9mo ago

Man arrested near Trump rally in Coachella with loaded firearm, high-capacity magazine: Officials

A 49-year-old Las Vegas man was arrested near former President Donald Trump's rally in Coachella on Saturday with a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said Sunday.

Deputies assigned to the rally contacted the driver of a black SUV at a checkpoint near the intersection of Avenue 52 and Celebration Drive just before 5 p.m. Saturday, sheriff's officials said.

They allegedly found the driver in possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun and a high-capacity magazine. The driver was identified as Vem Miller, and was taken into custody and later booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center on suspicion of possessing a loaded firearm and possessing a high-capacity magazine.

98 comments

This is the USA, someone with a loaded gun in their car is near anything all the time.
- I would be interested to see what information comes out on this one. A shotgun and handgun isn't going to do shit for an assassination attempt. Unless you are Gavrilo Princip.
  
  I dunno, a homemade shotgun worked well enough on Shinzo Abe.
  
  Handguns did the job on Ronald Reagan and almost for Gerald Ford.
  Leaving Abe Lincoln to one side, but if you are lucky and your security detail is a bit lax, a handgun can get the job done. I'm Australian, so we don't see much of that sort of thing.
  
  Anyone who knows anything about direct action knows that backups are mandatory and it's hard to carry several long guns.
- not high capacity magazines though.
  
  "high-capacity magazine" can refer to anything ranging from a fairly standard AR15 30-round stanag mag to a 200-round box magazine. Like, technically a high-capacity magazine is any magazine that holds more rounds than a standard magazine for a given firearm; but legally-speaking most states with laws regulating magazine capacity tend to define "high-capacity" as being more than 10~15 rounds for rifles.
  So they could have had a normal Glock-19 magazine (illegal in some states as they hold 15 rounds, more than some states allow pistols to have) or a loose AR15 magazine in their glovebox from their last gunshoot, or they could have had a 100 round drum mag for their Glock.
  Edit: California sounds like they have a universal 10-round magazine limit, which means a standard G19 magazine would be illegal.
  
  Looks like this is California. High capacity there is just a standard magazine you get most everywhere else.
  
  High capacity could mean a completely typical magazine to every person who actually uses said gun, depending on the reporter.
  
  Depends on what “high capacity” means in this report
Local outlets say that Miller is a registered Republican. He has a master's degree from UCLA and campaigned for Nevada's state assembly in 2022, but lost in the primary election, according to local daily newspaper The Press-Enterprise.
Bianco said he is part of a right-leaning anti-government group and considers himself a sovereign citizen, someone who does not believe they are subject to government laws unless they agree to them.
https://www.newsweek.com/who-vem-miller-man-arrested-loaded-gun-outside-trump-rally-1968341
I'm more amused than I really should be about how they are eating their own now. Unless I'm misremembering, none of the three have been lefties of any stripe.
- I don’t want to give any sovcits any credit at all but trumps recent rhetoric is so openly authoritarian that some of them might have actually realized the face eating leopard is a threat to them too
  Edit: I can’t believe I just thought of this, but these could also be folks that hopes to start a civil war because they either believe it’s inevitable, are obsessed with the Turner Diaries, or both.
  
  What's the Turner Diaries?
- All three were Republicans.
  
  Violence breeds violence.
  
  I thought that one kid was a registered Republican, but his political beliefs were unknown. He also donated to some left-wing group, didn't he?
Why can't 2nd amendment advocates open carry at Trump's rallies? Does he not support gun rights?
- Does Donald "take the guns first, due process later" Trump support gun rights? You tell me.
- I guess he doesn't have many teachers in the audience?
- Stop infringing on my 2A rights Donnie!!
- No, he actually doesn't. He has been very vocal and clear about it.
- The Black rights movement clearly showed that gun ownership is supposedly segregated too.
- Rallies are considered private events. You can regulate firearms at private events even in states with permissive firearm laws. Firearms were disallowed at the NRA conference during the leadership event.
I always said if they were shooting up boardrooms instead of classrooms we’d have gun control yesterday.
- *FBI feverishly updating their watchlist
  Lol
  
  If I’m not on a list by now they’re not doing their job.
- Someone shot up a Congressional softball game. Nothing happened.
  
  That’s not a boardroom. That’s just their employees.
- Compromises and shoots school boards. Ends up on lemmybewholesome.
I call bullshit. He wasn't there to assassinate Trump. If he was, they sure as shit aren't letting him out on $5k bond the same day with only minor charges.
- They let the first assassin just chill on the roof with a gun aimed at the podium.
They found him with a shotgun and a handgun and they think they stopped an assassination attempt? Sounds like bs; you’re not going to get close enough to use those unless someone really messes up at their job.
- I think it's just the media trying to conflate it with assassination attempts. I doubt anyone involved actually thinks it was, but now Trump gets to throw this crap around and his supporters will believe it.
  
  The article quotes the sheriffs dept as saying that they stopped an assassination attempt; the media is just reporting what they said. So, it sounds like the sheriffs dept are just inflating the issue to make themselves look better, which will give the trump campaign more fuel.
So the NRA is going to hold a press conference about how this man's second amendment rights were infringed, right?
Also, every time I see "Trump rally in Coachella," for just a second I think, "why is he holding a rally at the music festival?"
- Up until right now, I always thought Coachella was just the name of the festival, not a place - sort of like Burning Man.
  I've never been more confused by a headline in my life.
  
  You've never been to Burning Man, AL? Great bbq.
I consider this a step in the right direction.
The deranged armed lunatics are now starting to attack someone who deserves it instead of random innocent children.
This is actually MORE normal than the school shootings, and makes more sense. School children aren't coming for your lives and livelihoods, but DonOLD tRump? Definitely trying to make your life immeasurably worse in measurable ways.
- This is what everyone keeps saying the 2nd amendment was for, right? Tyrants?
  I'm closing this ticket with, "Operating as intended."
- letthemfight.png
- He wasn't attacking anyone, he's "just" a sovereign citizen with guns in his car that doesn't think California laws should apply to him.
Another Republican, I am shocked
- Also a sovereign citizen.
  
  If he's a SovCit, I'm surprised he doesn't have an RPG in his car to be honest. And it wouldn't have anything to do with Trump. It would have to do with their contract being violated or whatever.
- It's kind of amazing how this is suddenly all blowing back on him. His years of calling for violence is just causing all these guys to aim that violence towards him. Did he say something that pissed off/disappointed a subset of his followers or something?
  
  The problem with riling up crazy people is they are crazy, and as a result somewhat unpredictable.
The guy interviewed Ivan Raiklin a couple weeks ago who is the "secretary of retribution." Ivan Raiklin was on Info Wars talking with Jones about how if Trump were assassinated, it would be the best case scenario for Republicans because Vance would be the candidate then and then Republicans would commit a "cleansing."
This seems like a bit of a conspiracy against Trump but it is coming from the right.
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/ivan-raiklin-trump-rally/
- The party of conspiracy theories is eating itself due to conspiracy theories.
  That seems about right.
- I've said since the debate that something seems weird. It very much feels like Vance fully expects to be president, not VP. I don't know why or how that would come about, but he's not running like a typical VP.
  
  President tries to kill VP during Jan 6th
  VP decides to kill President first.
  
  This is the most garbage sith master/apprentice pairing I’ve ever seen
Oh, but it was ok in 2009 when a guy attended an event that Obama was speaking at with an assault rifle? These Republicans sure don't like people to exercise their right to bear arms.
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna32457652
- You have to bear them against the right people.
- Yeah, because the was outside at a rally in Arizona. That would be legal today as well. There are really dramatic differences in gun laws state to state. It's kind of staggering, especially when the states border each other. California and Arizona is a great example. NH and Mass. NY and Penna.
  In one state, carrying a magazine that can hold 11 bullets, even if you don't have a gun and it has no bullets actually in it, is illegal. Cross the state line, and you can openly carry an AR15 with a bullet in the chamber, safety disengaged, and a 50-round magazine in the rifle and walk down main street.
  It's pretty nuts.
booked at the John J. Benoit Detention Center on suspicion of possessing a loaded firearm and possessing a high-capacity magazine.
Serious question: Is that a crime?
- I know in California it is. Any magazine that holds more than 10 rounds is considered "high capacity" and is illegal.
  Not sure on the loaded firearm bit... California gun laws are crazy restrictive.
  
  That's because of the risk of cancer. It's taken very seriously.
- In California, for sure.
high-capacity magazine
Notice how they never tell you what high capacity is.
A normal handgun--as in, a regular Glock 17--will have magazines that hold anywhere from 13-21 rounds in a bone-stock configuration, depending on caliber. The only firearms that don't have this kind of capacity are micro-compacts, and guns that were originally designed by John Moses Browning before WWII.
This is sleight of hand to make it seem like the perpetrator was doing something deeply nefarious, when damn near any defensive handgun is going to have a "high capacity" magazine straight from the factory.
What did dear leader do to these republicans? 😯
Oh come on, not again!
What about all the good guys with guns? We can stop this guy with guns in his car but school shootings? Impossible to prevent.
Is it my imagination or are these dim-witted assassins getting easier to catch. Trump didn't even get to bandage his ear this time.
- Nothing really points to him being a wannabe assassin, other than the fact that he had guns near where Trump was and bogus paperwork. The guy's a sovcit. Being armed to the teeth and having fake papers is what they do. As for why he'd be at a Trump rally, well... it's the same reason you'd find klansmen dancing around a burning cross. Guarantee the Trumpers are going to throw this guy under the bus immediately, though, despite the fact that there's nothing indicating he wanted to kill Trump, and despite a lot of Trumpers being open carriers themselves.
A lot of those attendees glad the cops didn't check their vehicle
I thought that 75% of Trump rally people were armed regularly.
Was the magazine for the handgun? Cause high capacity for a shotgun is like 7 shells.
That's AGAINST his Second Amendment Rights! UNLESS He Kills someone FIRST he can Carry whatever Gun he wants! NOT BE INFRINGED NOT BE INFRINGED!

98 comments