San Diego LGBT restaurant attack shooting
courtesy NBC7.com
San Diego LGBT shooting restaurant attack assault rifle
courtesy NBC7.com

An arrest has been made after a man opened fire on a restaurant with a stolen rifle in San Diego’s Hillcrest area Tuesday. The suspect has been charged with nine counts of attempted murder, use of a firearm in a felony, and, last but certainly not least, felon in possession of a firearm (it was illegal for him to be in possession of any firearms or ammunition).

From kpbs.org

The restaurant is located in the busy uptown neighborhood, which is home to much of the city’s LGBTQ population. Bystanders made 911 calls to report seeing a man in a trench coat firing numerous rounds from a rifle into the Asian-food restaurant, shattering its front windows, about 7:40 p.m.

Following the barrage of gunshots, the shooter lowered his weapon and walked off, Officer John Buttle said.

The suspect used a relatively standard-appearing AR-15 pattern rifle which does not appear to be California compliant.

The suspect reportedly ditched the rifle and the clothing he wore during the attack in an alley, yet was located by San Diego Police officers nearby after matching the physical description given by witnesses.

Thankfully, no serious injuries were sustained. The only casualty is the bistro itself, its windows now shattered and riddled with bullet holes.

The Hillcrest area is well known as the LGBT-centric region of San Diego. The LGBT self-defense group I founded and run, (Armed Equality) is based here in San Diego, so my phone blew up with notifications within minutes of shooting.

In seeking details, my research led me to the suspect’s Facebook account where the following post was found and shared with local law enforcement.

Anti LGBT post from the suspects Facebook profile

As usual, many of the local news reports are throwing around terms such as, “assault weapon”, “high capacity clip”, and “assault style ammunition” etc. I have no doubt the anti-Second Amendment factions in San Diego are gearing up to use this incident in all the usual ways. And unfortunately I am quite sure that some of those advocating for more firearm restricting laws will be some LGBT groups.

These are the same groups that irrationally despise what Armed Equality does and stands for. The same people who call myself and the many armed pro-Second Amendment LGBT members of Armed Equality “racist” simply for facilitating advanced training in unarmed self defense, armed self defense, medical training, CCW applications, etc.

I am extremely thankful that no one was seriously injured Tuesday. While looking through the suspect’s Facebook profile I got the impression that he has not been psychologically well for some time. As the screenshot above shows, he definitely appears to have harbored some serious anti-LGBT hatred.

Criminals don’t care about laws; they are one of many reasons why LGBT individuals who support the natural right to armed self defense often carry on a daily basis. We are Americans. We vote pro-Second Amendment. We deserve equal access to the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Never again will we hide or live in fear. We stand strong; and we stand arm-in-arm with the Second Amendment community.

(Armed Equality was founded in response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting of which was the deadliest terrorist attack [and hate crime] on American soil post 9/11).

Piper Smith is the founder & director of Armed Equality.

Armed Equality National Discussion Group
Armed Equality SoCal Training Group

65 COMMENTS

    • Look at Chicago! Was for years the most Violent Gun Crime City in the U.S.. Tightest Gun Laws, Not one Gun Store in the Whole City! Highest gun crimes in the U.S. Now it has became popular several other cities has gained the honor. Chicago crimes have not went down, but the other cities have caught up and past them!

      • And guess what cities like LA and Chicago, in states like California and Illinois have in common……….. That’s right, their all anti-gun cities and states, with loads of (gun free) zones.

        • If not for Rudy NYC could have made that list…….granted our current mayor and governer are doing their best to catch up

        • Let me repeat, no handgun restrictions for 5 years and shall issue for 5 years. Unlike LA, unlike New York.

          New York CITY’s murder rate is only 70% of the whole STATE of Texas. I how TAG comes up with the idea that guns laws have some kind of effect on the murder rate in the U.S.

          If you really analyze the data, you may not like the results.

    • actually looks like he was doing his best to shatter windows without shooting low enough to hit anybody. Maybe he was just looking for “three hots n a cot” and venting… he dumped an AR worth a few bucks to lots of bangers… Hmmm

  1. Glad no one was hurt and the dipshit is in custody. Somehow I doubt this will work for the news cycle as it doesn’t fit the “white racist bigot fat dude goes after minority” narrative entirely.

  2. This has to be a “fake news” story. Kalifonia doesn’t have any non compliant guns. Let alone a real AR15. We have to get to the bottom of this story and have Newsom make up some more new laws to stop these non existent guns from getting into Kalifornia.

  3. I knew it had to be a Standard-Appearing AR-15 Pattern Rifle because David Pig/ Hogg says that is what they are Designed for! So you can’t Shoot People with any other type Rifle! Wonder why that nobody shot anyone with these Dangerous Rifles for over 40 years before someone figured out what they were designed for? Strange to me to think it took people that long to learn that!
    They never talk about the Dangerous Designed Standard Appearing AR-15 Pattern Rifle Peoples lives have been saved by these Dangerous Designed Pattern Rifles! There are several Million of them out there that have not Shot Anyone!
    Why did this wait until your 1/2 black/white Squatter was placed in Our White House? Is that the Date where all Americans lost their minds? We have steady lost ground ever since!

    • From what I can make out of the photo, the AR15 definitely has a pistol grip without a grip fin, making it appear to be CA noncompliant. But it is possible to be compliant and have the “evil features” (flash hider, VFG, colapsable stock, pistol grip), but the AR has to be modified for a “fixed mag”, meaning the standard mag release button shall not function as originally designed. The lawmakers believe these modifications “slows down” mag changes for a bad guy…asuming a bad guy follows the law.

    • Piper Smith,
      I want to thank you for ‘fighting the good fight’, informing *all* Citizens that they have the Right, some may say obligation, to protect themselves.
      I hope this incident will remind all that when tolerance or love is lost, hate festers and may reap violence.
      May comfort and reason find y’all.

  4. Gee, I thought that CA’s universal background checks and assault weapons bans were going to magically stop anything like this from happening?

  5. Oh, I’m sure the news will do some autistic screeching on this. They will say the rifle came from out of state, or the parts were from out of state and we need a national AWB to stop the madness. Of course there are millions of parts for ARs out there and they can also be easily imported from Mexico in the future. Hell, why not set up a plastics company in Mexico and make the shit and send it north with each wave of humanity that crosses the border?

  6. The weapon wasn’t “California Complint”. Well shame on the shooter for using a Non California Compliant Weapon in criminal assault/attempted murder, which was the more serious violation? Send him to bed without desert. No web site, nor am I a devotee of Facebook. Guess I’m incorrigibly old fashioned.

  7. Hmm, Seems like straight people are afraid of LGBT people, cause they fear their sexual identity. What has Any LGBT person done other then being themself? They don’t go around shooting people, incite hate, get into violent confrontations. I’m from san diego, Ghost guns are rampant here( I have a few :), People don’t obey the gun laws as everyone knows it’s ridiculous. The Police and gov’t can’t do anything with the millions of high cap mags, and autoloaders out there. So they just keep passing laws to restrict people rights. The Sight was down, that’s why he missed, hah.

    • you appear to have a distorted view of straight people…no matter how often you say it doesn’t make it true…you’re kidding yourself by accepting a dictum that isn’t remotely true…

  8. I’m glad there were no serious injuries. Now stop voting for homosexual gun grabbers like State Senator Tom Ammiano. The man who wrote the law making rape victims, and everyone else, wait an extra ten days to get a gun.

    And start voting for gay people who actually support civil rights like Justin Raimondo, a pro gun and REAL pro Liberty candidate who ran against Nancy pelosi and lost.

    • And if you’re voting to fill a position which does not have a gay, pro civil rights candidate, you might consider a *straight* pro civil rights candidate. Duh.

      • Unfortunately these the vast majority of these people don’t understand the obvious. But pro gun people like Tammy Bruce do. I just wish there was more of them.

  9. So a Mexican, and he was blatantly from mexico is running around armed and badly trained and this will be the way Kalifornia protects its Rich from the masses of poor who will be flooding the streets.

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