Buffalo shooting – live: Mitch McConnell says Payton Gendron was ‘deranged’ and calls racism ‘abhorrent’

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Buffalo mass shooting: 10 reported dead as police investigate manifesto

Ten people are dead and a suspect is in custody after a gunman with a rifle and body armour opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York on 14 May, believed to be one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history, and the deadliest mass shooting in the US in 2022.

The shooting took place at Tops Friendly Market in the 1200 block of Jefferson Avenue in the state’s second-largest city, in a predominantly Black neighbourhood that authorities believe the suspect had specifically targeted. Thirteen people in total were shot. Among the victims, 11 were Black.

Close-up shots from a video of Saturday’s attack, which police say was filmed by the gunman himself, show the N-word and the number 14 — a known white supremacist code — written on the barrel of the gun in white paint.

A “manifesto” has been found online, connected to the 18-year-old suspect Payton Gendron, that references racist and white nationalist tropes and far-right conspiracy theories.

President Joe Biden arrived in Buffalo on Tuesday to “grieve” with the community and delivered remarks where he called Saturday’s attack “straightforward terrorism”.

“Hate will not prevail, white supremacy will not have the last word,” he said during a speech at a Buffalo community centre.

Key Points

• Biden: ‘White supremacy will not have the last word’
• Biden and first lady arrive in Buffalo to comfort mourning families
• Suspect gunman planned killing ‘more Black people’, authorities say
• What we know so far about the Buffalo mass shooting
• Tributes honour Black community leaders killed in massacre

[18 May 2022 07:59 · Josh Marcus]

Number of guns made in US tripled since 2000, ATF finds

The number of guns made in the US has nearly tripled since 2000, according to a new report from the ATF.

Surging demand for handguns has helped drive the boom, which has spiked in the last three years.

There are roughly 400 million guns total in the US.

[18 May 2022 07:00 · Josh Marcus]

Why Biden didn’t want to name GOP names in his Buffalo speech

Despite promising to “fight like hell” and “expose everybody” in a speech on Tuesday about the Buffalo shooting, President Biden shied away from calling out any of the figures responsible for mainstreaming the racist conspiracy theories that inspired alleged shooter Payton Gendron.

Aides worried that if Mr Biden went after proponents of the “Great Replacement” like Tucker Carlson of Fox News, it would give the host a clip to “use in his A-block every night” and distract from the “substance” of the president’s words, aides told Politico.

[18 May 2022 06:00 · Josh Marcus]

How Payton Gendron bought his gun legally

Buffalo Shooting suspect Payton Gendron was able to buy the AR-15 he allegedly used in the massacre legally, according to officials.

All told, three guns were found in his posession, including the one he allegedly used in the shooting, as well as two guns found in his car.

“Where were the red flags for him to be able to purchase these guns legally?” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia said. “But in a case like this the gun dealer was able to sell these weapons to this individual because there was no red flags that came up.”

Even though Mr Gendron was briefly detained by state police for making violent comments at school in 2021, New York’s red flag apparently didn’t stop him from purchasing the guns.

[18 May 2022 05:00 · Josh Marcus]

Trump shares QAnon conspiracy about himself

As the Buffalo shooting proves, fringe conspiracy theories are going increasingly mainstream in the US.

And Donald Trump has been one of their most influential purveyors.

The former president delighted QAnon supporters after he shared a meme featuring himself and the “Q” symbol on Truth Social, his social media platform.

According to screenshots of the meme shared on Twitter on Monday, a “Q” could be seen behind the former president, who was shown seated on a throne and sporting a gold crown in the style of Game of Thrones.

Gino Spocchia has the story.

[18 May 2022 04:00 · Josh Marcus]

Independent Premium: Extreme right-wing ideologies are becoming an increasingly big problem for the US

The Buffalo shooting is part of a worrying history, Holly Baxter writes for Independent Premium.

As her piece today argues:

It seems clear that the Buffalo shooting was a hate crime and an act of terrorism. It’s also clear that extreme right-wing ideologies are becoming an increasingly big problem for the US, and indeed for the west. The US is a highly conservative country that has always had its fair share of far-right extremists, including the Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who killed 168 people (including 19 children at a daycare centre) in 1995. McVeigh and Nichols were paranoid, libertarian right-wingers who feared that the government wanted to control private citizens.

Read the full story here:

[18 May 2022 03:00 · Josh Marcus]

Discord users reviewed shooter’s plan before attack

About half an hour before shooting began at the Tops market in Buffalo, charged gunman Payton Gendron shared his plans with others in a Discord chatroom, none of whom appeared to alert law enforcement.

“What we know at this time is that a private, invite-only server was created by the suspect to serve as a personal diary chat log,” the company said in a statement to The New York Times. “Approximately 30 minutes prior to the attack, however, a small group of people were invited to and joined the server. Before that, our records indicate no other people saw the diary chat log in this private server.”

It’s the latest indication that the 18-year-old sought to broadcast his hatred online and inspire others to join him in violence.

[18 May 2022 02:00 · Josh Marcus]

PHOTOS: Joe Biden visits Buffalo to mourn with community

Joe Biden headed to Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday to meet with mourners and offer remarks following Saturday’s deadly white supremacist shooting, when a teenaged gunman killed 10 people.

Here are some of the striking photos from his visit.

(AP)

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

[18 May 2022 01:40 · Josh Marcus]

New York lawmaker wants to make its leading gun laws even stricter

New York already has some of the strictest gun posession laws in the country, and a state assemblywoman wants to make them even more ironclad in the wake of the Buffalo mass shooting, where accused shooter Payton Gendron was able to obtain a gun despite being previously hospitalised after making violent comments at school.

“You just want to close every potential loophole,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin of Westchester told The New York Times.

She’s sponsoring a slate of bills that would require local law enforcement to contribute info on recovered guns to federal databases, allow New York to do its own background checks, and force gun dealers into stricter record-keeping and staff training.

[18 May 2022 01:20 · Josh Marcus]

Charities donate over $1m to Buffalo survivors

Charities, sports teams, and businesses have all rallied together to donate more than $1m to the victims and survivors of the Buffalo mass shooting, according to WIVB.

Donors include M&T Bank, which announced a $500,00 donation, as well as others like KeyBank, New Era Cap, and NFL Buffalo Bills player Shaq LAwson.

[18 May 2022 01:00 · Josh Marcus]

Biden calls for US to address ‘stain’ of white supremacist violence

Joe Biden has called for the US to address the “stain” of white supremacist violence.

The president made his comments after 10 people were shot dead in a racially-motivated attack in Buffalo on Saturday (14 May) by suspected gunman Payton Gendron.

“Already, the Justice Department has stated publically that it is investigating the matter as a hate crime, a racially-motivated act of white supremacy and violent extremism,” Mr Biden said.

“We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America.”