Shooter identified by law enforcement officials James T. Hodgkinson

[RockaFowler]

Source: Washington Post

The shooter at the GOP congressional baseball practice this morning is James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill., according tolaw enforcement officials. Hodgkinson, 66, owns a home inspection business. His home inspection license expired in November 2016 and was not renewed, state records show.

Hodgkinson was charged in April 2006 with battery and aiding damage to a motor vehicle, according to online records in St. Clair County, Illinois. The charges were dismissed, records show.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/2017/live-updates/public-safety/updates-shooting-at-congressional-baseball-practice-in-virginia/shooter-named-as-james-t-hodgkinson/?utm_term=.b0ca09d0dfd0

[asiliveandbreathe]

1. Charges dismissed - so he keeps his guns..and if republiklans have their way

legislation to remove regulations on silencers..don't cha know!!! Pathetic...

[Marengo]

40. Should charges alone lead to permanent RKBA prohibition?

[JI7]

2. seems like a loser type

Fail in life most likely due to your own faults and take others down with you.

Not too different from that Manchester terrorist and the tsarnaev brothers and many other Islamic terrorists.

[MosheFeingold]

36. He seems to owned a successful business

As a home inspector. He was an active Bernie supporter, active in various liberal causes, and anti-Republican.

And apparently, a complete loon.

[JI7]

37. he lost his license for that business

He was also anti Hillary and anti dnc

[Sunlei]

3. how come he was on the game field talking to people? was he invited?

[Dopers_Greed]

4. Perhaps he was going to lose insurance due to the GOP bill

Surely he can invoke the "stand your ground" defense

[KPN]

14. Looks possible if you go to his FB page.

[ToxMarz]

16. if he's 66 he would be on Medicare

[hamsterjill]

26. He may have family members that will be affected.

It's been my experience that people are many times more affected by what will happen to family members than what might affect themselves personally. It's hard to watch someone you love suffer.

[PunkinPi]

5. Facebook profile...

https://www.facebook.com/jthodgkinson

[Hoyt]

6. This appears to be his Facebook page. Whoops, sorry already posted.

https://www.facebook.com/jthodgkinson

[trailmonkee]

15. does this show when he opened his page?

[Hoyt]

18. I see posts on it going back before 2014, so it's been there awhile.

[trailmonkee]

22. thank you

[Neema]

7. Bernie or Bust guy. The right wing trolls are already crawling all over his FB page.

Here we go.

[snooper2]

9. where the far left meets the far right- Russia good, the West is evil

so on and so forth blah blah blah


I guess they are Libertarian Socialists

[DeminPennswoods]

10. Aliented white working class

Remember, both Sanders' and Trump's populist rhetoric appealed to these folks.

Also interesting is one of his links is to "The GOP left me".

[Neema]

11. Sure, but the GOP will lay this guy firmly at the feet of liberals.

No doubt.

[DeminPennswoods]

12. Just saying, populism has a lot of appeal

nt

[Initech]

28. They already are. Twitter is extremely ugly today.

And I'm sure Facebook is crawling with these people. This is the last thing we need right now.

[Archae]

8. Just great, this is going to be ammunition for the right-wing.

The guy looks rather liberal, Bernie supporter.

The right-wingers will blame "the liberal media," liberals in general, etc.

[Lurks Often]

17. Not just a Bernie supporter according to the POS's FB page

You aren't going to want to see what his "likes" are

[JI7]

19. what are they ? i cant view facebook

[Lurks Often]

21. Many pro Democrat and anti Trump & anti Republican pages

Link: https://www.facebook.com/jthodgkinson/likes?lst=100000536256025%3A1350932325%3A1497454748

The POS has liked any of the following pages about: 2 HRC pages, 2+ Rachel Maddow pages, 2+ Bernie pages, Tulsi Gabbard, Keith Olberman, 2+ Elizabeth Warren and numerous other sites that support the liberal/progressive views and oppose the Republicans.

[Paladin]

23. We better brace for some right-wing payback. (nt)

[mr_lebowski]

34. Yeah, cause it isn't like Con/RW nutters do this kind of shite ALL THE DAMN TIME or anything

[7962]

31. Also a member of "Terminate the Republican party" among other groups

Seems this guy has been angry for a LONG time

[Initech]

29. They already are.

[Archae]

30. So I noticed.

One national congressman has already blamed "dem lib'ruls," and so has a Wisconsin republican.

"Wahhhh!!! You Trump-haters are ta blame!"

[IronLionZion]

13. Was James coming from Syria or Iraq? Libya? Somalia?

How did James T. Hodgkinson get past the travel ban? Did he jump over the wall?

[JI7]

20. he voted for Jill Stein

[Hoyt]

24. Has anyone checked the JPine Radicals?

[RhodeIslandOne]

44. They may be down a member. N/m

[Hoyt]

45. OOOOOH.

[OnlinePoker]

25. According to Trump's press conference, he's now died. n/t

[24601]

27. Illinois Hometown Paper (Belleville News-Democrat) posts his Letters

http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article156092134.html

I would note also that early reports usually are incomplete and mistakes are common.

[Sunlei]

33. Thanks for that link, those letters were a good read. wonder why he gave up and went the murder-sui

wonder why he gave up and went the mass murder-suicide(by cop) route.

one letter to newspaper,


QUOTE""Maybe next tax day

I’m still convinced that the major change that we all need to push for is a change in the federal tax code. We need more brackets to reach all classes of people.

We need a much higher bracket that actually reaches into the rich and super-rich incomes. I wish everyone would check out taxfoundation.org, so they could see for themselves and not just believe me as to how the leaders of the past reached all classes of income. They would like you to think that there is a lower class, middle class, and upper class. This is just not so.

In 1938 we had 33 tax brackets to reach all classes of income. These brackets ranged from 4 percent for income up to $64,000 (adjusted for inflation), all the way up to 79 percent for income over $79 million.

If we had anything close to the way our great leaders of the past set up the tax code, we could eliminate 90 percent of the country’s problems, pay down the debt and get the country back in the black in no time.

The income inequality of the 1920s was a major contributor of the Great Depression, and if we don’t raise the tax brackets to reach the rich we will never get out of this Great Recession.

I would wish all people under an annual income of $1 million to get behind the 99 percent, and back the push for tax reform. My motto is: “Tax em like 1938.”

God bless the 99 percent.""

END QUOTE

Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/news/local/article156092134.html#storylink=cpy

[Bengus81]

32. Republicans in 2004 WANTED him to be able again to posess automatic weapons.........

They could have voted to extend the Clinton ban for another ten years but nope......

[MosheFeingold]

35. His rifle

Was a semi-automatic.

It was not a machine gun, which have been rather difficult to obtain (possible, but it takes a special tax stamp and a six-to-twelve month wait) since around 1920.

[yagotme]

39. As an Illinois resident,

the above would be nearly impossible to do here. Machine guns are a big no-no in IL.

[melm00se]

41. Not only difficult because of the tax stamp

but also very expensive.

[DeminPennswoods]

38. Mr Hodgkinson's views are populist at their core

I doubt there's really much seperation between his views and those of Trump voters.

To me, this is a warning sign of how stressed everyone but the top 1% are these days what with guaranteed pensions, benefits, livable wages, affordable and accessible healthcare and social programs all disappearing more quickly than most could have imagined. And now with the Rs in charge of the entire gov't, programs like social security, medicare and medicaid are increasingly being threatened. Stir that up with all the guns in society and it's wonder something like this hasn't happened before today.

[Willie Pep]

42. That is definitely a factor.

People are stressed out and miserable. The stats on depression, suicide, anxiety and other mental health problems are not pretty. You also have to include social isolation and a culture that is becoming increasingly angry and encourages people to take out their frustrations on others.

Honestly, violent people can come from any place on the political spectrum. It is not like we have never had right-wing violence in this country.

[Alt-Orange]

43. Belleville, IL

My backyard pretty much. There is a movement of angry populists in this area, that either took bernies or trumps side during the election. And a lot voted for Trump in November.