Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/20/airport-executive-gets-into-firefight-with-federal-agents.html
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I’m curious what the search warrant was for, and why he just jumped straight to shooting at ATF agents. I would assume since it was ATF executing the search warrant, that it had something to do with weapons. There’s a whole lot more questions than anything about this right now.
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In 2012, the airport was renamed for former President Bill Clinton, an Arkansas native and former governor, and his wife, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
One red-hot conspiracy theory, coming right up!
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According to the article his brother said that he collected “guns and other weapons”; but given how much of that you can do legally, especially with a clean record, that basically tells us nothing about why the BATF would actually pay him a visit.
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A bit of both
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Someone just interviewed his brother.
“When someone makes that much money, there’s no incentive to do anything wrong,” the brother said. “He has so much to lose.”
Meanwhile, Matthew Malinowski said doctors are keeping his brother on life support and not performing surgery because they don’t think he would survive.
Matthew Malinowski feels the case against his brother doesn’t add up.
“Something stinks to high hell,” he said.
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Saw a snippet about this on a local station’s youtube channel. 100% bizarre.
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Ah yes, rich people - famous for never ever doing anything wrong. (This is such a weird argument that gets trotted out occasionally.)
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Yeah, I mean, whoever heard of a rich guy being greedy? Can you even imagine?
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That has never been true. It sounds true on the surface level, if you don’t think about it, or if you don’t know anything about human history ever.
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based on 0% information.
another rich guy who deep down believed they were some billy the kid outlaw.
my bet would be ghost guns or the like.
as a gun nut he slept with a loaded pistol in or near his bed. ATF busts in at 6am. he’s gonna “stand his ground” and “defned his castle”. points gun at ATF… gets shot…
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He was too big to fail.
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I kinda agree with the brother - the cops say it’s a non-life threatening injury, but he was shot in the head, and is on life support? That sounds pretty life threatening. This sounds like an ACAB situation to me, rich white dude or not.
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I think it was the ATF agent who received the “non-life-threatening gunshot wound”.
I agree with @Andtrevor that a gun collector is likely to have a loaded gun handy to defend his property from someone who kicks in his door at 6:00am. That scenario is all too believable.
Guns don’t make people safe.
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My guess is using the airport for gun running. Sales of guns are regulated (for a given value of regulated). Gun shop owners get in trouble for violating sales laws all the time. Mr. Airport Executive Director was probably illegally moving guns through.
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Yeah, no incentive…welp, time for a vacation!
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I mean, rich people NEVER do stupid shit, or are enabled to do more stupid shit on a bigger scale by money.
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That’s a lot of speculation, especially since you can just drive a van full of guns across state lines and no one would be the wiser and it would be 10x cheaper and easier. Guns aren’t contraband, you can legally ship them. You can FedEx next day air a gun right now. You can legally fly with a cased gun.
This isn’t a few kilos of drugs that would make a huge profit. And how would the airport director - who doesn’t have direct access to the various carriers (FedEx planes, Delta Cargo holds) facilitate this needless smuggling? This really feels like movie-like baseless speculation.
Anyway - I really want to know what the allegations were. Why they busted down a door. It all seems completely unnecessary. If the guy is at home, where is he going to go? You gotta bust in like Rambo at 6am and then act all Pikachu face when things go sideways.
If the charge is relatively minor, it makes some sense to not release the reason, as they fear looking stupid for going in so hard on a guy in a gated community.
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Absolutely true. It’s just a guess from very limited information. I was actually thinking more like smuggling guns turned in for destruction to other counties or using the airport out of convenience to sell to felons.
The ATF was involved and something involving guns seems more likely than tobacco or alcohol.
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