02/11/2020
With the US election virtually upon us, the surge in people buying guns and the increased activity amongst armed militias and extreme right groups is quite alarming.
The owner of a gun shop in Southfield, Michigan spoke to Sky News about the significant uptake in the purchase of guns; with many of the new gun owners being people who had not previously owned firearms.
Lexus Lewis, a young mum, was trying to buy a 12-gauge shotgun and was struggling to hold up to her shoulder. Kucyk apparently said, "She's going to need some serious training to use that." But will she get that training? Or is she just another untrained American with a deadly weapon?
Right wing extremists, including white supremacists and those obsessed by their 2nd Amendment 'rights' - who frequently appear to be Trump supporters - have been very publicly parading with firearms. Many Americans fear violence in the days ahead.
The Boogaloo Bois are a movement who have been calling for civil unrest, including the killing of law enforcement officers. United States Air Force sergeant Steven Carrillo, who was actively involved in the Boogaloo movement, has been charged with the murder of a Santa Cruz County deputy on 6th June this year and the murder of a Federal Protective Service officer in Oakland a week earlier. At the time of the attacks, Carrillo was apparently a member of an elite Air Force unit. Carrillo wrote "Boog" and the phrases "I became unreasonable" and "Stop the duopoly" in his own blood on the hood of a vehicle he hijacked. A white van owned by Carrillo allegedly contained a ballistic vest with a patch bearing boogaloo symbolism.
Earlier this month a number of men were charged with plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and violently overthrow the state government. This is something I wrote about on 8th October; you can read that piece by clicking on her image (below). An armed militia group known as the Wolverine Watchmen targeted the governor due to the lockdown measures she had implemented as a result of COVID-19. The case led to the arrest of more than a dozen men, some of whom are accused of driving to a meeting hoping to buy explosives and tactical gear; only to find themselves at the centre of an FBI operation.
Democratic congresswomen Elissa Slotkin is a former CIA officer who served three terms in Iraq studying the evolution of terror groups in the Middle East. She has spoken about the "toxic" atmosphere emanating from the top and dripping down to the rest of the country. This empowers extremists and leads to the normalisation of hate speech.
Slotkin has commented on the radicalisation of Americans growing out of initially idealistic motives. "There's a ladder of escalation that as a former CIA officer I used to watch in terrorist groups abroad... how does a young man in the middle of Iraq go from being a shopkeeper to a terrorist?... there's a ladder of escalation and I never thought that I would be using those skills to watch extremism in my own country."
Trump is responsible for stoking the fires that lead to violence.
Whilst the idea of an armed militia, and of the 2nd amendment rights, was to stand up against a tyrannical government, the rise in militia groups seem to be largely about supporting the corrupt leaders of the country and fighting against true democracy. The members of these groups are predominantly white, often expressing white supremacist views, and overwhelmingly Republican in their allegiance.
In Michigan, a hotspot for such activity, people have been waiting outside gun shops waiting for them to open, so that they can arm themselves. In one such shop, owned by Bill Kucyk, the volume of sales has rocketed and he has seen his shelves emptied multiple times.
The citizens of the Michigan are arming themselves due to fears of civil unrest in the event of a disputed election result.
Javed Ali, a counter-terrorism expert with more than 20 years' experience as a senior intelligence officer working in homeland security and the FBI, says that the threat of domestic terrorism is very real.
"It's not receding and it'll be a permanent feature of the United States for some long period time. We dealt with al Qaeda and ISIS for more than 20 years... will that be the same with domestic terrorism? It will be something that's with us for some time in the future."
For decades, US counter-terrorism efforts were focused on the threats from terror groups like al Qaeda and then ISIS. This allowed far-right extremists, white supremacists and anti-government anarchists to flourish, unseen by security services. They grew by using tools like social media platforms, amassing support; driving fear, hate and division.
Shortly before the plot to kidnap Governor Slotkin was unearthed, the Department of Homeland Security issued a 26-page document stressing that the threat from homegrown terror groups far outweighed that from international terror groups. This included highlighting the likelihood of domestic extremists targeting "events related to the 2020 presidential campaigns, the election itself, election results, or the post-election period."
Under the heading, 'The Terrorist Threat to the Homeland', the report starts by saying: "Ideologically motivated lone offenders and small groups pose the most likely terrorist threat to the Homeland, with Domestic Violent Extremists presenting the most persistent and lethal threat."
It seems inevitable that America is about to enter a period of turmoil. The lies and open calls for division by the POTUS are surely the worst examples of leadership seen in America in living history.
If any lives are lost to violent attacks linked to the election, Trump must be held responsible and prosecuted for incitement.
I sincerely hope that Trump is evicted from The White House as a result f this election and can then be held accountable for his many crimes. He can then move into a different form of government provided accommodation; a State Penitentiary.
America desperately needs a change in direction; the most important (or most urgent, initial) step is to appoint the 46th President.
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