THE CLUB Q MASS MURDER WAS PREVENTABLE

The mass murder at Club Q this past Saturday night could have been prevented, but political leaders in Colorado Springs let it happen. They made a conscious choice that the lives of unarmed victims are less important than a lunatics' right to acquire firearms. They did it because of their fucked-up far right “religion” and their fucked-up far right politics.

Colorado Springs, used to be a nice place where my grandparents lived that I used to love to visit as a kid.

It became a far right shithole starting in the 70s and it's been the "New Jerusalem" of the Far Xtian Right “dominionists” for 40 years. Home base of James Dobson's Focus on the Family which preaches "beat the gay out of your kid." Site of Ted Haggard's Vineyard Church - you might remember him from 20 years ago as the preacher calling for the destruction of gays while he was a gay meth-head who hired gay prostitutes when he wasn't calling for their deaths. Location of the Chair Farce Academy, which has Fundie scandal after Fundie scandal, all documented and sued by Mikey Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

To me, the only surprise about this horrid event is that it took this long to happen in Colorado Springs. 20 years ago, l told a gay friend who was thinking of moving there that he might as well go to the zoo and crawl in the lion's cage and set up housekeeping, it was the same as Colorado Springs.

This. Could. Have. Been. Prevented.

This is not hyperbole. This is not in any “we all share responsibility” sense or as any broad critique of gun culture. It’s not the increase in hateful rhetoric targeting the LGBT community that grows daily in the fetid swamps of places like 4Chan. This isn’t about the impact all of that might have had on fomenting an attack on a drag show. 

I’m talking specifically about existing law in Colorado that could have prevented this horrific event, that has been deliberately ignored by local officials for political reasons.

Existing law that could have prevented this happening. Existing law that the Fundiescum Piece of Shit sheriff refused to enforce.

Bear in mind: Colorado Springs and El Paso County are completely controlled politically by the Dominionists.

Back in January 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill that instituted Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO), commonly known as “red flag” laws.

ERPOs allow for temporary removal of firearms from people who are considered at risk of committing a violent act against themselves or others. Such an orders can be initiated either by a family member or local police, who then petition the court for review.  

A November 2018 a poll showed Coloradoans backed “red flag” laws overwhelmingly. 81 percent in favor and just 14 percent opposed. Polis, who signed the law, was reelected this month in a legitimate landslide bigger than that engineered by DeSantis, with his opponent getting less than 40 percent of the vote. 

However, despite the law’s widespread popularity and the fact it does not in any way threaten the rights of law-abiding gun owners, 37 of the state’s 64 counties responded to passage of the law by declaring themselves a “2nd Amendment Sanctuary” in which local police have refused to enforce the law. Among those “sanctuaries” is El Paso County, home to “New Jerusalem” Colorado Springs, site of the Club Q massacre. 

Resistance to the ERPO law in El Paso County began before it went into effect. The County Commission passed a resolution stating that a red flag law would “infringe upon the inalienable rights” of its residents, and as such they would not fund any “unconstitutional seizures” of firearms in the county.

County sheriff Bill Elder - who’s now so “concerned” over the Club Q massacre - made this a cause celébre in his re-election campaign. He stated in many interviews that he would not petition the court for protection orders and would only do so at a family member’s request in “exigent circumstances.”

As a result, in Colorado’s most populous county, there have been zero red flag petitions initiated by law enforcement.

Last year, the mass murderer who did this, Anderson Lee Aldrich, had a standoff with local police, threatening to blow up his mother with a bomb in their house. He live streamed the confrontation on Facebook, with him wearing tactical gear and calling cops “fucking shitheads,” saying, “If they breach, I’mma fucking blow it to holy hell. So, uh, go ahead and come on in, boys, lets fucking see it.” 

Neighbors were evacuated from their homes. His mother, who was scared enough to call the cops, moved out of the house where she had been renting a room.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, the perpetrator, was charged with several crimes including kidnaping.

But then, charges were dropped, and the case file was sealed by the Republican district attorney’s office.

Poof. 

If this isn’t the most obvious case for an Extreme Risk Protection Order imaginable, then such doesn’t exist.

His mother was afraid of him!

He threatened violence against the police!

He was trying to commit “sucide by cop.”

He was “a threat to himself and others.” 

Anywhere else, any reasonable police department would, as a precautionary matter, want a judge to at least review whether a dude who wanted to commit Suicide By Cop and take some with him, wearing full tactical gear should have access to semi-autos.

Blue Lives Matter - right?

Not in El Paso County. 

Instead, the Republican elected District Attorney and the Republican elected County Sheriff decided they wouldn’t even consider petitioning for such a protection. And they would seal the records of the event.

Because of that decision, when the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph wrote about the incident and identified Anderson Lee Aldrich as the perpetrator, he was able to go to court and successfully petition to have the newspaper take the story off their website because the charges had been dropped and the record had been sealed. He was able to remain anonymous.

All of this was because these far right scum were “acting on their principles.”

These far right fundamentalist ideologues decided that a deranged murderer’s right to an AR-15 was superior over the rights and interests and safety of the people they were elected to serve and the lives of the victims whose bodies are now cold.

The victims whose loss to the mass murderer they facilitated that these scum now claim they are so “concerned” over.

This decision to go rogue, to not enforce the state’s red flag law is the decision that allowed these murders to happen.

This is the proximate cause of those deaths.

These actions by the El Paso County Commission, by the County District Attorney, by the County Sheriff, by the Colorado Springs City Council, by the Mayor of Colorado Springs.

This blood is on their hands.

This isn’t some impossible-to-untangle collection of mental health failures and hate and isolation and video games and the broken culture.

This is a story about far right Fundamentalist Republican politicians choosing to defy the most common sense gun law imaginable for their far right radical ideological ends.

The result of this choice is five dead in a mass murder in a gay bar. 

And who is Anderson Lee Aldrich? Given his background, it’s sadly unsurprising that he and his equally fucked-up mother live in the New Jerusalem of the Far Xtian Right. His grandfather is Randy Voepel, currently a California State Assemblyman, former mayor of Santee in San Diego County (fortunately he's out of the legislature next month since he lost his primary this summer). He was nearly expelled from the Assembly back in 2021 for repeatedly tweeting that January 6 was "the Second American Revolution" and that the seditionists are "patriots." He's a long-time presence in San Diego County/Orangatang County/Riverside County far right movements and a supporter of militias who made his name with organizing right wing activities on the border.

The road apples don’t fall far from the horse’s ass.

Personally, I hope that the families of the dead sue the shit out of these scum for wrongful death. That hypocritical SOB mayor who's desperately trying to masquerade as a member of the species homo sapien. The Fundamentalist Scum city council members. The Fundamentalist Scum county commissioners, the Fundamentalist Scum district attorney. The Fundamentalist Scum county sheriff. ALL OF THEM.

This was foreseeable. This was preventable. The fact it happened is entirely on their heads for this "2d Amendment sanctuary" horse shit.

Bankrupt the city and each of them personally. Maybe the "churches" will make up the difference. After all, they’re the original cause. Colorado Springs was a nice place before they arrived.

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