On May 14th, an 18-year-old gunman senselessly gunned down ten black people and wounded three others in a racially motivated attack at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York. 

To carry out his attack, shooter, Payton Gendron carried with him an AR-15 shotgun, and bolt-action rifle. In addition to the weapons, the shooter also wore body armor which was used to protect himself from the security guard at the front of the store, whom he also shot and killed. The shooting was broadcast on Twitch, a popular streaming platform, but it was taken down shortly after he opened fire, and a video of the broadcast is now circulating the Internet. 

Payton Gendron, an isolated 18 year old white man from Conklin, New York, documented his planning of the attack for months through Discord. In addition to his manifesto, Gendron had previously received a psychiatric evaluation in 2021 after making threats at his high school. He purchased all of his weapons and body armor legally from both New York and Pennsylvania. This is everything that is currently known about Gendron and the shooting as of now and still, it leaves many questions. 

Numerous attacks similar to this one have occurred in the past including Sandy Hook, Parkland, and the recent Robb Elementary School shooting. Are these attacks reflective of right-wing beliefs? No. Gendron is a white supremacist and an extremist. He believes in the “Great Replacement Theory,” which the National Immigration Forum explains to be “states that [have] welcoming immigration policies — particularly those impacting nonwhite immigrants — are part of a plot designed to undermine or ‘replace’ the political power and culture of white people living in the Western countries.” Under this umbrella also fall fears of migrant invasion, voter replacement, antisemitism, and xenophobia.

It is unfair to blame the entire right wing party as you can’t blame one person’s action on millions of people. Though these shootings continue to occur, they are often pursued by the extremists of the right wing party and do not equally represent the entire Republican side. Many Republicans possess different beliefs from the left side. However, the vast majority of them would never take things to the extreme that Gendron did.

 “It’s not the right-wing party necessarily, it’s extremists on whatever side. You go extreme on the left side you’re going to end up hitting the right side.  You go extreme on the right side you’re going to end up hitting the left side. There’s no true balance, it’s literally not an extremist, it’s racism. It doesn’t come from any political ideology, it’s just asinine,” said CHS History teacher Bill Clark.

The ideas from the right wing party are encapsulated as Republicans rally for guns and the right to bear arms which cause events like this.  However, the Republican Party as a whole wants guns for self defense and they do not want to hurt other people, but extremists want guns to hurt another race which separates the two groups with their values and beliefs. 

Sophomore Madison Loushine of Loch Arbour explains how these mass shootings keep happening countless times because of how the right wing party does not recognize guns as an issue.

“This has happened so many times and each time with Parkland and Sandy Hook, they always say there’s going to be change but people end up forgetting about it and then nothing ends up happening. I think what the right-wing party supports is not gun control or gun reform. Their views allow this to happen because they don’t see guns as the real problem or the cause of the shooting,” Loushine said.

According to the BBC, “In terms of lobbying, the NRA officially spends about $3m per year to influence gun policy – the recorded amount spent on lobbying in 2014 was $3.3m. That is only the recorded contributions to lawmakers however, and considerable sums are spent elsewhere via PACs and independent expenditures – funds which are difficult to track.” The efforts to lobby in favor of guns and influence policies impacting not only the politicians who continue to vote against reform, but also halt significant change makes it outright impossible to achieve. Institutions such as the NRA are the reason why America has more guns than people, according to The Washington Post.

Nowhere is there hate or racism written into the ideologies of political parties. The only area of politics in which these behaviors occur are in extremists, terror groups, and those who are outright are mentally. The issue lies in the systems put in place such as gun regulations or the lack thereof. 

“There’s no true balance, it’s literally not an extremist, it’s racism. It doesn’t come from any political ideology, it’s just asinine,” Clark said.