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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyAugust 13th, 2008
Just a little over two weeks after a gunman burst into a Tennessee church and killed two people in a rampage targeting “liberals” and gays, we now have just learned that another gunman has shot Arkansas Democratic Chairman Bill Gwatney at party headquarters in Little Rock. His condition is unknown, as is the identity of the shooter or his motivation. Developing…
Update: Gwatney is reportedly in critical condition. The gunman, who remains unidentified, was shot dead following a police chase.
Update: Bill Gwatney died at 3:39 pm local time. The gunman’s motive is still unknown, but he reportedly pointed a gun at the building manager at the nearby Arkansas Baptist headquarters saying, “I lost my job.” Gwatney owned some car dealerships in the area, and there was speculation that the gunman may have been a former employee. But police have determined that the shooter was not a former employee.
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SisterCoyote
August 13th, 2008
This is not okay.
While violence, tragically, is occasionally the answer, it never is unless someone’s life is immediately at stake.
F*k. I’m not very coherent.
Jason D
August 13th, 2008
this is awful.
Confederate Yankee
August 13th, 2008
Nice job NOT noting that the shooter is believed to be a recently-fired employee of one of Gwatney’s car dealerships, which recently went through a confirmed round of layoffs.
Granted, that reality doesn’t give you the “conservatives hate liberals” political talking points you prefer (nor did the fact that the TN church shooter happened to specifically target his ex-wife church), but hey, life can’t always be as cut-and-dried as you’d like.
Priya Lynn
August 13th, 2008
Confederate Yankee, nowhere in this article did it say this was a case of “conservatives hate liberals” – you’re jumping to conclusions.
Martin Lanigan
August 13th, 2008
Confederate Yankee:
Nice job not showing any compassion or concern for a victim of violence.
Nice job using this event as an excuse to spout your right wing talking points.
Why don’t you take your act elsewhere?
Timothy Kincaid
August 13th, 2008
Confederate Yankee,
I have not yet found the identity of the shooter in news reports. Perhaps he’s an ex-employee, but I don’t think that has been confirmed yet nor have his motivations.
As for the Tennessee church shooting, the perpetrator stated his reasons as opposition to liberals and gays. It’s hardly bias on our part to repeat what the shooter himself wrote.
I can assure you that “conservatives hate liberals” pieces are not what we do here at Box Turtle Bulletin.
Nor do we appreciate hateful rants like the one you posted. This is not a site where flaming is welcome. Please be civil or post elsewhere.
Confederate Yankee
August 13th, 2008
http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/ark…ime_scene.aspx
“..the suspect was a former employee of a Gwatney car dealership. News reports are identifying him as Tim Johnson, 50, of Searcy. According to one report, unconfirmed he was a body shop worker at a Gwatney dealership in Sherwood. A woman who answered the phone there hung up after issuing a no comment to a question.”
Another news outlet was told by a cop that he wasn’t an employee, but you don’t get the kind of detail above by accident.
I apologize if I lashed out unfairly; but I just fed the comments at Democratic Underground and Think Progress before coming here, putting me in a rather defensive mindset.
Jason D
August 13th, 2008
Confederate Yankee,
“Nice job NOT noting that the shooter is believed to be a recently-fired employee of one of Gwatney’s car dealerships, which recently went through a confirmed round of layoffs.”
Do you not understand the concept of “Breaking” News? Here, I’ll explain since you would rather jump to conclusions first rather than exercising a little bit of self-control.
Breaking news is something that just happened, or is currently happening. Breaking News means the story is fresh, and that not all the details are known. Breaking News is a story in progress, a story that can and will be updated as more information is available. I read the linked article when I first posted earlier this afternoon, and I read the article (now updated) just now. It mentions nothing about a dealership and an disgruntled ex-employee.
Neither does WREG-TV in TN (the 3rd google news result at the moment)
here
Neither does the Chicago Tribune (first google news result) posted an hour ago:
here
So, essentially what you have, is gossip. If it’s confirmed, I’m sure BTB will update their BREAKING news story, as they have a penchant for accuracy in their blogging.
“Granted, that reality doesn’t give you the “conservatives hate liberals†political talking points you prefer (nor did the fact that the TN church shooter happened to specifically target his ex-wife church), but hey, life can’t always be as cut-and-dried as you’d like.”
I love how the story here at BTB doesn’t mention anything about conservatives hating liberals, but you can’t help yourself, you have to toss in an unrelated bit of controversy.
Let me explain something else to you, the connection between these two shootings is the fact that people were shot, unprovoked, at places where you’d typically not find gunfire.
Both the shooter and Gwatney are dead, but all your sad self cares about is spreading venom.
Gab.
August 13th, 2008
I heard on swedish news, that Gwatney died at 21:10 swedish time(GMT+2) in the hospital (source CNN)
Jim Burroway
August 13th, 2008
I have just posted this update:
Jim Burroway
August 13th, 2008
Confederate Yankee.
The source you provided was a blog, not a news report. That blog apparently has been re-written since you left the link because now it says that the shooter was not a former employee.
That’s why as we follow this story, we will be sticking with legitimate news outlets for sources, not blogs.
revtj
August 13th, 2008
OK look isn’t the point that when Americans kill other Americans it’s “sad, tragic, senseless violence,” (e.g. Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, et.al.) but when “they’ (e.g. anyone deemed ‘foreign,’) a complex label in a “melting pot” democracy, is a terrorist who acted “out of hatred for our way of life.”
We have created a culture of vigilante violence and then we want to blame “them” for it. No. America needs to take a long steady gaze in the mirror of the soul.
Evan
August 13th, 2008
1. Confederate Yankee is just taking the lead of the Merkins, I mean Malkins of the world in immediately establishing themselves as a**holes in this instance.
2. I was actually with an extended family member of Gwatney’s when the call came in, before we knew he had died. This is just awful all the way around, regardless of motive, and I would ask thoughts and prayers for the families.
Timothy Kincaid
August 13th, 2008
A reminder to all… although we are grieving we still can be civil. thanks.
Garrett O'Neal
August 14th, 2008
I wonder what motivates a person to do something as severe as taking someone’s life.
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