Professor Says He Shot Self to Protest AR-15s and Malnutrition, Not Trump

Ray Mesek registers a pistol at a gun buyback event at the Bridgeport Police Department's
Spencer Platt/Getty

The College of Southern Nevada professor who allegedly shot himself to protest President Trump left behind letters saying he actually shot himself in protest of AR-15 rifles and malnutrition.

Breitbart News reported that the professor, Mark J. Bird, shot himself in the arm with a .22 pistol while on campus. And according to the Las Vegas Review-Journalthe police report on the incident notes that “Bird said he had shot himself in protest of President Donald Trump.”

But apology letters which Bird typed before wounding himself do not even mention Trump.

Blue Lives Matter published one of the letters, in which Bird notes “malnutrition and pollution deaths” as the reason for his actions. He also cites a lack of legislation to ban AR-15s.

He wrote: “There has been no national legislation banning bump stocks, banning civilian ownership of AR-15 type assault weapons, and the passage of universal background checks legislation. Apparently it is about as easy to buy an AR-15 as a 2-shot derringer.”

Bird shot himself in a campus bathroom. He chose to shoot himself him in the left forearm “because he was right-handed” and had researched places where he could be shot and hurt the least.

When police responded to the incident he told them “he knew he had a 50/50 chance of hitting a major artery in his arm and he did a good job by completely missing his artery and he was very pleased that he was in absolutely no pain and didn’t need any pain medication.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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