Right-Wing Groups Theorize The Aurora Massacre Was An Inside Job

By all indications from Aurora legal authorities, the shootings that killed 12 people and injured dozens of others at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie was a one-man job. However, the facts in this case have not stopped an extremist theory from going viral online.

The substance of this theory is that the shooting was an ‘inside job’ by the U.S. government scheduled to coincide with the upcoming negotiation of the United Nations Small Arms Treaty,  a controversial potential multilateral treaty that would regulate the international trade in conventional weapons.

This right-wing theory seems to have begun on the Natural News Network, self described “non-profit collection of public education websites” incorporated by Truth Publishing International, a Taiwan corporation.   In an article entitled Colorado Batman shooting shows obvious signs of being staged, they break down the theory:

“All this looks like James Holmes completed a “mission” and then calmly ended that mission by surrendering to police and admitting everything. The mission, as we are now learning, was to cause as much terror and mayhem as possible, then to have that multiplied by the national media at exactly the right time leading up the UN vote next week on a global small arms treaty that could result in gun confiscation across America.

…In other words, this has all the signs of Fast & Furious, Episode II. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover someone in Washington was behind it all. After all, there’s no quicker way to disarm a nation and take total control over the population than to stage violence, blame it on firearms, then call for leaders to “do something!” Such calls inevitably end up resulting in gun confiscation, and it’s never too long after that before government genocide really kicks in like we saw with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and other tyrants. [emphasis theirs]“

The story was quickly picked up by The New American, the official publication of the notorious radical right-wing group, the John Birch Society, an American political advocacy group supporting anti-communism, limited government and a constitutional republic.  [The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the society as a "'Patriot' Group". Other sources consider the society as part of the patriot movement.]

Next, the story got picked up by the radical right-wing Second Amendment group, Gun Owners  of America, who are described on their website by Ron Paul (R-TX) as “The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington”.

Larry Pratt, the president of Gun Owners of America, went on to issue a press release last week targeting radio bookers noting that “In an article posted at The New American…one expert even outlined a theory that Holmes didn’t act alone, but was possibly ‘enlisted’ to carry out his violent act.” The press release goes on to state:

“Available for interviews to comment on Holmes’ impeccable timing, so to speak, is Larry Pratt, the executive director of the Gun Owners of America (GOA), who can explain why the Treaty, the ideology behind it or, for that matter, even four more years of Obama, is a threat to the American ideal. …

Domestic disarmament could be the likely result of a UN treaty on small arms. Our greatest concern at GOA is not Senate ratification, which will not happen, but a President Obama with four more years who could then be free to wreck havoc on gun stores and gun owners.

Although it would be illegal (but since when does the President care about the rule of law?) a second Obama administration could tell gun stores that their federal firearms license is revoked if they do not agree to remove all handguns for sale that are above caliber .380. A similar prohibition of semi-automatic rifles and shotguns could be imposed in the same way.”

The ironic ending to this story, as reported tonight by CBS News, blows this theory out of the water:

” [The] U.N. treaty to regulate the multibillion-dollar global arms trade will have to wait after member states failed to an reach agreement, and some diplomats and supporters blamed the United States for the unraveling of the month long negotiating conference.

Hopes had been raised that agreement could be reached on a revised treaty text that closed some major loopholes by Friday’s deadline for action. But the U.S. announced Friday morning that it needed more time to consider the proposed treaty — and Russia and China then also asked for more time.”

Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA even went as far as to say:

“This was stunning cowardice by the Obama administration, which at the last minute did an about-face and scuttled progress toward a global arms treaty, just as it reached the finish line.”