An Arizona brain scientist was arrested last week after two women said he pointed a semiautomatic rifle at them at an airport coffee shop.
Dr. Peter Nathan Steinmetz, a neuroscientist at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, brought the AR-15 rifle slung over his shoulder to Starbucks inside a terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The Phoenix New Times reported that Steinmetz was doing nothing wrong until he removed the weapon from his shoulder, accidentally pointing the gun at two women waiting at a gate.
Police told the newspaper that it’s not generally illegal to carry a semi-automatic rifle into the airport terminal, but Steinmetz was arrested because of “the way he was carrying it.”
The physician had bought a cup of coffee and then stopped in front of some gates in the non-secure area of Terminal Four, where he accidentally pointed the muzzle at a woman and her 17-year-old daughter.
The women told police they feared for their safety.
Steinmetz was arrested about 10:30 a.m. on two felony counts of disorderly conduct with a weapon.
He told officers that he had no other business at the airport besides buying a cup of coffee.
Steinmetz and his son brought firearms to the airport in November, two days after a fatal shooting at Los Angeles International Airport, to pick up the neuroscientist’s wife.
It wasn't immediately clear why Steinmetz brought the Ar-15 to buy a cup of coffee, but pro-gun activists have staged open-carry demonstrations at retail and restaurant chains across the country.
Blogger David Waldman, who tracks gun violence for Daily Kos, argues that open-carry activists intend the demonstrations to suggest the companies support bringing weapons into their stores.
"To the manager (and other witnesses) on site, the main focus of the event appears to be the guns themselves," Waldman wrote. "For everyone else viewing the event only through photos distributed online, the main focus of the event is the brand. 'Look who's letting us do this! Look who's on our side! Soon you'll see us in your location!'"
Ali Velshi held up a dark front page of the Uvalde Leader-News as he began anchoring MSNBC "Prime" from Texas on the dramatically shifting official accounts of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.
"In the aftermath of any horrific event, information is spotty. our understanding of what happens evolves over time, but even by those standards of breaking, and developing news, the inability of officials to give a consistent, and coherent account of a key portion of the timeline of attack is, frankly, confounding," Velshi reported.
He noted multiple official statements on whether an armed school resource officer engaged the gunman. And played two videos purported to show officers clashing with parents outside the school.
Velshi explained why examining law enforcement's response is important.
"Look, the point in raising all these questions about the law enforcement response is certainly not to pick on officers who may well have been very brave and doing their best in an unbelievably stressful and highly threatening situation," he said.
"But, law enforcement — more and more law enforcement — is really the only response to school shootings that have been proposed or allowed by the Republican officials who run the state of Texas," he noted. "After the Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas in 2018, the state passed multiple bills to, 'harden schools'. The Uvalde school district doubled its security budget, it created its own police force and threat assessment teams at each school. "
If that is the only answer that Texas has to the scourge of school shootings, — not to prevent them, but to guard and respond to schools better when they happen — well, they've got to show that plan works," Velshi said. "And tonight the people of Uvalde have a lot of questions about how well it worked."
Unseating U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Silt who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, is a strong motivator for three Democratic primary candidates who spoke at a candidate forum in Grand Junction on Wednesday.
Boebert will first have to beat her primary challenger, Don Coram, a Republican state senator and former state representative from Montrose.
“I’m running as a father, businessman, local community activist, former city council member, and to make sure Lauren Boebert doesn’t win a second term,” said Aspen businessman Adam Frisch. “She’s an embarrassment and not fighting for the people who voted her in.”
The candidate forum held at Colorado Mesa University also included Sol Sandoval, a community organizer from Pueblo, and Alex Walker, who runs a tech business in Grand Junction.
Approximately 140 people attended the event.
Sandoval shared that she didn’t sleep well the night before, with the recent school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, on her mind, and concern for own children attending school.
“I’m here today as a mother, and a daughter of courageous immigrants,” Sandoval said. “I’m from a pro-union working family. I’ve worked as a social worker and community organizer” and have been trained to listen to people’s issues, she said.
Sandoval, who announced her candidacy within a month after Boebert took office, has spent the last year-and-a-half traveling around Colorado visiting with both Republicans and Democrats who are struggling to make ends meet.
“We have to work across party lines,” she said. “As an organizer, my friends throughout the district will make a difference. I’m here because know I know we can win this district. I have $800,000 from voters in the district — that demonstrates my grassroots campaign.”
Walker, expressed anger at the Democratic Party for being too “polite” and occasionally used expletives as he conveyed his frustration with Democrats playing too nice.
“I’m running for my survival,” Walker said. “Since Lauren Boebert and Donald Trump were elected I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been called a (slur for “gay”). They’ve emboldened a hateful streak in people. I’m here to work like hell for my survival. And for a future of clean jobs, real wages, basic human rights and accessible health care. We need people to stand up to Lauren Boebert.”
After mentioning “the two horrific acts in the past two weeks,” the forum moderator asked each candidate if they would support a ban on assault rifles. On May 14, a man killed 10 people in a Buffalo, N.Y. supermarket in an apparent racist attack.
The Second Amendment topic comes up a lot during his visits with people in the district, and there needs to be a respect for gun ownership, Frisch said. He said he’s not sure what the answer is to stopping America’s all-too-common mass shootings but that certain people should be restricted from accessing firearms.
Sandoval said she’s a gun owner and recognizes the importance of the Second Amendment for rural Coloradans. However, “there are practical things we can support in the bill in the Senate that addresses background checks,” she added.
The Bipartisan Background Checks Act would expand federal background checks required for gun purchases and ensure that individuals experiencing a mental health crisis would not be able to access guns, she said.
Walker said he would close the loophole for background checks, ban assault rifles, and send to prison people who bring guns to schools.
Wildfire protection
Candidates were also asked if they’ve considered the fate of oil and gas, as well as coal industry workers as Colorado moves toward achieving 100% renewable energy by 2040.
Walker responded that there’s a demand for clean energy and that people will actually earn more money in the renewable energy industry.
“Embracing clean technology is an incredible opportunity for Colorado’s future,” he said.
Sandoval, who mentioned growing up in poverty and is sympathetic to people’s fears about job losses, said she would support the training needed to transition away from fossil fuel development and into renewable energy.
Frisch said a lot of people working in the fossil fuel industry are aware of changes in weather, implying that workers are aware that the future will require learning new skills.
When asked about current federal legislation that would protect employees’ rights to organize and collectively bargain in the workplace, Frisch agreed that there must be protections for wages and benefits and that he would not stand in the way of workers who want to organize.
Sandoval contended that an entire region improves when there’s a union employer in the area.
“Pueblo is a union town,” she said. “Everyone’s lives improve. I know the importance of collective power and standing up to corporations.”
Candidates were also asked how they would protect Colorado during an era of unprecedented wildfires. Walker said he would protect Colorado with carbon tax incentives and reforestation. He also emphasized the importance of renegotiating the Colorado River Compact guidelines for sharing water with downstream users.
Sandoval mentioned the need for conserving water and protecting the water that originates in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, while Frisch added that Coloradans should not turn down funding that would help states deal with forest fires — a reference to Boebert, who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act.
Frisch said Democrats have a unique opportunity to beat Boebert if she wins the primary but that Democrats must build a coalition that includes unaffiliated voters.
“It would be a shame if this district blows this opportunity,” he said. “Lauren Boebert is more vulnerable than people realize.”
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.
On Thursday, the Brownsville Heraldreported that two students from the Donna Independent School District in South Texas have been charged with second-degree felonies over an alleged "credible threat."
"Four students were arrested Wednesday and two of them faced criminal charges on Thursday," reported Francisco E. Jiminez. "Nathaniel Seth Montelongo and Barbarito Pantoja, both 17 years old, were charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony. The other two students are minors and will face a judge Friday."
"All of them were arrested after police received an anonymous tip that the group was planning to carry out a threat at a school," continued the report. "Donna officials refused to say which campus was being targeted."
A separate report earlier this morning indicated that authorities uncovered an AK-47 rifle and a "hit list" as part of the alleged threat. However, per the Herald, "investigators refused to give any details about weapons, including if any were seized, and said there was no hit list."
This comes after the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 elementary schoolers and two teachers dead. Police have come under heavy criticism in that case amid allegations they stood outside for up to an hour while the shooting was going on and prevented parents from trying to rescue their children.
It also comes as law enforcement react to more threats around the state, including a high school student in Richardson arrested after trying to bring an AK-47 and AR-style rifle onto school premises.
