Headline of the Day

[Content Note: Guns; violence.]

screen cap of a page from the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner of an article headlined: 'Southern Poverty Law Center website triggered FRC shooting'

This is one of the most mendacious headlines I've ever seen.

Granted, the Washington Examiner (to which I'm not linking, because fuck them, but the article is easy to enough to find if you're so inclined) is a garbage conservative rag, but even by garbage conservative rag standards, this is some real horseshit.

The headline refers to the shooting at the anti-gay Family Research Council's DC offices last August, which resulted in the shooter, Floyd Corkins, being indicted on a terrorism charge, to which he's now pleaded guilty. Corkins claims to have targeted the FRC after finding them on a list of hate groups tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

If that's true (and I am not generally a conspiracy-minded person, but I find this entire scenario very curious for various reasons), that does not mean the SPLC's website "triggered the FRC shooting." What led to the shooting was Floyd Corkins' decision to pick up a gun, his access to guns, our culture of violence, and his fucked-up decision to use a gun in a terrorist act.

Funny how conservatives are all about individual responsibility until it comes to blaming someone for hurting them.

[Previously: Shooting at Family Research Council, SPLC Responds to Tony Perkins, Two Facts.]

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