There are a lot of people out there with some pretty bizarre ideas. Some, like the flat earthers, are funny, even if unintentionally so. The same for the “birds aren’t real” folks–at least, those who aren’t in on the joke yet still push it.
But some have some very dangerous ideas.
Yes, communism and socialism are examples, but they’re far from the only examples. Some people are desperate to start a war in this country. While that may happen sooner or later, it makes sense to try to avoid that possibility because if things pop off, it won’t be pretty.
Unfortunately, a man in Arizona was arrested after selling two rifles to undercover FBI agents. The reason he was selling them to the two agents? They posed as potential mass shooters.
Mark Adams Prieto wasn’t the most clandestine about his plans to incite a race war, the FBI says. The 58-year-old, who was arrested last month, unknowingly blabbed to an FBI agent about his spine-chilling plan to shoot up a rap concert and even allegedly sold two automatic rifles to the agent on the assumption that they were going to help him realize his terrifying plans.
That’s according to an indictment unsealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Arizona on Tuesday, charging Prieto with firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime, and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Prieto, of Prescott, Arizona, a small retirement community nestled in the North West corner of the state, began expressing his violent plans against minority groups to an informant at a weapons show in 2023, the indictment says.
Prieto asked the informant, who had met and chatted with Prieto at the Crossroads of the West gun shows over the past three years, if he was “ready to kill a bunch of people” in late 2023, the feds say.
The informant said that Prieto had allegedly begun advocating for mass shootings against “Blacks, Jews, or Muslims,” and that he believed, the shooting should take place before martial law is enacted following the 2024 election.
It’s alleged that Prieto wanted to spark a race war, advocating for killing people at the concert and then hanging Confederate flags around the venue.
Of course, The Daily Beast is focused on this guy as a “gun nut” because it’s important to them that this guy gets lumped in with folks like you and me, but the truth is that this is out there “thinking” by anyone’s estimation. He may have been into guns, but if the allegations are true then the term “nut” applies far more broadly than his interest in guns.
If he was, in fact, planning such an attack, then I want to see the book thrown at him. Innocent people trying to enjoy a concert shouldn’t have to worry about being targeted for murder simply to make a political point, which is what this is.
Normally, I’d be skeptical of the FBI–my days of trusting the bureau are far in the rearview mirror–but since Prieto admitted to the plot, it seems like he most likely was planning something nefarious.
And honestly, this crap needs to stop. An attack like that would just make matters worse. It would result in a lot of dead bodies that spark more dead bodies and so on until the entire nation burns. Nothing about that benefits anyone.
There are times when people need to rise up. This crap ain’t it.
He just didn’t get that idea out of thin air, who’s behind this? We’ve seen many of these enactments. Too many to count!! I’m glad they caught him though. I was just thinking the other day, it really started ramping up during the Bush Era although it goes way before that. Dismantle the ABC agencies!