the shootings. Before killing the officers, one shooter yelled “This is a revolution,” and draped the Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag, which has been the rallying symbol for the Tea Party, over the cops’ bodies.
The shooters, Jerad Miller and Amanda Miller, have been linked to white supremacy movements, as well as the militia standoff at the Bundy ranch, and were members of the extreme right wing, anti-government Patriot Movement. According to a neighbor, the male shooter spoke of being kicked off the Bundy ranch during the protest.
Both Jerad and Amanda’s Facebook pages contain myriad pro-gun, GOP musings mixed with the murderous rants one would find in the journal of a serial killer. In the time leading to the shootings, Jerad posted about restoring “freedom” to the country and that he “will willingly die for liberty.” The day before the shooting, Jerad said “The dawn of a new day. May all of our coming sacrifices be worth it.”
His wife, Amanda, posted similar, short manifestos of gun violence and political agenda:
to the people in the world…your lucky day i can’t kill you now but remember one day one
day i will get you because one day all hell will break lose and i’ll be standing in the middle of it with a shot gun in one hand and a pistol in the other [sic]
These ultra-conservative whackos didn’t want to preserve liberty. They just wanted to fight and try to make a statement. Guns weren’t a tool to “protect,” like people of the their ilk claim they are, they were an instrument of murder and searched for chances to fire gunshots at people. They saw such a chance at the Bundy ranch which Jerad Miller said will be “the next Waco.”
Considering the nature of the incident and the nature of the shooting, the GOP, as well as the NRA, will most likely try to distance itself from the Millers. In all logic, how can they? Each group has bred and cultivated the very same thinking that caused this shooting, and each group has staunchly defended the 2nd Amendment to no end.
When are these Tea Baggers, GOPers, and the NRA going to realize that their holy little 2nd Amendment and crusade to protect gun rights is causing violence and killing people? They bred this and to say it isn’t their fault is ignorant. The blood is on the gun lovers’ hands in this one.
Josh is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. Follow him on Twitter @dnJdeli.
