Disturbing news. An active-duty US Coast Guard lieutenant has been accused of plotting attacks “to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country” according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland on Tuesday.
Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, a self-avowed white nationalist, was arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons, ammunition, and illegal drugs in his Maryland home. The court documents, however, say that “the …charges, however, are the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The defendant is a domestic terrorist, bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct.”
Hasson called for “focused violence” to “establish a white homeland” and dreamed of ways to “kill almost every last person on earth.” He compiled a spreadsheet hit list of prominent Democratic politicians including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
NPR reports, “In addition to Pelosi, Hasson was allegedly considering some type of violent assault on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Richard Blumenthal, along with U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Maxine Waters and former House member, Beto O’Rourke. The spreadsheet list also included MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough, as well as Don Lemon and Van Jones from CNN.”
Hasson has been working at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., since 2016. He was an active duty member at the time he was arrested. Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1988 to 1993 after which he joined the Army National Guard for about two years.
“The illegal weapons and drug charges [were] a result of an ongoing investigation led by the Coast Guard Investigative Service, in cooperation with the FBI and Department of Justice,” Coast Guard spokesman Barry Lane told NPR in an emailed statement.
Looking at the image I see 5 boxes of ammo that could hold 1000 rounds per box. Tho the middle box appears to be some form of grenade type projectile and that box may only hold 200 rounds.
Tho what I think is even more humorous is how ill informed this chap is. The white population is now the minority.
Yup good luck in trying to make lethality with all that ammo. The Las Vegas incident had about the same amount of ammo and still didnt hit that many people. Even tho he was firing into a crowd.
I would like to point out that I have no interest in the mans views and have no weapons. Nor do I ever plan on owning weapons of anysort. I just see an absurdity in the mans reasoning.
I do wonder if he is maybe suffering a mental illness and his actions were a cry for help rather than a plan of action. After all, he had all the weapons, why didn’t he use them already.
Willy, the Los Vegas shooting killed 59 and wounded 527. It was the deadliest mass shooting ever committed by an individual in the United States. To suggest that “the Las Vegas incident had about the same amount of ammo and still didn’t hit that many people” is offensive.
Minimizing the potential damage that a single individual committed to slaughter could have committed strikes me as completely absurd.
As blog host, I have decided to remove one series of comments which was veering wildly off topic and did not meet minimum standards of civility.
My apologies if I sounded insencere. In no way did I intend to sound gratifying of the horrific Vegas incident. I abhore violence. I was merely trying to say that the notion of using guns as a way to cause mass death is foolish. Great injury probably, yet to spray alot of ammo doesnt mean anything is achieved.
Thank you.