FRC Posts Video of Attack at Headquarters, Shooter Naming Southern Poverty Law Center as Source
The Family Research Council posted a video (see below) Thursday of building manager Leo Johnson thwarting the Aug. 15, 2012, attack by gunman Floyd Corkins. The video also shows an FBI interrogation of Corkins saying he chose FRC as a target after visiting the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The video first shows security camera footage of Corkins pulling out a gun from his backpack and pointing it at Johnson. Johnson quickly grabs the gun and the two men are seen struggling. Johnson was shot in the attack and spent over a week in a hospital.
Besides the gun, Corkins had 100 rounds of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. His plan was to kill everyone in the building and smear the sandwiches in their faces.
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Following the security footage, the video shows footage from the FBI interrogation of Corkins.
After Corkins was asked how he found FRC, he answers, "Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups. I found them online. I did a little bit of research, went to the website. Stuff like that."
The SPLC maintains a list of what it calls "hate groups." The list includes racist, neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan, Holocaust denying, black separatist, and anti-Muslim groups. It also includes an "anti-gay" category where it lists FRC. SPLC claims that FRC is hate group because of its opposition to "same-sex marriage, hate crime laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy."
In a Thursday press release announcing the video, FRC President Tony Perkins complained that the SPLC's labeling of FRC a hate group led to the attack.
"The SPLC's reckless labeling has led to devastating consequences," Perkins said. "Because of its 'hate group' labeling, a deadly terrorist had a guidemap to FRC and other organizations. Our team is still dealing with the fallout of the attack, that was intended to have a chilling effect on organizations that are simply fighting for their values."
Perkins also asked the SPLC to stop labeling those groups that disagree with their political positions on homosexuality as hate groups.
"The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has now been linked to domestic terrorism in federal court, should put an immediate stop to its practice of labeling organizations that oppose their promotion of homosexuality," Perkins added.
Perkins also complained that the SPLC is attempting to shut down reasonable public debate about issues related to homosexuality.
"In a civil society, shutting down debate is not how reasonable people and organizations operate. Intimidating and bullying others shreds the 'ordered liberty' of which our Founders wrote and for which they advocated, and places all of us in jeopardy of losing our sacred rights as militant extremists claim the public square exclusively for themselves," concluded Perkins.
