Austin bomber was in a bizarre "Christian" weapons (guns and chemical) group

[Tanuki]

Link to tweet

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/austin-bomber-mark-anthony-conditt-texas-christian-righteous-invasion-truth-a8267976.html%3famp

"The Austin bomber was involved in a teenage Christian “survivalist” group that discussed weapons and dangerous chemicals, according to a childhood friend.

Mark Anthony Conditt reportedly took part in a conservative outdoors club called Righteous Invasion of Truth (RIOT), in which home-schooled young people studied the Bible and were taught gun skills.

......

The 21-year-old added: “We were into weapons and stuff. A lot of us did role-playing, and RPG [role-playing games]; we’d have foam weapons and act out a battle.”

Ms Schultz said many young people involved in RIOT carried knives and learned to shoot firearms at gun ranges, but she did not recall bomb-making being a topic of discussion.

...

RIOT was set up and named by home-schooled children of high school age in Pflugerville and their families. The group’s events, which also included archery and water balloon fights, included up to an hour of Bible study."...(more)

[underpants]

1. I knew karaoke was involved somehow

Sorry I couldn’t think of anything else to say as a comment.
Holy smokes — and I don’t mean that as irony.

[Scurrilous]

2. Sounds very fucked up.

[dlk]

3. A Radical Religious Terrorist Gets a Pass on Being Named Such Because He was a White Male

Imagine that.

[Pope George Ringo II]

4. To be fair, part of the pass is because of the religion too.

If this guy had been playing football, Texas would have found a way to capture him alive and have him released before practices start again.

[Thomas Hurt]

5. Christofascism at its finest....

[IronLionZion]

6. And his victims had bizarre notions of existing and living life

but the media and politicians are more concerned with giving a benefit of a doubt to the white terrorist, who was radicalized somehow, and involved in religious extremism, but we must be more afraid of random brown people who did none of those things.

[packman]

7. And this was their graduation present from RIOT

[aka-chmeee]

8. An hour of bible "study"

Might be enough to make me violent! (or sleep)

[Lonestarblue]

9. Evangelicals are ruining the country!

According to a Pew study, evangelicals make up 25.4% of the population yet they have an outsized influence on our politics. Evangelical support for Trump remains strong no matter what he does. They are the people who listen to hate radio and get their news of the world from Fox News. The only way we can reduce their influence is to communicate to voters what they are voting for when they elect Republican politicians. Their primary goal seems to be to deny rights to their ther people in an effort to force the rest of us to live according to their beliefs—even though most of them don’t live according to their professed beliefs.

[PaulX2]

10. Imagine If It Was Muslim Not Christian And Allah Not Jesus

Lead story for 2 years.

[sl8]

11. "practiced weapons skills" with Nerf guns and water balloons

Maybe this really was a terrorist training camp and not an innocuous playgroup, I've no idea. Nor does this tweeter (twitterer?), I think.

I'll reserve judgement until some more facts are available.