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Boston PD stops plot to attack Pokemon World Championship

chicagocubsfan said:
Yep and I actually found the group on FB where they posted the photo.

The dude who commented and liked it besides the other 2 is gonna be in some hot water as well.
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Why? Tons of people on Facebook post pics of themselves shooting guns. Hell, some small gun shops have most of their social media presence on Facebook.
 
jbug617 said:
I don't think they intended to use them but good on everyone involved to make the authorities aware.
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Really? First of all they didn't have the permits for the rifles, so why put them in the car and drive around with them if they weren't going to use them? And they had a shitton of ammunition in their cars with other weapons (knives) as well.
 
And people say swatting doesn't deserve severe punishment. Imagine if they had ignored this... Things would have ended horribly.

Good job on catching them!
 
TC McQueen said:
Why? Tons of people on Facebook post pics of themselves shooting guns. Hell, some small gun shops have most of their social media presence on Facebook.
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Some dude liked and commented on the picture of these dudes with their AR-15 and Shotgun on the back of a car and the caption was "Going to Pokemon Championships".

And one of the comments said something about "killing the competition".

So it sounds like he would know something about the plot as well.
 
CosmicQueso said:
Read stuff like this all the time regarding online threats of violence... "oh it's just the internet, not like they'd ever go through with it"

It just should not be considered acceptable to make threats anywhere.

Glad these guys were caught.
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I remember when my town had the Westroads Mall shooting and he posted his intentions on 4chan. It's heartbreaking that we live in a society like this where people take their anger out on those around them. I remember that day because I was working at GameStop and I heard there was a shooting over at the mall. It makes your heart sink.
 
BearPawB said:
wouldnt they have permits then?
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Yup. The whole thing about "maybe they were just law abiding citizens exercising their second amendment rights" is that they would have permits or licences for those weapons, which they didn't. Now, they might have had them but not on them if they were travelling for the event but still, you carry your weapon around, you have the paperwork to say you're allowed it.

Plus the whole thing with the facebook picture of the guns on the car saying they are ready kinda implies they intended to use them. It wasn't like they captioned that picture "ready for the gun range".
 
Skelter said:
I haven't read the links in the OP's post. Are they mentally unstable or are they just terrible people?
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They thought it was a good idea to bring two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammo to a pokemon TCG tournament. The fact that they couldn't bring themselves to not do that, makes me think they are unstable.
 
I'm absolutely not prepared to accept that these guys are packing all that illegal weaponry for a cross-country trip, complete with that original photo, with no intent at all.

I don't feel this is a particularly cynical stance, either.
 
This sucks. Explains the heightened security that pissed people off, though. I hope they always keep high security for these events because crap like that is terrifying.

I really hope they do Worlds in Europe one year. We have drive-by arguments.
 
BearPawB said:
wouldnt they have permits then?
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Zomba13 said:
Yup. The whole thing about "maybe they were just law abiding citizens exercising their second amendment rights" is that they would have permits or licences for those weapons, which they didn't. Now, they might have had them but not on them if they were travelling for the event but still, you carry your weapon around, you have the paperwork to say you're allowed it.
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That varies state by state and sometimes between cities in states. I live in Florida, for example, and we don't need permits to buy guns, just meeting age requirements. It's entirely possible that they legally bought the guns in Iowa, came up clean on the background checks, and only broke Boston gun ownership laws.
 
The Daily Beast story makes it look like they made a joke about "killing the competition" (which could be an innocuous statement)

And then they were busted with weapons in their car.

I'll need more info to confirm that this is the aborted massacre we all assume from the title. Were there explicit threats?
 
TC McQueen said:
That varies state by state and sometimes between cities in states. I live in Florida, for example, and we don't need permits to buy guns, just meeting age requirements. It's entirely possible that they legally bought the guns in Iowa, came up clean on the background checks, and only broke Boston gun ownership laws.
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you can buy those types of guns without some sort of gun license?
 
As it stands right now, there is no clear cut intent of their actions. More information needs to come out on the manner of the threats being reported, and what actually happened at the security check entering the Hynes.
 
So what kind of punishment will they face? I'm hoping jail time; you don't bring unlicensed weapons to an event with a ton of people, including children, and threaten to "kill the competition." I'm just so glad these clowns decided to boast about this on social media so a tragedy could be prevented. Imagine if they weren't idiots; this could have gone down a much darker path...
 
jbug617 said:
you can buy those types of guns without some sort of gun license?
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I can buy pistols in Florida without a license. The only thing I need a permit for in Florida is concealed carry.

Also, since rifles and shotguns can be used for hunting (and yes, the AR-15 is a good hunting rifle, as long as you have an upper for a hunting legal round), those have less restrictions than pistols. Pretty much the only things nationwide that have a ton of paperwork involved are NFA items, which are well explained in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WYspLerH0w
 
Jesus Christ. I'm very, very glad that they were caught and that the people at the event are safe.

I'm not a lawyer or expert on the matter, but considering they carried firearms across state lines with no permits would that be a federal crime? Or is that strictly a state matter?
 
Vlitra said:
They thought it was a good idea to bring two guns and hundreds of rounds of ammo to a pokemon TCG tournament. The fact that they couldn't bring themselves to not do that, makes me think they are unstable.
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into Boston no less

at best, they're abhorrently stupid, and at worst... well, we don't have to worry about it, fortunately.
 
Gucci Messiah said:
So what kind of punishment will they face? I'm hoping jail time; you don't bring unlicensed weapons to an event with a ton of people, including children, and threaten to "kill the competition." I'm just so glad these clowns decided to boast about this on social media so a tragedy could be prevented. Imagine if they weren't idiots; this could have gone down a much darker path...
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They're going to prison for a very long time.
 
Good lord. That's the stage you're going to act out your big anti-establishment revenge plot on? A Pokemon tournament?
 
Oh goodness, well it's good they're idiots announcing it before hand. Also isn't Chuggaconroy on this event? D:
 
jbug617 said:
you can buy those types of guns without some sort of gun license?
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I think so. One was a shotgun and the other an AR-15, right? Apparently you can buy those in Iowa without a license. I'm not in to the gun culture, but I am in Iowa, and the only reasoning I can think for that is that there is a hunting culture here and "long" guns are primarily used for that.

So this information does kind of put the "Neither man produced a permit to carry firearms" fact in a different light. Neither man could produce one perhaps because neither man required one in their home state.
 
jbug617 said:
1440358192266


http://bpdnews.com/news/2015/8/23/k...-online-threats-to-pokemon-world-championship
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I was going to joke about that James cosplayer who gave out a Mystery Gift for a Racist Gengar at some event awhile back but I also thought this was just some 14 year old who yelled some violent trash talk.

This, on the other hand, means that these guys not only meant that they wanted to kill someone, but that they had the means to do so. So this is terrifying. I really hope this doesn't reflect poorly on competitive video/card games in general, but this is a Pokémon tournament. Even years after its fad status has died, this is going to be a media circus for a couple of days!

And, although I try to be professional and avoid talking about anything political on GAF, on the off-chance my account's compromised by an employer down the road, I think I can get away with saying "Damn, this makes a good case for gun control in the U.S." in a situation like this.

So, uh... Damn, this makes a good case for gun control in the U.S.
 
So bizarre that people can just get guns like these no question. Whether or not you feel the second amendment is valid or not, there should be checks on such weapons. Being hunting weapons is no excuse for not having a proper process, etc.
 
Northeastmonk said:
This is where I don't understand how people blame video games or anything else for another person's actions. They blame DOOM for Columbine and various PC games for Sandy Hook, yet the victims themselves are fans who don't go out of their way to commit a crime or plan something evil like this.

They intended on hurting the people attending this tournament. Kids, teens, and adults attend these events with the sole purpose of playing the game. It's good that they caught these guys or this would have been a mess.

I think society is pointing their finger at the wrong end of the spectrum.

I don't think you can explain a medium and its product as being this brainwashing device when the people are seeking to harm other individuals. No one was going to pull a gun out who is there casually playing Pokemon. It's going to happen when sick and twisted people bring their own messed up mentality to the people who are just enjoying themselves.
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That's because certain media is blaming it on games, instead of asking the better questions. People tend to believe the media without questioning it, too.
 
You have all the gun control in the world and you will still never keep the guns out of the wackos.

Kudos to law enforcement for stopping Team Rocket.
 
BlueLiquid said:
Jesus Christ. I'm very, very glad that they were caught and that the people at the event are safe.

I'm not a lawyer or expert on the matter, but considering they carried firearms across state lines with no permits would that be a federal crime? Or is that strictly a state matter?
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I'm not sure if there's any one law that covers bringing your guns over state lines (which is a massive problem), although I do know that some states ban different things than other states (for example, NFA items are banned in some states, but not others).
 
pics looke like they are named James Stumbo and Paul Littleton, team rocket wash outs with nothing to lose and everything to prove.


so were these gun lunatics who just couldn't bear to leave their babies at home, or are they planned killers?
 
wait so by that facebook joke the cops saw that as a tip? and the guns were in the car still while they were escorted out of the building.... sounds like two morons and someone trying to make a bigger story out of this then it really is, better to be safe then sorry but till more info comes out eh idk
 
So...as someone in Boston who went to hang out in the area yesterday and generally dislikes the BPD due to a number of reasons...

...fucking good on you BPD. Jesus fucking Christ.
 
I am really glad these 2 fools were foolish enough to post things on social media. Of all the things to attack, why the Pokemon World Championship?
 
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