Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) described the Las Vegas shooting spree Sunday that killed two police officers and one civilian as a domestic act of “terrorism” by the perpetrators, who ended up taking their own lives.
In response to a question Tuesday from TPM about whether that constitutes domestic terror, Reid described the shooting in graphic detail and said, “I [don’t know] what’s in Webster’s Dictionary but that sounds like a lot of terrorism and I know it’s domestic in nature.”
The perpetrators were identified as Jerad Miller and Amanda Miller, a married couple. Jerad Miller has expressed fervent animosity toward the federal government, mixing Second Amendment advocacy with violent rhetoric and calls for armed revolution.
Reid’s counterpart in the lower chamber, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), resisted the label of domestic terrorism when asked Tuesday. He hesitated and said, “I’m not sure how I’d describe it,” calling it a “horrific crime.”
Harry continues to take rightists to the heart of matters, and provide evidence that they come up heartless.
It was a horrific crime AND it was terrorism. The purpose of the shooting/murders was to incite others to do the same thing and to instill fear in anyone who works for the government. That is terrorism.
I think the junior senator from NV might fall in line this time around regardless of Boehner’s weasel words.
Yes, the response of the right keeps coming up heartless… and gutless. I suppose if it were a bomb, they would be quick to jump on the terrorism bandwagon and declare it was Pres. Obama’s fault for not protecting us.
The fact that it was guns used for “domestic terrorism” in Las Vegas… whoa, better pull that back because “we don’t want to upset the NRA by linking guns to any kind of terrorism acts.”
But, the terrorists are patriots! Heller said so!