Brian Brown: It Could Have Been Me

"It could have been me or my staff. That crossed my mind when I learned the deeply disturbing breaking news: The Family Research Council shooter told the FBI he used the Southern Poverty Law Center's 'hate group' designation on their website to ID and target his victims for a would-be mass murder rampage. So far, according to the Associated Press, the SPLC has refused to comment on what it now knows about the damage its hate list caused.

"An innocent man was shot because a killer openly and admittedly used the SPLC's list to pick out and target his victims — and SPLC has no comment? No comment on the chilling revelation that this disturbed man, inspired by the SPLC's hate group list, walked into FRC with 50 rounds of ammo and Chick-fil-A sandwiches that he intended to smear on the mouth of each of his victims!

"Let me make something clear here: I do not blame gay people for this shooting. Most homosexual people are law-abiding fellow citizens, equally appalled by violence. I do blame the Southern Poverty Law Center for taking organizations of other decent, law-abiding fellow-citizens, and lumping them in with neo-Nazis, labeling them 'hate groups,' as part of a deliberate strategy to marginalize, stigmatize, and repress the speech and democratic rights of conservative Christians." - Hate group leader Brian Brown, again denouncing the SPLC, which does not list his group.