Friends of Arturo Gamboa say they don't believe he ever brandished the weapon. Instead, they believe the shooting was a deadly miscommunication — someone overreacting because he was open-carrying.

A self-described “peacekeeper” shot three times at Gamboa. At least one of the bullets hit Gamboa in the side. Another bullet accidentally hit and killed a 39-year-old protester.

So some rookie sees a guy peacefully walking around with an AR-15 and starts blasting? Open carry is stupid, carrying an AR-15 alone at a protest is stupid. But it’s still the dude’s right. Maybe the “peacekeeper” was an off duty HiGhlY TraINeD cop.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldEnglish
    345·
    3 days ago

    From the article:

    “Arturo goes to a lot of protests — most of the protests,” Keele said. “From the videos I’ve seen, it looks like he was a young kid that went to a protest open-carrying, which he has done before. He understands weapons. He knows how to handle them… The gun was pointed at the ground, from all the videos I’ve seen.”

    “Everyone’s scared when people open-carry. It’s not a super comfortable thing, but it’s not illegal and it’s not wrong, and I’m not one to condemn it,” Keele said. “There have been protests where people have asked [protesters] not to do that, and he didn’t do it.”

    This is going to be a difficult thing for the traditional leftist protest community to grapple with, but effectively, the first amendment backed up by the second amendment is quite literally the last backstop we have against fascism in this country. As uncomfortable as you might consider it to be, we have enshrined in our constitution the rights and tools to resist what is currently happening.

    If you read the article instead of knee jerking to the headline, its clear that Gamboa did nothing wrong here, and look at how Fox is framing the discussion:

    A self-described “peacekeeper” shot three times at Gamboa. At least one of the bullets hit Gamboa in the side. Another bullet accidentally hit and killed a 39-year-old protester.

    and then they simply accept the premise that they set up, about the people who actually shot and killed people being “peacekeepers”

    Two peacekeepers were also “taken into custody” but have not been charged.

    Pay attention to what is happening with this rhetoric. Bets that we find out these “peacekeepers” were actually counter-protestors? The author is setting up the conditions to validate the people actually being violent in this story.

    Look, we’re beyond the rubicon. Things aren’t like they used to be; you may have to become comfortable with things you weren’t previously comfortable with. It was Gamboa’s right to open carry at the event. Right wing nut-jobs being allowed to shoot people indiscriminately because they think they are the only ones with constitutional rights is what this article is setting up for. Be cautious about dismissing Gamboa and the rhetoric the article is using.

    • ccunning@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      3 days ago

      Two peacekeepers were also “taken into custody” but have not been charged.

      Pay attention to what is happening with this rhetoric

      Arturo has not been charged either.

    • lurch (he/him)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      31·
      2 days ago

      yeah, fox is basically saying “it’s okay if our fascist buddies shoot people.” just like last time with Rittenhouse, they cry a bit on tv and then it somehow magically becomes self-defense and they become right wing heroes celebrated by 4chan nazis. i hope it doesn’t roll this time, but right wingers have an even tighter grip on the judicial system this time

    • KnitWit@lemmy.worldEnglish
      36·
      3 days ago

      My two cents on the matter is that, yes he had every right to open carry at that protest, but just like that one weirdo who open carried an AR at the Georgia(?) airport years ago, it’s a shitty thing to do. Granted, that guy never caused a shooting, but it’s the same to me. This country has a gun fetish, it’s that simple. Actually repealing the 2a is a non-starter and instead we need to focus on just how gross it is culturally.