I Don't Understand Gun Culture and I Never Will
There was another unfortunate exercise of Second Amendment rights over the weekend in a Waffle House outside of Nashville. Police say that a 29-year old named Travis Reinking showed up dressed only in an overcoat and an AR-15 and opened fire, killing four people, all of them African American.
He was disarmed by a heroic Waffle House patron who jumped the alleged shooter while the latter was reloading. Reinking was still at large Monday morning, although police say he was able to cop a pair of pants while fleeing the scene. As the manhunt rolls on, however, we are getting a look at the life and times of Travis Reinking, and it is a very strange look, indeed.
In 2017, Reinking showed up at the White House–not the Waffle House and not White Castle but the actual presidential mansion–and asked to see the president*. The Secret Service found this not a little hinky. From CNN:
In July 2017, Travis Reinking told a uniform Secret Service officer that he must get into the White House to speak with the President, according to an arrest report. The officer explained that he must get a tour to do that and told Reinking to move away from the pedestrian entrance, but the report states Reinking told the officer again that he had to speak with the President and that he was a "sovereign citizen" who had a right to inspect the grounds. After telling Reinking to move again, the report states that Reinking took his tie off, balled it into his fist, began approaching the officer and walked past the security barriers. "Do what you need to do. Arrest me if you have to," Reinking said, according to the report.
The Secret Service obliged him, although I don’t know what the whole taking-off-the-tie business is about. Maybe it’s some kind of crackpot rightwing signal that I haven’t caught up with yet. Anyway, after his case was adjudicated, Reinking went home to Illinois, where the FBI came calling.
Tazewell County, Illinois, authorities revoked Reinking's firearm authorization and seized four weapons after the interview. According to a report from the Tazewell County Sheriff's Office, authorities seized a Kimber 9 mm handgun, a Bushmaster AR-15 style rifle, a CZ-USA .22-caliber rifle, a Remington 710 and random ammunition. The AR-15 style rifle listed was the same weapon used in Sunday's Waffle House shooting, which killed four people, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police.
Wait, you say. If this guy broke security at the White House, and then local authorities, doubtless at the urging of the FBI, took away his AR-15, then how did he have it to shoot up the Waffle House this weekend? Here is where it gets very weird.
Police later returned the seized weapons to Reinking's father, Jeffrey Reinking, and told him to keep the weapons secure and away from his son.
Wait for it.
However, Nashville police learned Sunday that Jeffrey acknowledged giving the guns back to his son, police said.
This, despite the fact that Reinking’s father knew that Travis had gone a little off plumb. From the Peoria Journal-Star:
Among those reports was a May 26, 2016, incident in the parking lot of a CVS in Morton, where Reinking believed singer Taylor Swift was hacking his cellphone and stalking him. His family had told Tazewell County deputies that he had been having delusions for almost two years. Deputies and a member of the Tazewell County Emergency Response Services division finally convinced him to be evaluated at UnityPoint Health Methodist, which handles many mental health issues. Deputies were told Reinking’s family was concerned about him because Reinking had talked about killing himself. Reinking agreed not to drive away from the CVS parking lot so he could be taken to a hospital for an evaluation, but said it was against his will.
On June 16, 2017, Tremont police were called to the Tremont Pool after a man identified as Reinking dove into the pool wearing a pink woman’s house coat, took off the coat and was swimming in his underwear. Lifeguards told Reinking to get out of the pool. He yelled at the lifeguards, got out of the pool, and displayed his genitals to show lifeguards he’s a man.
Your son thinks pop singers are after him. He gets naked in public. He gets sent to the hospital for observation. He gets busted for breaching security at the president*’s house. The FBI drops by to chat. The local authorities take his guns away because, let’s face it, he’s been acting a little strange these days. How is your first thought not to suggest that your son might need a little supervised time-out from the pressures of daily living, or at least some counseling for his issues? How do you give him back his AR-15? My god, gun culture is weird. I confess. I don’t understand these people and I never will.
This, by the way, was the second mass shooting in that same suburban Nashville town in less than a year. The previous one was in a church. I’ll just leave that here.
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