The airman who was arrested in connection with the leak of highly sensitive classified documents had an obsession with firearms and said that he found analyzing mass shootings to be "fun," according to an investigation.
Alleged leaker Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who it was discovered had access to a trove of military documents over a long period of time, frequently posted about his guns, about firearm legislation, and about mass shootings and conspiracy theories, according to an analysis published by the New York Times.
The Times, which looked into 9,500 chat logs from Discord, found that Teixeira blamed the United States for purportedly orchestrating gruesome mass shootings.
“The FBI and other 3 letter agencies contact these unhinged mentally ill kids and convince them to do mass shootings,” Teixeira wrote in an online chat group, according to the news outlet.
"In messages posted on Discord, a social media platform popular among gamers, Airman Teixeira claimed that the 20-year-old gunman behind the rampage at Greenwood Park Mall was one of many mass shooters groomed by the American government as part of a secret plot 'to make people vote for' gun control," the New York Times reported.
The obsession with guns went so far that Teixeira reportedly claimed to have at least 16 guns over the course of two years. He also insulted former presidents who initiated any form of gun control, including Trump, according to the Times analysis.
"The airman posted about six new guns in February and March alone, suggesting he was acquiring weapons shortly before his arrest," the Times wrote Saturday.
"His politics seem to be dominated by his vehement opposition to firearms restrictions — criticizing former Presidents Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump for passing various gun control measures," the New York Times report says. "'I think analyzing mass shootings is cool. And fun,' he wrote on Sept. 5, 2022, during an exchange about similarities between shooters in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo."
