Tennessee church gunman hated 'liberal movement': police
KNOXVILLE —
An unemployed man who opened fire on parishioners in a church over the weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee, killing two and wounding seven, had expressed hatred for what he called the “liberal movement,” police said Monday.
Jim Adkisson, 58, was overpowered by members of the congregation and arrested after firing three blasts from a 12 gauge shotgun in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Sunday.
Adkisson was being held on murder charges on Monday on $1 million bond.
Knoxville police chief Sterling Owen said Adkisson brought the shotgun into the church in a guitar case along with 76 shotgun shells but only managed to fire off three rounds before being subdued.
“It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement,” Owen said. “We have recovered a four-page letter in which he describes his feelings.”
Owen said Adkisson had specifically targeted the Unitarian church.
“It appears that church had received some publicity in the recent past regarding its liberal stance on things and that is at least one of the issues we believe caused that church to be selected,” he said.
“He indicated also in that letter that he expected to be in there shooting people until the police arrived and he fully expected to be killed by the responding police,” the police chief said.
Owen said Adkisson appears to have been acting alone. “He, in his written statement, does not describe any affiliation with anybody,” he said.
Wire reports
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reddragonguy
US's constitution allowing the people has the right to own guns. Did the liberal movement suggested to ban guns?
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SezWho2
I don't think there is a "liberal movement", but I do think that many liberals (and some conservatives) would like to see a ban on guns. I think the majority of Americans would favor more strict enforcement of existing gun laws--and possibly even more strict laws.
In any event, I'm not aware that the church particularly advocated a ban on guns. But if you want to know what the church was about, you can look it up here:
http://www.tvuuc.org/
The Social Justice link describes programs that some might find too liberal--as if being unitarian in a largely trinitarian nation weren't already liberal enough.
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adaydream
Here's one stereotype I have to kill or at least stick in my two cents. A lot of us Liberal Democrats own guns and rifles and enjoy hunting. I have several and my brothers and I are going pheasant hunting this winter.
I haven't seen anybody carrying around any petition advocating gun control. < :-)
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cleo
People like Adkisson are the perfect argument in favour of taking guns out of the hands of the general populace. Too many of them are nutters.
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rajakumar
Jim adkisson became jobless,incomeless and poorer. He blamed liberals for his poverty and other woes. At 58 year of age he decides to take revenge at a church, expecting to kill or be killed(suicide mission).
Poverty,apathy,hate,liberal hate, conservative hopelessness and many other factors may have caused him to lose mind control and engage in kill suicide mission. Just a view from me . Let's hope we get more news on his life on JT.
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Madverts
Ah, the extreme right rears its' ugly head.
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skipthesong
just counted, there were 97 cases similar, and where more people were slaughtered in the past two weeks, and yet this is the one that makes to world section of JT, here in Japan. Why is that?
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SezWho2
skipthesong,
People being shot in church in America is news.
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