A gunman, posing as an intern, entered the The Family Research Council and shot a security guard. The FRC is a conservative pro-life and pro-traditional marriage organization which has been labelled as a hate group by leftists and gay rights organizations in recent days. The gunman may have had more sinister motives toward FRC employees.
A source told FoxNews.com that the suspect “made statements regarding their policies, and then opened fire with a gun striking a security guard.” The gunman may also have been carrying a bag from Chick-fil-A, a restaurant that has been attacked by those on the left because of its owner’s stance against gay marriage and has been all over the news in recent weeks.
FoxNews.com reports the “gunman entered the lobby of the organization’s Chinatown headquarters around 10:45 and expressed disagreement with the conservative group’s policy positions” and “when the guard, who was not identified, asked him where he was going, he opened fire, according to police.”
Sources told FoxNews.com that after the guard took away the shooter’s gun, the suspect said, “Don’t shoot me, it was not about you, it was what this place stands for.”
“The security guard here is a hero, as far as I’m concerned,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. “He did his job. The person never made it past the front.”
According to FoxNews.com, the guard was shot in the arm and is in stable condition while the gunman was being questioned by the FBI. The shooting is being treated as a case of domestic terrorism.
“The police are investigating this incident,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said in a statement. “Our first concern is with our colleague who was shot today. Our concern is for him and his family.”
Mitt Romney released a statement in which he said he was “appalled by the shooting today at the offices of the Family Research Council in our nation’s capital.”
“There is no place for such violence in our society,” Romney said. “My prayers go out to the wounded security guard and his family, as well as all the people at the Family Research Council whose sense of security has been shattered by today’s horrific events.”
The shooting happened in Washington, D.C., which is the center of the political media universe. There is more evidence in this case that the shooter had political motivations than in other recent cases (Gabby Giffords, Aurora, to name a few) in which the mainstream media jumped to conclusions about the shooter’s motives, falsely implicating conservatives and the Tea Party.
Yet there have not been breaking news alerts on cable television. Cable news outlets are not covering this incident wall-to-wall, even as more details come to light.
Update: President Barack Obama reacted hours later, saying “this type of violence has no place in our society”–a reaction apparently identical to that used in the subject line of Romney’s press release on the subject.