A gun is worth a thousand Nazi words, or maybe 14, in the case of Payton Gendron

The United States was shaken late Saturday by the news of a white, gun-toting neo-Nazi teen that wanted to reflect his supremacist ideology on the ground as a means of realizing his aspiration of eradicating those whose existence goes against his beliefs.

18-year-old Payton Gendron carried out a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, claiming the lives of 10 people while three others are being provided with medical care. Gendron shot 13 people; 11 Black people and two White people, which reflects the motive behind the attack streamed on Twitch for the whole world to see the gruesome reality of the far-right.

The crime took place in a predominantly black neighborhood located more than 320 km (200 miles) away from where he resides, meaning it was not by mere coincidence and had been premeditated, for one does not simply find themselves in a parking lot 300 km away from home, donning military-style gear, a bulletproof vest, and a tactical helmet, opening fire on strangers.

The shooting spree is currently under investigation as both "a hate crime and a case of racially-motivated violent extremism." But is it truly a hate crime?

What are the implications of such an act that emboldens supremacist acts and further racially-motivated crimes?

We have to start with crimes of this sort in the United States unrelated to race and conducted arbitrarily throughout the country: mass shootings.

A bullet with 'US' on it

The US, home to the loosest gun laws in the world, has the most mass shootings in the world. US citizens lead the world in terms of gun ownership, with estimations suggesting that there were 390 million guns in circulation in 2018, with a rate of 120.5 guns per 100 residents.

In the country where you can buy firearms at your local convenience store, more than 45,000 Americans died due to gun violence alone, exceeding any other year on the record. But as Democrats and Republicans battle it out on the Congress floor, dozens of Americans die at the end of a barrel of a gun on a daily basis.

With any advocacy on gun control ruled "unconstitutional" by many avid arms enjoyers, the American people are the only collateral damage there is. And though gun advocacy is prominent on both sides of the political spectrum, it is the right that is the most significant backer of even looser gun laws, for it sees it as a means of propagating its values.

One in the chamber for the far-right

While many pro-gun advocates argue that laws protecting arms possessions are to protect citizens against criminals and the government if the latter were to "turn" oppressive, the far-right is utilizing this argument to give rise to itself as it is gaining more momentum and popularity in itself.

14

The number 14 is widely used by white supremacists as a reference to the "14 Words"; the most popular white supremacist slogan coined by David Lane, a member of The Order, a white supremacist terrorist group.

"We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children," the 14 words read.

The n-word

Looking at the front sight housing, one can clearly see the n-word. There is no need for introducing the infamous term coined by slave-owners to dehumanize their slaves and inherited by their white successors that still use it to discriminate against black people.

Gendron's AR-15 rifle

From left to right, Gendron's racism can be summarized with just a few words written down on the murder weapon.

"BLM MOGGED"

BLM is clearly in reference to the Black Lives Matter movement that gained momentum all over the world in light of widespread discrimination and police brutality. The word MOG, on the other hand, means to overpower a certain person, movement, or ideology; to "assert one's dominance over".

Philip Manshaus

Philip Manshaus is a 21-year-old Nazi from Norway who was indicted for terrorism and murder. He first killed his step-sister Johanne Ihle-Hansen, 17, and then opened fire at a mosque in Oslo.

His trial for terror and murder saw him spouting various racist, Islamophobic, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

The only victim of his actions was his step-sister, as he was unable to hurt any of the worshippers who were at the mosque during the attempted attack.

Philip Manshaus, 21, appears to be performing the Nazi salute during his court hearing in Oslo, Norway

John Earnest

John Earnest is a 19-year-old from California who was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison for federal hate crimes over a Synagogue shooting and attempted Mosque arson due to his extremist, white supremacist views.

He attempted to kill 50 people at the Poway Synagogue in California, US, and only managed to kill one woman and injure three others.

Earnest also admitted that over a month before his attempted Synagogue massacre, he attempted to burn down the Dar-ul-Arqam Mosque in California, citing his hatred of Muslims and the religious character of the building as the reason being.

Anders Breivik

Anders Breivik is a 43-year-old Nazi from Norway who has been in prison for more than a decade for terrorism and murder. He holds the record for the Nordic state's worst murdering rampage, when he set off a bomb in Oslo, killing eight people.

Afterward, he headed to Utoya Island where he stalked the teen members of the Labor Party's youth wing before murdering another 69 people.

Breivik has come to the limelight again recently after he appeared in court asking to be released on parole after serving 10 years in prison. His trial was characterized by him claiming he had left violence behind him while performing a Nazi salute.

Anders Breivik performing the Nazi salute during his parole hearing in Oslo, Norway

Shotgun shell pellets

Nazis and nationalists enable each other around the world, with one crime giving rise to another and therefore triggering a domino-like effect; one attack leads to another and gives fellow extremists inspiration to commit massacres.

Payton Gendron was hoping to say that he was inspired by other neo-Nazis, or at least was paying homage to them, by signing their names on his rifle that he used to shoot thirteen innocent people at a supermarket.

The scenes of the live stream were heavily reminiscent of the Christchurch Mosque shootings in New Zealand. The attack was motivated by Islamophobia and the assailant, Brenton Tarrant, used similar gear, barging into two Mosques and killing 51 people performing Friday prayers. The whole crime was live-streamed using a go-pro showing the criminal's POV of the whole massacre.

Gendron referred to the Christchurch shooter in his "manifesto", which described his preparations for the attack in detail and made reference to several crimes perpetrated by white supremacists, including in Charleston, South Carolina, El Paso, Texas, and the aforementioned Christchurch shootings.

The Buffalo shooter's manifesto makes it very clear that he was hindered by the gun control laws that do exist and enabled by the existence of loopholes. I've never seen this clear of a demonstration of the direct line between the gun policies we choose and mass murder. pic.twitter.com/rfdOoaWOwq
— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) May 14, 2022

With the far-right being on the rise, and gun laws not getting any stricter in the US, one can only hope that innocent people remain safe from arbitrary, racially-motivated aggressions that have taken countless lives around the globe. However, western media enabling neo-Nazis and describing them as "heroes" may not be the best approach to the pivotal issue of white supremacy.

And to answer the question posed at the beginning of this piece: yes. The massacre carried out by Payton Grendon is a full-fledged hate crime, and a macro inspection of the crime would prove it to be so, objectively.