Floyd Lee Corkins pleads guilty in Family Research Council shooting, which resulted int he injury of a Family Research Council guard on August 15, 2012.
Corkins pleaded guilty to three charges including a charge of committing an act of terrorism and admitted his intent was to kill as many people as possible and that he obtained his targets from the ultra liberal Southern Poverty Law Center's "hate map."
Via Washington Examiner:
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said that the Southern Poverty Law Center should take responsibility for the shooting and take down their hate map.The three charges against Corkins that he pleaded guilty to are a federal charge of transporting a firearm and ammunition across state lines and D.C. charges of assault with intent to kill and committing an act of terrorism while armed.
"The day after Floyd Corkins came into the FRC headquarter and opened fire wounding one of our team members, I stated that while Corkins was responsible for the shooting, he had been given a license to perpetrate this act of violence by groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center which has systematically and recklessly labeled every organization with which they disagree as a 'hate group,'" he said.
Going through the discussions on this latest development, there are a couple excellent points being made across the conservative blogosphere.
The Other McCain points out "The Southern Poverty Law Center — which did much to demonize the Family Research Center by listing them as a “hate” group — is embraced as a valuable partner by Eric Holder’s Justice Department."
John Sexton over at Breitbart also makes a very good point and asks a pointed question:
It's impossible not to notice that this is precisely what many on the left accused Sarah Palin of doing in January 2011 after Jared Loughner shot Rep. Giffords and several bystanders in a Tucson parking lot. At the time, the left claimed Palin's district map featuring crosshairs might have given Loughner ideas. No connection between the map and the shooting was ever found. Indeed, it turned out Loughner had been obsessed with Giffords before Palin's map even existed.
Now that anti-right, anti-hate SPLC is implicated in providing targets for a politically motivated mass shooter will the national media turn on the SPLC the way they did on Sarah Palin? Is it time for a national conversation about the dangers of left-wing extremism?
Floyd Corkins statement of offense embedded below:
