The Buffalo Shooter Shopped at their Gun Stores

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Eric Lach
@ericlach
“Everybody was concerned that… we’re going to have a civil war.”

“I’ve had customers come see me & I’ve had the hair on the back of my neck raised.”

NY, PA gun dealers describe the Buffalo shooter coming in, & the crazy run on guns in their communities

newyorker.com
The Buffalo Shooter Shopped at their Gun Stores
New York and Pennsylvania shopkeepers recount their interactions with Payton Gendron, and the fears of civil war that have run rampant in his community since 2020.
5:57 AM · May 21, 2022

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-buffalo-shooter-shopped-at-their-gun-stores

No paywall
https://archive.ph/APKVV

In the months leading up to the racist shooting at a Tops Friendly Market, in Buffalo, which left ten people dead and three others wounded, Payton Gendron, the alleged shooter, assembled a small arsenal. Gendron, who is eighteen and white, is from Conklin, New York, a town near the Pennsylvania border, about two hundred miles away from Buffalo. He targeted Buffalo, and Tops specifically, because his goal was to kill Black people. (“Buffalo has ~ 10% higher black population, that is the place I will go,” he posted on Discord, a chat app.) But he didn’t have to go far from Conklin to acquire his weapons and gear, which he purchased around southwestern New York and northern Pennsylvania. New York has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Gendron’s Discord posts, which recount the trips he made to various gun stores, big-box retailers, and pawnshops, show how a mass murderer was able to navigate those strictures.

“I went to many stores after my dermatology appointment today,” Gendron wrote, this past December. “Went to McLain’s and finger-fucked some of his guns, had a NY-safe AR with detachable magazines for $1150 and a Yugoslavian SKS for $775. Then I went to Vintage Firearms and bought some 2 boxes of some old 12 gauge game ammo, priced at 50 shells for $20. Doesn’t have much in the sense of fun things that could cause a lot of damage in short periods of time. Then I went to Pennsylvania guns and ammo and checked them out, has a nice NY-safe diamondback tactical AR-15.”

Gendron apparently wrote his Discord posts as a kind of private running diary. He invited other Discord users to read the posts only a few minutes before the shooting—around the same time that he published a hundred-and-eighty-page manifesto online. In addition to detailing merchandise and prices about guns and ammunition, Gendron often wrote on Discord about the various clerks and store owners he encountered, offering his opinions of them, and sometimes even imagining what they made of him. Describing his interactions with someone working at Vintage Firearms, in Endicott: “He was smiling, like he wasn’t completely disgusted with my presence.” Later: “I like the guy at Vintage Firearms. He’s quite a nice guy.” Meanwhile: “Mohammad from All Star Pawn Shop seems to like to ask for the maximum amount of money on everything. . . . I mean come on bro you’re jew is showing.”

This week, I called around to the stores that Gendron listed on Discord. Several people who answered acknowledged that Gendron had been a customer. Several others hung up as soon as I mentioned Gendron’s name. A few spent a little while on the phone, telling me about their interactions with him. On Monday afternoon, I reached Mohammad, the owner of All Star Pawn Shop. His full name is Mohammad Farzad. He was born in Iran, and he came to America in 1979, when he was eighteen years old. He has a wife and three children, and he opened up his pawnshop, in Endicott, in 2012, after previously running a restaurant in the same space. Guns are around eighty per cent of his business, but his inventory includes everything from laptops to guitars to collectible coins. “You name it, I deal with it,” he said.

*snip*

[gldstwmn]

1. These folks need to figure out if they want to be part of the problem or part of the solution.

The fact that Gendron talks about the guns in a pseudo sexual manner says a lot. When I see people espousing gun fantasies online they do the same thing.

[moondust]

2. Just another "good guy"

out shopping around for some Constitutionally-protected tools to use against the bad guys.

[NQAS]

3. Civil war

First off, I do think we’re in some form of a civil war. Not Bosnia. Not 1861. But something. Not sure exactly what. In my small town there are three homes within 3 miles of mine flying black flags. I think I might take a drive around and see how many more I can find. Good to know where the fascists are, I guess.

The article linked in the OP got me thinking, though. For all these people who truly believe we are in a Civil War and they need to arm themselves to the teeth, I keep thinking who are they going to use those guns against? Are they going to wake up one morning and decide that they want to attack me? Does that mean I need to be armed to the teeth? Do I need to surround my property with surveillance cameras, like they do? Do they ever stop to think how fucking delusional their thinking is?

And if they think they’re going to be in some sort of violent confrontation with government forces, do they really believe that whatever they call an arsenal is going to do them any good against the fbi, the state police, even the local police, or, and it won’t come to this, the US military? And under what circumstances?

I get it. They hate my kind. I hate their kind. They are not willing to compromise on anything. And because they feel this way, I kind of feel the same way, even though I think it’s ridiculously stupid. So, again, what is this Civil War that they need to be armed to the teeth for? Are they going to come after my garden if there are shortages in the local grocery store? Are they going to shoot me if I have to turn around in their driveway because I made a wrong turn?

Just a minor rant. Rant over.

[Chainfire]

5. Many of them are prepared and waiting for a reason or an excuse

they would join a mob and go after all of their perceived enemies with the flag flying fighting for God, family and Country. It would be a holy crusade. A sufficient Reichstag fireevent or provoking by a powerful political leader could send millions of them into the streets with guns, to take their country back. They know that if they act alone, they will be held responsible for their actions, they feel like in a group they have a better chance of dodging the consequences, or they could use the defense your kids used, "Well, everyone else was doin it."

A person does not buy assault weapons, riot gear, armored vests, a ton of ammo, and train for "sport shooting." Unless of course you consider yourself a sport...Gun sells have been off the charts for the last couple of years and ammo makers can't keep up with demand even at prices double what they were before Trump lost.

I know these types. I grew up with them, I worked with them and I am surrounded by them today. If politics were an body of water I would be living in The Red Sea. They blame every problem that they have on all of the wrong reasons and people, and they are pissed. They are just waiting for someone to pull their trigger.

[Hoyt]

4. If we can't outlaw gunz, require a body camera every time a gun-humper picks up or totes his gun.