Richmond bartender comes unhinged
A Richmond bartender and writer posted an angry, profanity-laden, violence-threatening rant to Blogger yesterday, directed at any of his own customers who might be lawfully carrying a concealed handgun. Jack Lauterback, a local booze-slinger who writes a column for Style Weekly, begins his blog tirade with "80 fucking stupid assholes met at O'Charleys Bar in Richmond today to celebrate the fact that they can bring a hidden gun into a bar."
It pretty much goes downhill from there. Between stereotyping typical CHP holders as "redneck idiots who are extremely overweight" and sporadically employed unskilled workers, he takes several opportunities to suggest that we're idiots, morons and otherwise mentally and morally impaired, plus a bunch of "pussies", and then threatens physical harm against any who dare to step inside any bar he's working. Lauterback writes:
If you attempt to walk into my bar with a concealed weapon and for whatever reason you didn't conceal it enough.... You won't have enough time to draw your piece cowboy. Your face will already be on the pavement. I promise.
When I tweeted that he had threatened to murder people who are obeying the law, he replied that he only intends to "maim" them.
Lauterback has gotten himself in trouble a few times in the past for poor judgment in his choice of blogging topics. He does not seem to be in much danger for his latest outburst, however, if this Twitter exchange between Lauterback and NBC12 reporter Laura Gellar is any indication:
| JackGoesForth | I'm not scared to tell it like it is... New post on guns in bars: http://tinyurl.com/2fjtvcx |
| JackGoesForth | Ha. Murder and maim are different things. RT @richmondguns bartender threatens 2 murder customers who obey new carry law |
| JackGoesForth | I stand by my guns in bars comments. If you have a problem with it then bring your concealed gun with you. You'll need it. |
| Laura_Geller | @jackgoesforth any of your managers have mtgs w/you all about what you're supposed to do if u find someone w/a gun/permit ordering a drink? |
| JackGoesForth | We don't allow guns period. A permit doesn't mean shit if we don't allow weapons on the premises. @Laura_Geller |
| JackGoesForth | Oh and we would call the police ASAP. I'm not foolish enough to mess with these gun-toting idiots. @Laura_Geller |
| Laura_Geller | @jackgoesforth prob the smart move. had anyone try to test it out yet today? |
| JackGoesForth | Not that I know of. The city is safe. It's the counties where someone will get shot first. @Laura_Geller |
| Laura_Geller: | @jackgoesforth not necessarily a bet I'll take... but I guess only time will tell. Should be interesting to see how it plays out |
So in the face of an actual threat of violence against law-abiding customers, NBC12 reporter Laura Geller is oblivious and strives instead to find a story thread that conforms to her blinkered narrative. "Unhinged Style Weekly Columnist Threatens to Maim Law-Abiding Citizens" seems like a better headline than "21 gravel roads being resurfaced in Hanover", but that would require Geller and her colleagues to actually think for themselves.
Update 2010-07-04 14:00: After Jack Lauterback tweeted that people are contacting his boss and demanding he be fired, I tried to figure out where that was orginating because I hadn't seen it. I deliberately omitted the bars he works at in the initial post because I didn't want people to suggest getting him fired, but I suppose once the internet gets started it does what it wants. Various forums and blogs are now linking to various others in discussion of the story, and some of the posters are very upset because they know that had the threat of violence been reversed it would be treated in a completely different fashion by media and government. My larger point here was to display the ironies of:
- An anti-gun nut advocating violence.
- A mainstream media drone ignoring threats of violence because it doesn't fit the narrative she's been fed.
