• Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        No no no. Voter party affiliation on voter registration doesn’t mean anything on its own. People change their registered parties all the time to vote in the other party’s primaries and such. Also sometimes people forget to switch back.

        For kids, their party affiliation is going to be whatever their parents are (lest they be disowned by their family). For kids, their political views can and do change radically from 18 to 25.

        Party affiliation on voter registration means nothing in the case of the shooter.

          • Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            Fine, young adult, whatever. My point still stands. Young new voters are most likely to be registered with the same party affiliation as their parents. It doesn’t mean the shooter is actually a republican.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      If nothing gets released (like very little was released about the mini-arsenal, bump-stock Las Vegas mass shooter) he’s probably right wing. If there’s anything leftist about it you can bet they’ll dig for every possible way to exploit it.

    • MagicShel@programming.dev
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      5 months ago

      We may never be able to put him on so narrow a box, but he was registered, a gun nut, and he didn’t donate to Dems - that was just someone with the same name in the same state.

      That’s not confirmation, but thus far there isn’t any reason to believe otherwise.

      But also he was 20. It’s likely he didn’t have a strong personal affiliation with any political party.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      5 months ago

      Not in any way that will convince someone who doesn’t want to believe it, but for reasonable folks…

      https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-rally-gunman-thomas-crooks-was-definitely-conservative-classmate-recalls

      Smith shared an American history class with Crooks, and remembered a mock debate where their teacher made students stand on one side of the classroom or another to signal their allegiance. “The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”

      • Fuzzy_Red_Panda@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        This was years ago. Kids change really quickly as they grow up. Ask me how I know. I used to be a kid in high school who was spouting my parents’ bullshit conservative christian views. After high school I started thinking for myself and left all that toxic garbage behind.

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          5 months ago

          I’ll use that counterargument the next time someone brings up how he donated $15 to pacblue when he was 15 to convince me he’s a crazy left wing antifa whackjob or similar. Edit: Apparently that donation has been debunked anyhow. So on the balance of available evidence…