Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 391 ｜ Boulder Shooting： When 'White Supremacists' Aren't White

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy wednesday hope everyone is having a great week so far

00:00:16.820 we are unfortunately talking about another mass shooting today i am going to again remind us

00:00:24.520 how i believe we as christians have to respond to something like this and what our main focus

00:00:30.740 should be in the importance of adhering to the truth we're also going to talk to a gun expert a

00:00:37.640 second amendment advocate cam edwards about the gun that was used in some of the policies that

00:00:43.580 are being proposed the importance of the second amendment but how we talk about real solutions

00:00:49.080 to these kinds of problems because we also have an obligation to have those kinds of honest

00:00:54.560 conversations too so first let me tell you a little bit about what happens then we'll talk about the

00:01:00.500 victims and again kind of orient ourselves around what is most important on monday a shooter killed

00:01:08.480 10 people at a supermarket in a suburb outside of denver colorado it was according to the denver

00:01:15.480 post this is the headline boulder shooting gunman kills 10 including police officer at king supers

00:01:23.880 the shooting started sometime after 2 30 p.m in the parking lot of a king supers grocery store a

00:01:30.380 witness reported he just came in and started shooting another witness said he let off a couple

00:01:36.120 shots then was silent and then he let off a couple more he wasn't spraying the denver police department

00:01:41.740 sent about 30 people they came in fire trucks ambulances armored vehicles helicopters and regular

00:01:47.900 police cars they even used drones to respond to the shooting police surrounded the building and called

00:01:54.420 for the shooter to surrender soon after a man was led out of the building with a bloody leg wearing

00:01:59.060 nothing but athletic shorts at the time he wasn't it wasn't known if he was the shooter and the picture

00:02:05.280 of the shooter being arrested or like this article says we didn't know it was the shooter at the time

00:02:10.680 but a picture of this guy being arrested was kind of one of the first things that we saw on social

00:02:15.540 media there was also a video of someone there um showing what was happening and we saw people lying

00:02:24.600 lifeless on the ground um just terrifying absolutely horrifying if you were someone who witnessed this if you

00:02:32.380 were connected in any way to one of these victims this is going to stick with you for the rest of your

00:02:37.740 life this is going to traumatize you for as long as you're alive even just the people in this community

00:02:43.080 this is going to be such a difficult thing for them to overcome and actually it and it won't be

00:02:49.320 overcome by the way it's not really something to be overcome but just something to have to deal with

00:02:54.600 when you look in the face of this kind of evil and tragedy and strangely this has happened a lot in a 30

00:03:00.480 mile radius of this area in the past 20 years there have been several mass shootings and so um and that

00:03:08.620 in itself is very peculiar that in itself is worth noting i don't know what's actually behind that we're

00:03:15.520 actually going to talk to cam edwards a little bit about that and some of uh the policies that could be

00:03:20.760 um in play and why this is happening in particular in this area in colorado but it's just

00:03:26.640 so sad and as we did on monday when we talked about the atlanta shooting i highly recommend by the

00:03:32.600 way going back and listening to that episode because we talk a lot about this stuff that we're

00:03:38.740 going to talk about um today but in particular or um in relation to what happened in atlanta and

00:03:46.940 that episode was a lot longer and a lot more thorough talking about the importance of reacting both

00:03:52.320 in truth and in love and so i recommend going back and listening to monday's episode if you

00:03:57.560 haven't already we'll link it in the description to this podcast but here are the victims names we

00:04:02.980 don't know as much about them yet as we knew um on monday about the atlanta victims that were

00:04:12.360 um shot last week and so i don't have quite as much information but i still want to read the names of

00:04:17.580 the victims eric talley was 51 he was a boulder police officer he responded to the shooting he

00:04:23.720 was the first one to the scene and was fatally shot apparently he was very beloved by this community

00:04:29.280 had been a police officer for many years by the way i am so thankful for law enforcement i'm so

00:04:36.620 thankful for uh their willingness to put themselves in harm's way to try to preserve as much life as

00:04:44.860 possible so thank you so much law enforcement officers who truly are um heroes in so many ways

00:04:52.920 and do such an amazing and courageous job they sacrifice in a way that most of us just would

00:04:57.900 not be willing to sacrifice and those of you who are married to or are sons or daughters of police

00:05:04.480 officers thank you as well um just for your own personal sacrifice your emotional sacrifice as well

00:05:12.940 that you put into this and i'm just praying for police officers who have to deal with this kind

00:05:18.000 of tragedy and even just like the spiritual and emotional toll that that that puts on someone to

00:05:23.820 be seeing this kind of tragedy consistently i just can't imagine it and so definitely thinking about

00:05:31.060 um and praying for the family of eric talley as well as the families of these other people who

00:05:37.940 were shot and killed kevin mahoney was 61 terry leaker was 51 uh she was the king supers who was

00:05:45.180 which is a grocery store we don't have that where i am um and so i i wasn't i had to look up what what

00:05:52.960 exactly it was um king supers employee who had worked at the store for more than 30 years that's

00:06:01.100 another thing i just want to note because we're trying to center humans on this people who consistently

00:06:06.460 remain in the same job and i don't know this person terry leaker but i imagine if you have had the same

00:06:11.740 job at the same place for a long time that means that you're a very dedicated and loyal and hard

00:06:16.740 working person i love people who take their job seriously and who no matter what sphere they're

00:06:23.880 occupying seek to cultivate it and seek to make it better in whatever ways they possibly can and they

00:06:30.020 just stick with something and they stay committed to they stay committed to that to me those are like

00:06:35.840 the salt of the earth people the best kind of people you know when you go to a grocery store you go

00:06:42.300 somewhere where maybe you're not necessarily expecting some kind of positive interaction and

00:06:47.660 then you can tell that the cashier or whoever that you are are talking to um just loves their job and

00:06:54.620 has a good attitude and is dedicated to the job that they have how that just brightens your day it

00:07:00.860 changes your outlook it reminds you also of what's important and so i'm just so thankful for people

00:07:06.300 who's who are dedicated to their job for this long again i don't know anything about this particular

00:07:12.140 person but i think the fact that they were dedicated for to this job where they were for this long

00:07:18.400 says something probably about their character and integrity ricky ols was just 25 a front-end manager

00:07:25.780 at the king supers grocery store jody waters 65 lynn murray 62 suzanne fountain uh 59 trelona

00:07:35.680 uh bart kawiak 49 a nevin stanistic 23 denny stong 20 and so we've got some older people we've got

00:07:45.840 some younger people really just in the prime of life just starting out who knows what kind of plans

00:07:52.920 um they had of course they could have never foreseen something like this and i just think about

00:07:58.680 especially these young people 23 20 25 and i'll try not to tear up just thinking about their parents

00:08:07.360 like i cannot imagine the pain of course of losing anyone in your life but losing a child i i

00:08:15.560 just cannot imagine what their families are going through right now and so we need to remember

00:08:21.160 them we need to be praying for their family that the peace of god that the comfort of god would

00:08:26.660 surround them this is just devastating and it's sad that we have to have this conversation again

00:08:32.800 just two days after we had a conversation about what happened last week in atlanta these people as we

00:08:40.020 have to remember as we have to focus on were image bearers of god people that he fearfully and

00:08:46.620 wonderfully made in their mother's wombs whose lives had meaning and purpose no matter how much money

00:08:52.400 they made their accolades their popularity their number of followers on social media whether or not

00:08:58.180 they were married or had kids simply because god made them and put them on this planet their lives had

00:09:06.640 value they have souls that are currently living forever in one of two places that sets them and

00:09:14.120 us as human beings apart from every other creature in the universe and it is through jesus christ alone

00:09:20.060 that our souls find redemption and hope and like we said on monday if this kind of news depresses you

00:09:27.500 if it shocks you if it discourages you that's because it's supposed to it should death even as one of

00:09:35.180 uh even as the most common experience that every single human being that has ever existed shares

00:09:42.800 is shocking because we know inherently as we talked about on monday because because god has placed

00:09:49.920 eternity in the human heart that it is not supposed to be this way we're not supposed to have mass

00:09:55.260 shootings we're not supposed to have lives taken unjustly we're not supposed to see evil prevail

00:10:02.520 and the fact that we do the fact that we do see all this evil and it feels like sometimes wickedness

00:10:09.360 is winning it does not disprove the existence of a good all-powerful god but rather stirs in us this

00:10:17.020 longing for his return and for him to finally and fully exact perfect justice he is not standing idly

00:10:23.780 by as horrifying events occur his wrath again as we talked about two days ago is being stored up it's

00:10:30.720 being built up to be unleashed on all evil on which day he will wipe out all wickedness he will wipe

00:10:37.260 away all tears there will be no more tragedy there will be no more sadness at all no more no more

00:10:43.020 shootings no more cancer no more terrorism no more hate jealousy slander malice no more sin no more

00:10:48.320 problems just perfect joy and peace forever and ever and things like this they they just renew our hope

00:10:57.620 that's not placed in something in this life of faith in in things that are yet unseen but we know are

00:11:04.540 there that's what hebrews 11 1 tells us now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of

00:11:12.160 things not seen the holy spirit gives us a conviction that um that there are things there there's a hope

00:11:22.360 there in something that we cannot yet see the bible jesus himself gives us absolutely no indication

00:11:31.880 that there will not be great evil and trouble in this world jesus actually promises us in this life

00:11:38.300 you will have trouble that's an assurance but take heart i have overcome the world he says so he says

00:11:45.080 take heart i have overcome the world not take heart things will probably be pretty easy take heart if

00:11:51.480 you follow me i'll make sure that things go smoothly for you and you'll never have to endure tragedy he

00:11:57.320 says no no no your confidence your peace your assurance doesn't come from any kind of guarantee that things

00:12:04.140 are going to go easily in this life but that he has already overcome the bad and that we wait patiently

00:12:10.100 for his full and final ultimate victory and yet so many times we think of the existence of evil as

00:12:17.320 something that excludes the existence of god when god so clearly over and over again blatantly shows

00:12:23.420 us throughout scripture that life is really hard that evildoers seem like they're going to win but he

00:12:29.120 says over and over and of course i'm i'm paraphrasing here look how i show up i mean we see god show up

00:12:36.980 over and over again in the new testament or in the old testament rather new testament too uh in a way that

00:12:43.680 looks like he is stacking the odds against himself and then just knocking them down read the story of

00:12:50.340 god's people and you will see from beginning to end god using trouble and sin and injustice and what

00:12:56.600 appear to be insurmountable obstacles to give himself glory and then declare victory and that's exactly

00:13:03.380 what we see in the ultimate sense uh in the book of revelation that jesus will once and for all

00:13:09.560 overcome what what seem like unconquerable enemies of of satan and sin and death and jesus is the only

00:13:17.540 answer to those things he's the only answer to evil both then and now he alone opens eyes and gives

00:13:24.340 understanding he alone changes the heart of stone to a heart of flesh and that is essentially ultimately

00:13:31.020 what is the issue here is a heart of stone matthew 15 19 says for from the heart or for out of

00:13:39.540 the heart come evil thoughts murder adultery sexual immorality theft false witness and slander

00:13:47.560 all of these things flow from the heart which can only be changed by the god who made it so as for

00:13:55.180 this person who committed this shooting we pray jesus would soften his heart and save him as for these

00:14:01.960 victims families and friends in this community we pray god would be glorified that he would save them

00:14:07.840 that he would equip churches in the area to show them the love of jesus like i said earlier there's

00:14:14.400 been a high number of mass shootings in this area alone in the past two decades columbine high school

00:14:20.060 deer creek middle school ywam facility aurora theater arapahoe high school thornton walmart stem

00:14:27.300 school uh the boulder king supers this last case and we should absolutely ask ourselves like what is going on

00:14:35.340 here while we also pray for what we know to be the only real fundamental answer god changing people's

00:14:43.120 hearts and reviving communities with his holy spirit i'm not saying that that means that we can't talk

00:14:48.920 policy or that we uh can't talk you know solutions in the here and the now but ultimately we know that

00:14:56.760 that's what it is like that is the answer so when we react to things like this as christians our

00:15:03.420 responsibility is to one center the gospel and the hope that we have in christ to put the humanness

00:15:09.960 of this tragedy to the forefront by remembering the victims and their families and then we have to bind

00:15:16.140 ourselves to the truth and this is the hardest part seeking to understand what really happened and

00:15:21.520 refusing to get caught up in popular narratives and emotional narratives based on no knowledge and

00:15:29.580 that's where i want to start i want to look at some of the reactions that occurred on twitter

00:15:34.340 right after this shooting and before we had really any knowledge of the facts so these are all accounts

00:15:42.700 with thousands some of them hundreds of thousands of followers these are not just random people they've

00:15:47.700 all got their little blue check mark this from this is from george han when a white guy with an

00:15:53.580 ar-15 shoots and kills a bunch of people is the motive uh really relevant spoiler alert on the

00:16:01.060 motive he was having feelings anger inadequacy invisibility impotence i.e not special this is 0.95

00:16:08.600 from mina harris the atlanta shooting was not even a week ago violent white men are the greatest 0.98

00:16:13.340 terrorist threat to our country rosanna arquette says call it what it is white supremacist domestic 0.95

00:16:19.720 terrorism dl hewley says a white armed mass murder has a better chance surviving an encounter with the 0.97

00:16:27.920 police than a black dude holding a phone don winslow says description police have taken him into custody 0.77

00:16:35.320 translation he was white dylan park a white man walked into a grocery store in boulder killed 10

00:16:41.380 people and was apprehended by the police and walked out of the building completely unharmed right down the

00:16:45.600 road police killed elijah mclean while he apologized for not doing anything wrong two different americas

00:16:50.480 i will say by the way what happened to elijah mclean was absolutely wrong we'll talk about why that

00:16:55.740 doesn't work as a comparison here um amy siskin always has excellent takes she says the shooter uh was 1.00

00:17:05.920 taken into custody in other words it was almost certainly a white man again if he were black or brown he 0.59

00:17:12.220 would be dead julie de caro says extremely tired of people's lives depending on whether a white man 0.96

00:17:18.860 with an ar-15 is having a good day or not hamal javeri replied to her and says it's always an angry 0.64

00:17:26.140 white man always julie de caro says and they are always angry about women uh tay anderson uh says uh he

00:17:35.300 lists a bunch of recent mass shootings and includes boulder at the bottom and says that this is a white 0.66

00:17:42.020 male shooter just like the other mass shootings well here's the problem with that reaction according

00:17:47.620 to the new york post police identified 21 year old ahmad al-aliwi alisa as the suspect in the boulder

00:17:55.300 shooting according to that article alisa's now deleted facebook page says that he was born in syria in

00:18:01.040 1999 and then came to the u.s in 2002 the daily beast reported his account included postings about islam

00:18:09.280 such as the faith's prayers and religious holidays and his apparent suspicion that he was under

00:18:13.940 surveillance if these he posted if these racist islamophobic people would stop hacking my life 0.93

00:18:21.320 phone and let me have a normal life i probably could uh the muslims at the christ church mosque he 0.95

00:18:28.000 also said in a facebook post were not the victims of a single shooter they were the victims of the entire

00:18:32.480 islamophobia industry that vilified them now here's what's very sad and interesting about this according

00:18:39.400 to the new york post alisa's identity was known to the fbi because he was linked to another individual

00:18:45.100 under investigation by the bureau law enforcement sources told the new york times now if we want to

00:18:50.740 talk about a common thread in a lot of these shootings it has to do with it it is that um these people

00:18:58.600 are so often known to the fbi now i know that there are probably a lot of instances where the fbi

00:19:05.460 actually does stop these things from happening i know there's only so much they can do before

00:19:10.800 infringing on people's rights but i don't know i don't know what the solution is there but it seems

00:19:17.600 like so many times these shooters their information was known to the fbi they were known to be a threat

00:19:24.880 and then they were still able to commit some kind of crime like this abc 7 colorado grocery store

00:19:32.280 shooting suspect id'd as man 21 victims between ages 20 and 65 the suspect purchased the assault

00:19:39.140 weapon and we'll talk about that phrase in just a minute with cam edwards just six days before the

00:19:43.940 shooting on march 16th a law enforcement official briefed on the shooting said the suspect's family

00:19:48.300 told investigators they believed alisa was suffering from some type of mental illness including

00:19:53.480 delusions uh relative described times when alisa told them people were following or chasing him

00:19:59.240 which they said may have contributed to the violence um there is an article on heavy.com that um

00:20:07.140 his brother was interviewed and also said look he always thought that people were stalking him he had

00:20:12.960 mental health issues he was paranoid he was very short-tempered he was always thinking that people

00:20:17.460 were out to get him because he was a muslim which his family said is not something that's

00:20:21.180 that's true um and that this was this was an issue that he had he was mentally unstable and his family

00:20:29.060 knew this and apparently knew that he had been um this is his sister-in-law saying this told police

00:20:36.280 officers that he had been playing around with a weapon that she thought looked like a machine gun

00:20:40.260 about two days earlier and they were worried about this and so we get this information that this guy was

00:20:46.060 an outspoken muslim that he was worried about islamophobia that he wasn't actually a white guy if you look at the

00:20:51.140 pictures of him he actually he doesn't even look like a white guy and then we see the same people

00:20:56.160 who said immediately this was white supremacy this is just an angry white male typical this always

00:21:01.300 happens we see the same people who said that backing up once we got more information amy siskin

00:21:06.880 let's mourn the victims but not glorify the killer with the attention of having his name widely known

00:21:12.060 oh okay got it mina harris i deleted a previous tweet about the suspect in the boulder shooting

00:21:19.240 i made an assumption based on his being taken into custody alive and the fact that the majority

00:21:24.980 of mass shootings in the u.s are carried out by white men we'll fact check that in just a second

00:21:29.620 tarik nasheed who really does not need our attention but he is another example of all of this he said 0.91

00:21:37.160 the fact that this dude gunned down 10 people and the police didn't shoot him that means he's white 0.96

00:21:42.500 we ain't gonna start playing games just because he was born in syria the suspect is white enough to

00:21:47.360 benefit from the privileges of whiteness let us remember proverbs 29 20 do you see a man who is 0.99

00:21:55.140 hasty in his words there is more hope for a fool than for him there is more hope for fools who people 0.95

00:22:02.380 who are truly just intellectually deficient there's more hope for that person than for these people 0.99

00:22:08.480 let me just say we've all been hasty in our words i have certainly been hasty in our words and that means

00:22:14.040 that i have also been guilty of that kind of worse than foolishness behavior we see this so much though

00:22:21.760 so much and some of these tweets uh from these progressive activists and journalists with hundreds

00:22:27.800 of thousands of likes and retweets and so it's almost on purpose to try to shape the narrative

00:22:34.840 before we actually have the information to try to gin up some sort of outrage because they know

00:22:40.000 that a lot of people who follow them are not going to fact check them they're not going to keep

00:22:43.300 following the story they're just going to confirm their biases and they're going to go along with

00:22:47.380 the narrative they're going to find a way to make sure that this is still about white supremacy 0.81

00:22:51.160 no matter what the facts actually say now for the question are mass shooters usually white that's very

00:22:59.380 it's very difficult to actually know that because of the way mass shooting is defined it is defined as

00:23:05.440 killing four or more people now why is it the number four why isn't it five why isn't it ten why isn't it

00:23:12.680 three well there's some speculation about that if you go down from four to three the number of mass

00:23:19.560 shootings that happen per year if you were to qualify it that way go up but so does the profile

00:23:24.540 of the shooter because murders where three people or three or more people are killed happen almost on a

00:23:32.620 daily basis in chicago and la and these major cities that have very serious gang violence so those

00:23:39.500 kinds of mass killings those kinds of murders of more than one person happen all the time and they're

00:23:45.320 not typically a white shooter so that doesn't really go along with the narrative now according

00:23:50.960 for the center for inquiry there is a conversation about this they've got some stats they talk about

00:23:56.620 familicides they represent the most common form of mass murder they're principally defined as close

00:24:02.280 victim as a close victim offender uh relationship according to a study by fridel perpetrators of

00:24:09.520 this kind of crime are typically white middle-aged males who target their spouse or intimate partner

00:24:15.060 children or other relatives and then you've got felony killings they're distinguished by motive

00:24:19.700 murder is used to achieve some primary criminal objective typically involving financial gain this is

00:24:25.840 according to the same study by fridel due to their general lack of sensationalism so again it's not

00:24:31.980 being reported very often felony killings are not widely publicized despite representing the second

00:24:37.260 largest category of mass murder perpetrators of felony mass murders tend to be young black or hispanic

00:24:43.700 males with extensive criminal records i mean you probably don't even know except for maybe you heard

00:24:49.040 about it when i talked about it on monday that there was a mass shooting um at a dallas nightclub just

00:24:56.300 last week in which eight people were shot thankfully not all of them died um but you probably

00:25:01.700 didn't even know about that because the perpetrator was not white there and the the victims weren't

00:25:07.540 either by the way um and so it didn't perpetuate any kind of interesting narrative for a lot of the

00:25:13.900 people that are in the media and so it's just not talked about so this article goes on to say

00:25:19.320 despite their extreme visibility public mass killings account for the smallest proportion of all mass

00:25:24.060 murders formally these incidents are defined by attack location public mass killers are a heterogeneous

00:25:30.760 group and are frequently delineated into several subtypes public murders are often stereotyped as

00:25:37.560 middle-aged white men who have suffered a series of failures in different areas of life though some

00:25:42.020 research indicates a disproportionate number of immigrants commit public massacres according to that

00:25:46.540 same study by fridel these public mass shootings are what most people wrongly consider as typical

00:25:52.100 of mass shootings the fact of the matter is according to the statistics that we have

00:25:57.660 like this really isn't a white problem it's not it's not just a black problem it's not just a hispanic

00:26:03.960 problem it's not just an immigrant problem um like we see this across all demographics and yes some of

00:26:11.040 the most sensationalized stories have been of disgruntled young white men but statistically these

00:26:18.820 shootings that we are seeing are or just the definition of mass shootings in general are are not committed

00:26:24.540 by any one group um in a way that is uh that characterizes the entirety or even a majority of

00:26:33.980 mass shootings this is according to statista between 1982 and march 2021 66 out of the 121 mass shootings

00:26:43.220 in the united states were carried out by white shooters by comparison the perpetrator was african-american

00:26:48.700 and 21 mass shootings in latino and 10 when calculated as percentages this amounts to 54 percent of mass 0.60

00:26:57.400 shootings for um by a white person 17 percent by a black person and eight percent um by a hispanic person

00:27:05.540 now if we look at the proportion of the population that this represents we've got white people making up

00:27:12.620 about 60 plus percent of the population so this 54 percent of of mass shootings it goes in line with

00:27:20.380 that population size we've got black people making up 13 percent of the population and they make up 17

00:27:27.280 percent of these mass shooters according to this definition and so that's a little bit more than their

00:27:32.380 population size and then them being latino taking up 10 percent of mass shootings um or uh eight percent

00:27:40.340 of mass shootings latinos hispanic people actually make up a much larger proportion um of the population

00:27:48.120 than uh black people do and so that number the eight percent is actually much lower than the population

00:27:55.060 size of hispanics so just looking at proportionality there so front page mag just looked at the shootings in

00:28:02.420 2019 um and so they looked at the different percentages of white versus black when it comes to

00:28:09.400 mass shootings in 2019 they say the 51 percent were black 29 percent were white and they talk about the

00:28:18.040 different scenarios in which this happened of course the narrative is that it's only one kind of

00:28:22.540 disgruntled white person the fact of the matter is is that uh this particular article says mass shooters

00:28:28.680 are not necessarily a white problem or a black problem looking at the data from the mass shooting tracker

00:28:34.600 widely utilized by the media as of this writing of the 72 mass shooters in 2019 perpetrators and

00:28:40.560 shootings that killed or wounded four or more people whose race is known 21 were white 37 were black

00:28:46.340 eight were latino and six were members of other groups so it all depends too on which outlet that

00:28:53.140 you're looking at that uh looks or that how they define mass shootings when we were looking at the

00:29:00.080 other article when we were looking at statista and we were looking for the center um for inquiry

00:29:06.380 uh we were looking at a large span of mass shootings this particular article was only looking at 2019 and

00:29:14.000 actually found that numerically there were more black people who committed mass shootings than white

00:29:19.660 people uh three mass shooters were asian two were american indian and one was arab these numbers are if

00:29:25.900 anything vastly understated as many as half of the mass shootings that took place in 2019 thus far remain

00:29:32.800 unsolved but they often took place in black areas and unfortunately claimed uh black victims so if this

00:29:40.800 sounds confusing to you that's because it is confusing the outlets report different um different mass

00:29:47.680 shootings in different ways using different definitions using different kinds of statistics that either

00:29:52.920 talk to raw numbers or either talk to proportionality i think what it tells us is that unfortunately black 0.97

00:29:58.760 communities are typically victims of gang violence and do claim three or more lives very often that's not

00:30:06.940 always qualified as a mass shooting but when you look at the numbers and you look at the percentages we see

00:30:12.780 that different kinds of mass shootings are kind of unique to different kinds of communities and that it's not

00:30:18.500 in particular a white problem where it's not in particular a black problem it's really just

00:30:23.600 a murder problem a violent crime problem that unfortunately um has spiked in many ways over 0.92

00:30:30.160 the past year or so and so again to try to make the narrative about whiteness or about white supremacy that

00:30:37.380 it's always white people that are committing these crimes it's just it's not accurate in the same way that 0.93

00:30:43.720 i mean we've talked about unfortunately black men take up a disproportionate percentage of the 0.98

00:30:50.320 homicides committed in this country and homicide victims in this country and yet when a homicide

00:30:55.660 happens i don't think that it would be right for us to say well we probably know the race of the

00:31:00.680 shooter we probably know the race of the people involved i don't think that's right and yet it's okay i

00:31:05.980 guess for all these blue check marks on twitter to assume the race of the shooter even though the

00:31:11.360 numbers don't actually back up their assertions representative ilhan omar said the shooter's 0.94

00:31:16.380 race or ethnicity seems front and center when they aren't white otherwise it's just a mentally ill young 0.99

00:31:21.560 man having a bad day narratives drive our responses to awful crimes that is not true like that is the

00:31:27.380 most gaslighting statement i've ever heard it is the opposite that is true it's the opposite that is

00:31:33.460 true we almost immediately know the race or we assume the race when uh when the perpetrator is white

00:31:40.180 or when we assume the perpetrator is white or when the perpetrator might look white otherwise it's

00:31:44.860 actually very hard to find the race of the perpetrator in these situations she also says

00:31:49.920 so he's muslim is trending did i miss he's christian uh trending for last week's atlanta mass murder

00:31:55.640 yes you did miss that you missed that op-eds in the washington post about how purity culture somehow 0.54

00:32:02.720 influenced the atlanta shooter to do what he did not the inherent dangers of prostitution and

00:32:09.420 exploitation not the objectification of of women that is uh that is rampant in that industry and

00:32:16.260 in the pornography industry not mental health not the isolation that we have shoved onto people for

00:32:20.680 the last year who were already mentally unstable but the general theology of sex purported by some

00:32:26.640 churches that the guy in atlanta may or may not have been under the influence of at some point in his

00:32:33.220 life like there were all these think pieces making that connection and salon also for example as we

00:32:38.920 talked about on monday but when it comes when it comes to this like are we not allowed to talk

00:32:44.340 about the shooter's theology that he actually directly purported in his facebook page what about

00:32:49.600 his motives like what about his mentality we had all of this um sophistry we had all this analysis when

00:32:58.420 it comes to the atlanta murder and how christianity plays into it and being against crt critical race

00:33:04.420 theory plays into it and how whiteness plays into it but with this it just has to do with guns like

00:33:10.200 that's how quickly the narrative changed at first it was whiteness and white supremacy white domestic

00:33:15.220 terrorism now we found out that he is actually a muslim who was afraid of islamophobia and now it's all 0.68

00:33:21.400 about guns um he was like i said explicit about his beliefs on facebook his family said that he was

00:33:28.200 paranoid always thought that people were targeting him because he's muslim but we don't talk about

00:33:34.240 that democrats the same democrats who said that it was whiteness are now only talking about guns they

00:33:39.480 don't want to talk about motives they don't want to talk about mental illness they don't want to talk

00:33:42.900 about any kind of belief systems um and by the way all of the victims of this crime were whites when

00:33:49.400 most of the victims but not all were asian in atlanta we were told that it was assuredly undoubtedly

00:33:56.520 anti-asian racism and white supremacy so what happens when someone who is non-white kills victims

00:34:02.600 that are all whites is it not anti-white hate and why not okay now we're going to talk about 0.93

00:34:08.180 the the guns and the reaction that the democrats are having to all of this and why it is it's not 0.54

00:34:14.920 bringing us to the right solution and there's so much more that we can talk about in all of this but

00:34:20.300 unfortunately we don't have the time to do it we'll try to pick back up on some more of it tomorrow

00:34:24.860 cam thank you so much for joining us could you tell everyone quickly who you are and what you do

00:34:34.800 sure my name is cam edwards i'm the editor at bearingarms.com and the host of the bearing arms

00:34:41.320 cam and company podcast great and i want to get your insight into um unfortunately what happened

00:34:48.140 earlier this week but specifically about the gun that was used it's being called an assault weapon

00:34:54.520 an assault rifle people are talking about an assault weapons ban can you break that all down for us and

00:35:00.780 kind of tell us um what's going on what what was the weapon used and could there be any kind of ban

00:35:06.940 that would have prevented this sure so we don't specifically know um what firearm is used although

00:35:13.960 the affidavit that was released yesterday uh points to a ruger ar-556 pistol which is an ar-style

00:35:21.680 pistol uh but apparently there was also a a handgun uh that was found at the scene of the crime as well

00:35:28.320 and the reason why folks are talking about you know a quote-unquote assault weapons ban is because

00:35:32.540 the city of boulder back in 2018 tried to put a local ban on these types of firearms as well as

00:35:39.300 quote-unquote high capacity magazines on the books uh that law was actually struck down by a judge in

00:35:44.000 colorado a couple of weeks ago because it violated the state's firearm preemption law uh now the guns

00:35:49.900 in question are commonly owned uh there are more than 20 million ar-style firearms in this country and

00:35:56.180 there are more than 150 million magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition uh so gun

00:36:02.240 control advocates like to seize on this type of firearm saying that they're you know uniquely dangerous

00:36:06.880 that uh there's no reason for americans to possess these battlefield weapons of war but what we're

00:36:12.100 talking about is the most commonly sold centerfire rifle in the country today these are firearms that

00:36:17.980 are used by lawful americans for hunting for recreation for competition and yes for self-defense as well

00:36:24.120 so talk about what the democrats are now saying that they want to do on the heels of this as far as

00:36:31.800 legislation goes and do you think any of their proposals would have actually stopped what happened in

00:36:38.100 colorado well right now they're talking about the two bills that have passed out of the house hr 8 and

00:36:44.160 hr 1446 both of these deal with background checks and no they wouldn't have made a difference because

00:36:48.920 uh this individual was legally eligible to purchase a firearm so he could pass a background check and

00:36:54.020 apparently did so uh when he purchased this firearm about a week or so ago uh hr 8 would impose

00:37:00.060 universal background check requirements on every law-abided american if you were to sell a gun to your

00:37:05.860 neighbor loan a gun to your cousin you could be looking at a year in federal prison if you did not

00:37:11.820 conduct a background check beforehand hr 1446 would allow the federal government to extend the waiting

00:37:19.580 period basically indefinitely right now if you go to the gun store and you go through a background check

00:37:24.820 it's the national instant check system and ordinarily it's pretty instantaneous right you might have to wait

00:37:30.740 a few minutes but you get a response there are times however where folks are going to get a response from

00:37:35.820 the nick system that says delayed and that means that the fbi is uh is doing more research into

00:37:41.300 whether or not you're legally eligible to purchase a firearm under existing federal law right now the

00:37:46.000 fbi has three business days to conduct that additional research after those three days are over the seller of

00:37:52.480 that gun can choose to release that firearm if they want what hr 1446 would do is extend that to 10

00:38:00.880 business days and then after that 10 day period has expired if the seller of that gun hasn't heard

00:38:06.140 back from the government they still can't release the firearm they're supposed to petition the attorney

00:38:10.980 general of the united states for permission to sell that gun and of course the federal government doesn't

00:38:16.820 have to provide that permission so this is really a backdoor way to delay or deny or impose indefinite

00:38:24.880 waiting periods on firearm sales which could make it impossible for some people to purchase a gun and i'm

00:38:30.980 guessing in this legislation there's no clear reason or there there's no boundary that says okay uh your

00:38:39.720 permission or your allowance to to have a gun is only limited to um or your disallowance i should say the

00:38:47.720 prohibition on you holding a firearm is not limited to these specific qualifications so for example it's

00:38:55.120 not just for people who have committed some sort of crime or have some sort of mental illness it's

00:39:00.380 really for any american that permission can be held indefinitely it's not just for certain kinds of

00:39:07.440 americans with maybe what would be considered a sketchy background it can be anyone right i mean you know

00:39:13.420 that's a really good point because the law is clear that it's supposed to only be for those who are

00:39:18.400 disqualified from owning a firearm if you are convicted of a felony offense or a domestic violence

00:39:24.500 misdemeanor or you've been adjudicated as mentally defective in other words you've been involuntarily

00:39:29.440 committed by a judge to a mental institution then you are disqualified you have lost your right to own a

00:39:35.080 firearm but under 1446 again the fbi could just sit on these requests and they don't have to provide an

00:39:42.080 answer there's nothing in this legislation that would compel the agency to respond we know right

00:39:47.440 now that a large number of denials are basically false positives people who might have the same name

00:39:52.500 or a similar name to a prohibited person uh who get you know caught up in the nick system and they're

00:39:57.700 denied even though they're legally eligible to purchase a gun this would exacerbate that problem

00:40:02.160 but one thing we know it wouldn't do is it wouldn't stop criminals from getting a hold of guns because

00:40:06.920 they're not going through background checks to begin with yeah what do you say to the people who say okay

00:40:12.020 okay whatever we've got to do something we've got to push some kind of legislative gun control

00:40:17.840 because this is a problem that's unique to the united states and we need to save lives we need fewer

00:40:23.100 guns on the street and so we've just got to do something to make it harder to purchase guns because

00:40:29.420 america has been dealing with this unique problem for too long what's your response to something like

00:40:34.500 that my response is we need to do something that works not just do something uh you know whether you like

00:40:39.740 it or not we live in a country in which we have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms and a lot

00:40:44.360 of other countries don't uh in some cases their violent crime rates are lower in some cases their violent

00:40:49.140 crime rates are higher but what we do know is that here in the united states violent crime until last year

00:40:54.920 when uh all of a sudden we saw the you know biggest one-year crime spike in american history thanks

00:40:59.680 to the covid closures the civil unrest the moves to defund the police violent crime in the united

00:41:04.820 states has actually been declining for 25 years we're at 50 year lows at least we were in 2019

00:41:10.940 even though we have you know 100 million plus gun owners we have more than 20 million americans who are

00:41:17.180 exercising the right to carry a concealed firearm and we do have a right to keep and bear arms so

00:41:23.520 we need to work within the constitutional boundaries and that means we need to focus on those who are 0.99

00:41:29.280 actually responsible for violent crime uh and you know the democrats they offer this one-size-fits-all

00:41:34.500 solution well if we just pass a gun ban or background checks or gun licensing laws it'll

00:41:38.500 have some sort of trickle-down effect on criminals let's start to focus on the criminals right now

00:41:43.020 right you know and there are there are non-partisan policies that can be put in place at the local

00:41:49.660 level that actually focus on those who are most likely to offend and those who are most likely to

00:41:55.040 be the victims of violence that don't involve new gun control laws that actually involved a change in

00:41:59.900 tactics targeted deterrence we need to be working on those programs in places like chicago baltimore

00:42:05.640 new york los angeles where you know gang and drug-related violence has increased we also need

00:42:11.360 to focus on mental health and that's not a dodge i know the gun control advocates say oh yeah you always

00:42:15.760 bring up mental health we have a crisis in this country including in colorado by the way where people

00:42:20.960 who need help cannot get it you cannot find an inpatient bed unless you've committed a crime

00:42:27.420 that's a crisis and it needs to be addressed and it's so easy for politicians to say well no let's

00:42:33.740 just pass a gun control law because that doesn't cost a lot of money you don't have to figure out

00:42:37.740 how to pay for it it's a soundbite solution but it's not a real solution so if we're going to get

00:42:43.220 serious about this and we can't try to ban our way to safety we actually have to address the real

00:42:47.740 problem and you would think the democrats they must know some of what you're saying that there are a lot

00:42:54.120 of other problems that can be dealt with before we start infringing on the right of law-abiding people

00:42:58.880 to be able to defend themselves and their families how they see fit what do you think is behind the

00:43:05.460 push constantly to take away the rights of people who are not committing these crimes who are not

00:43:11.800 committing these mass shooters are these mass shootings why do they believe the country is going

00:43:17.520 to be more safe if someone like you or i who is not going to commit these crimes don't own guns

00:43:24.520 i think ultimately for those folks it boils down to they don't like guns they don't want anybody to own

00:43:30.280 one uh because they don't own one themselves and so you know that that's sort of the uh the the

00:43:35.920 second amendment repeal argument right that we have to reduce the number of guns in our country

00:43:40.320 in order to make us safer even though as i said for 25 years we've seen more guns and less crime

00:43:46.440 in the united states but there is i think a competing point of view on the left that is starting to

00:43:51.800 bubble up um when you look at some of these you know community activists who talk about the need

00:43:56.480 to reimagine policing uh they they talk about over incarceration in this country well that mindset

00:44:03.500 is diametrically opposed to the old school gun control ideas of let's put more gun laws on the books

00:44:09.500 that are going to be enforced by police and that's what's going to make us safer right because these

00:44:14.040 activists say whoa whoa whoa if we put more laws on the books they're going to be used against young

00:44:18.840 black and brown men they're going to put you know people in prison and in fact we see this in places 1.00

00:44:23.000 like new york state uh a couple of years ago there was a reporter for slate emily bazalon who spent two 0.92

00:44:28.880 months in the brooklyn gun court just watching to see who was going through the door what they were

00:44:33.060 being charged with and she saw that 70 percent of the defendants who were facing years in prison

00:44:38.900 uh we're we're facing those uh the possibility of a prison sentence for simply possessing a firearm

00:44:43.900 without a license they had no criminal history no history of violence but because they possessed a

00:44:49.700 gun without a license that they couldn't get in new york city they're looking at three and a half years

00:44:54.040 in prison so there are folks on the left who are starting to look at this and say well this is a

00:44:58.160 really dumb idea and you're saying this is going to backfire and it's going to make things work 0.96

00:45:01.620 or a disproportionate number of those people that that reporter saw were black and brown is that what 0.99

00:45:07.480 you're saying yeah young black and brown men without serious criminal histories right who

00:45:12.140 were going to prison because they possessed a gun without a license that they couldn't get

00:45:15.680 in new york city and a license by the way that is not required to own a gun in most of the united

00:45:20.440 states you know we keep hearing this talk about the second amendment is racist no it's not gun control

00:45:24.920 is racist gun control laws have been historically used to deprive minorities and disfavored americans of

00:45:30.740 their right to keep and bear arms the second amendment protects a right of the people of all the people

00:45:35.840 to keep and bear arms and in that example that you just gave those people were already willing to

00:45:42.060 break the law that was on the books that you have to have a license in order to have a firearm

00:45:47.280 they were already willing to break that law to own a gun so what is going to be the inhibition that

00:45:53.960 another law would then uh would then place in in front of them um if they're already willing to break

00:46:01.340 the law to own a gun they would be presumably willing to break another law to own a gun

00:46:06.160 i saw a similar argument in the washington post i think it was either right before or right after the

00:46:11.740 election from someone who was on the left i think that they consider themselves a pretty far left

00:46:16.640 activist an op-ed in the washington post saying that biden's gun plan to impose a fee i think it was

00:46:22.940 like i think it's ten thousand dollars or something to own a certain kind of gun or you have to turn your

00:46:28.100 gun in uh she was arguing that look this only affects poor gun owners this doesn't affect rich 0.99

00:46:34.080 people rich people are going to be able to keep their guns but that particular part of guidance of

00:46:38.700 biden's gun control plan would disproportionately affect uh poor people who just want to defend

00:46:44.440 themselves and disproportionately that means that that's going to affect these black and brown

00:46:49.200 communities so again it's gun control that affects those uh what are called marginalized communities

00:46:56.080 not the rich white people that the laughter saying actually represent the second amendment defense

00:47:03.900 yeah i think that's right i mean and look and there's a long history of this in the gun control

00:47:08.480 movement you can go back to the 1970s when they tried to enact bans on so-called saturday night specials

00:47:14.000 these were basically you know cheap affordable handguns uh and again gun control advocates said no no we

00:47:19.360 got to ban these things because they're the tool of criminals well they're also the tool of lower

00:47:22.440 income americans who couldn't afford a 400 or 500 firearm we see this with the restrictive licensing

00:47:28.500 fees in places like new york city or the subjective issue licensing laws in places like california where

00:47:34.600 you have to be able to document a specific ongoing threat against your life in order to get a license

00:47:39.240 to carry now if you're a wealthy individual if you're a celebrity now the rules probably don't apply

00:47:44.100 to you but the average citizen is being told sorry you just don't have a good enough reason to

00:47:48.900 protect your life uh as you say these laws i believe are discriminatory on their face they're

00:47:53.760 certainly discriminatory in practice uh and you know look i'm a white guy in my 40s who lives in

00:47:59.720 rural virginia uh i have a sheriff who is strongly uh you know pro second amendment i would imagine that

00:48:05.180 if new federal gun control laws came down he would be very unlikely to enforce these new laws so

00:48:09.720 me personally you know i'm probably not going to be impacted by a lot of these gun control laws

00:48:14.220 but i don't support them because i know good americans will be impacted by these gun control laws

00:48:21.720 and the folks we really need to be worried about aren't going to be touched by them yeah to close us

00:48:27.080 out i get this question a lot you know the majority of my audience they're young women who they might

00:48:32.800 you know they might know because they're conservative that the second amendment is important but a lot

00:48:37.140 of them don't carry guns they might not own guns themselves and just in this past year because of some

00:48:42.020 of the reasons that you listed some of the unrest and feeling vulnerable especially those that live

00:48:46.760 in cities they have started to consider this but they've also started to wonder and this is a christian

00:48:51.540 podcast and so a lot of christians are starting to wonder hang on why is the second amendment why is

00:48:57.440 the right to keep and bear arms considered a god-given right why is it important why shouldn't we just all

00:49:03.660 give up our guns and hope that things just get safer so just to close this out can you give us kind of

00:49:08.980 your concise argument for why it's so important to defend the second amendment as what we believe to

00:49:14.640 be an inherent god-given right absolutely look i i think that you know as as a christian when we talk

00:49:22.940 about a god-given right i mean fundamentally we have a a right of self-defense that is inherent in nature

00:49:27.860 it's not just a a human right we can see this even among you know the animals of god's creation

00:49:33.000 but our life is important and look as a christian i believe that we do need to love each other we

00:49:38.940 need to love our enemies we need to walk through this world with love in our hearts but jesus told

00:49:44.420 his disciples before they set out to evangelize the world get a sword and if you don't have one sell

00:49:50.860 your cloak and buy one because he wanted his disciples to be able to protect themselves he knew

00:49:55.920 that the world was a dangerous place that doesn't mean that we go out and we wield that sword we wield

00:50:00.800 that firearm to exert our own power to exert our own authority uh and dominion over others but we

00:50:07.660 use those tools to protect human life to protect the people that we love to protect strangers who

00:50:14.380 are in need and that is why i i firmly believe uh that the god-given right to self-defense uh and

00:50:21.680 the constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms is so vitally important for each and every one

00:50:26.320 of us yes i am for the right to defend yourself as you see fit for the same reason that i'm against

00:50:33.360 abortion because i believe in the protection of innocent life people say that it's hypocritical

00:50:39.120 to be against abortion and for the second amendment i think it's completely consistent i believe in

00:50:44.460 protecting innocent life um and so that would be my reasoning in addition to everything you said people

00:50:50.700 are made in the image of god and therefore i believe that we have a right and a responsibility

00:50:56.100 to do everything that we can to responsibly uh protect and defend um that innocent life so thank you

00:51:04.580 so much for talking to us for giving us your insight can you tell everyone where they can follow you

00:51:10.440 sure absolutely you can find me at bearingarms.com also the bearing arms cam and company podcast which

00:51:17.400 focuses on second amendment news and information uh we're on youtube at townhomemedia rumble.com

00:51:22.620 at bearing arms cam and company as well as apple podcast amazon podcast and more thank you so much cam

00:51:28.500 thank you

00:51:29.900 okay guys thank you so much for listening there's so much more to talk about here but i hope i kind of gave

00:51:44.860 you at least an overview of everything that's going on and like what we need to focus on and the truth

00:51:50.660 behind everything there's so many more details and we'll wait until they come out to keep talking

00:51:56.040 um uh about some of this and the reality behind it but we'll be back here uh tomorrow and if you've got

00:52:04.080 any recommendations for something that you really want to hear about or you really want analysis of then

00:52:08.720 please let me know and we'll try to cover that but i will see you guys then

00:52:11.960 you

00:52:24.820 you

00:52:28.840 you

00:52:30.840 you

00:52:32.940 you

00:52:34.940 you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 24, 2021

Ep 391 ｜ Boulder Shooting： When 'White Supremacists' Aren't White

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