This has become way too common. The left is completely out of control.
Campus Reform reports:
Retired professor’s gun seized by Secret Service after expressing wish to ‘shoot the president,’ claims he was referring to camera lens
A former professor recently had a run-in with the Secret Service after making comments insinuating that he wanted to kill President Donald Trump.
Wesley Arnold, a retired Macomb Community College professor, was questioned by the Secret Service after a series of remarks he made during a Warren City Council meeting, according to C&G Newspapers.
The meeting revolved around a local Amazon store that utilizes drones to deliver packages to residents.
Arnold stated that he ordered a “high-power ATL 36X” that he hoped “to actually use to shoot the president of the United States,” as shown in a recording of the meeting shared by Libs of TikTok.
“I’m not kidding,” Arnold asserted.
“This is a very high powerful item. It’s great for a headshot at a distance,” he continued. “I didn’t want it to be delivered by drone because I wouldn’t want something like that to be in the wrong hands.”
Arnold revealed in a subsequent interview with FOX 2 Detroit that he was paid a visit by the Secret Service following the meeting, during which it seized a handgun from his residence.
When asked if he would be arrested, Arnold stated, “It may or may not happen. We’ll see.”
He also stated that he was not concerned about the prospect of being arrested because he is “a harmless old man” who believes “in freedom of speech.”
The interviewers also questioned whether or not Arnold believed his remarks were threatening, to which he acknowledged that “it turned out that way” and that he “blew it.”
Arnold claimed that the item he referenced during his remarks was a camera lens rather than a firearm, and that he has “no intent of shooting any public official, except with a telephoto lens.”
A “36x,” however, is also a commonly known type of magnified optic typically used for long-range shooting.
The comments were met with particular scrutiny given the attempts already made on the president’s life.
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Comments
Oh, but they confiscated an Evil Gun, thereby ending any possible threat, while leaving the threatener free to go about his business. SMH.
He was playing a game that certain people love to play – saying things that in ordinary understanding are a threat, but then claiming they were really talking about something else. It’s a form of motte & bailey, I think.
But it also seems pretty obvious to me that was what he intended. And now he gets to put on his hair shirt and go about proclaiming Trump harassed him and such.
If Ohio had a red flag law, this would be exactly the circumstance for which it was appropriate.
And rightly so. Though it’s the Secret Service that unlawfully harassed him, not Trump.
No, it would not be. “Red flag” laws are supposed to be for people who actually and provably pose an imminent danger to themselves of others. Not people playing too-clever word games to taunt others.
“I didn’t want it to be delivered by drone because I wouldn’t want something like that to be in the wrong hands.”
Yes Wesley, another psychotic braindead leftist college indoctrinator is the right hands for a gun.
It’s a camera, not a gun. But the second amendment guarantees his right to a gun. And the first protects his right to say whatever he likes, so long as it doesn’t fit the narrow definitions of “true threat” or “incitement”.
There’s not much basis for claiming he’s a leftist.
“I don’t particularly like Mr. Trump. He’s done some lousy things. He’s done some good things.”
Doesn’t sound like what a psychotic braindead leftist college indoctrinator would say.
As if a gun has ever been delivered by a drone, except maybe into a prison yard. Where do you buy a gun by drone, Amazon?
He was specifically talking about Amazon. The statement was made in the context of a discussion about Amazon drone deliveries. He was arguing against them, and said that he’d recently ordered this high-powered item from Amazon and wouldn’t have wanted it delivered by drone, and therefore Amazon drone deliveries are bad.
Obviously he couldn’t have been referring to a gun because Amazon doesn’t sell guns. At all, because it’s a hoplophobic company. Anyone who knows that would have understood that he couldn’t mean a gun. And of course anyone who knew what an ATL X36 is would also know that it’s a camera, not a gun. But he deliberately worded it so that anyone who had no idea of either of these two things would jump to a wrong conclusion and he could then make fun of them.
He still didn’t make a threat, and therefore the Secret Service had no business harassing him. They needed to check it out, but they needed to do so politely and certainly had no business taking his actual guns.
Professor of what? Let me guess, it’s not hard science or engineering.
History.
He didn’t “claim” it. It’s a fact. An ATL 36X is a camera.
He didn’t say “36X”, he said “ATL 36X”. That is a camera, not a rifle scope.
In any case, even if he had said that he would like to shoot the President with an actual rifle, that would be protected speech. It would not be a threat, just a wish, and the first amendment protects anyone’s right to express any wish he likes. Seizing his weapon for saying this violates both the first and the second amendments.
But mostly the second, which is why there will be no furor over this at all.