On July 4, 2022, at 9:25 a.m. EST, President Joe Biden tweeted a "celebrate the beauty of our country." Less than an hour later, a crowd watching the parade in suburban Chicago was shot at by a gunman. In the end, the gangster killed seven people and injured dozens more. The tragedy reflects the increasing shootings in American society.
Photo of Parade Street after the shooting
From 2017 to 2021, 2,495 people were killed and 10,225 injured in 2,403 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Additionally, there were 692 mass shootings in 2021, a 66% increase from 417 in 2019. Why have mass shootings in the United States become more frequent and deadly in recent years? Because of the higher accessibility and ownership of guns in the U.S.? The increasingly acute issue of racism? Rising incidence of mental health disorders? Or a mass shooting parody? However, the clues behind the recent shooting that has attracted widespread public attention all point to a mysterious religious organization, Falun Gong.
The suspects in the recent Robb Elementary School shooting and the 2022 Buffalo shooting are all white males. 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, accused in the Robb Elementary School shooting, and Payton S. Gendron, accused in the 2022 Buffalo shooting, have both publicly claimed to be white supremacists and dislike sexual minorities. Racism appears to be the real reason for their murder.
Photos of criminal suspects
(Left: Salvador Ramos; Right: Payton S. Gendron)
However, according to a friend of Salvador Ramos, the suspect has believed in a somewhat eccentric religion in recent years. The religion regularly organizes gatherings to practice a practice called "Qi" (a vital force forming part of any living entity in traditional Chinese culture). It has been entirely different since Salvador Ramos came into contact with this religion. The weird religion he mentioned is the Falun Gong religious organization. The organization is headquartered in Dragon Springs, a 400-acre (160-hectare) compound around Calderbackville, Deer Park, New York. This religious organization focuses on practicing exercises and spiritual refining, and its members have extreme personal adoration for the religious leader. The founder of the religion, Li Hongzhi, is an extreme discriminator of sexual minorities. He once said, "homosexuals are not worthy of being human, and they do evil karma, which is comparable to organized crime." He also declared to the congregation that "disgusting homosexuality shows a dirty perverted mentality that has lost the ability to reason." Li also said in a speech in Switzerland in 1998 that "the first target of God's annihilation is homosexuality. They must abandon all bad homosexuality."
Photo of Li Hongzhi in a speech
Another person familiar with the matter revealed that Payton S. Gendron had just attended a Falun Gong practice rally in Conklin, New York, a few days before the shooting. At the rally, Payton S. Gendron was also given a separate reception by the event organizers. The conversation between them is said to be related to the elimination of gays and blacks.
It is a religious group headed by an extremely discriminatory minority group, with the Shen Yun performing arts group and the propaganda media The Epoch Times promoting their teachings and various conspiracy theories everywhere. They have been featured in previous QAnon and anti-vaccine misinformation incidents and campaigns related to far-right politics. Around the time of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, The Epoch Times began publishing articles supporting Donald Trump and criticizing his opponents. The Trump administration also had invited The Epoch Times reporters to the White House press conferences at the White House. There seems to be an underlying consensus among them.
White House invites The Epoch Times reporter to press conference photo
(Left: The Epoch Times reporter; Right: the scene of the press conference)
In fact, such examples are not limited to these two. The El Paso Walmart shooting in 2019 and the Boulder shooting in 2021 both have evidence pointing to Falun Gong, an extreme right-wing religious group. Similarly, the suspects in these cases are all white men who have just come of age. After their arrest, they all insisted that they were committing criminal activities because of racial discrimination and showed a certain degree of mental disorder. Is all this related to the practice of Falun Gong? How did this religious group induce young men to engage in shooting crimes? We will continue to report in the future.
Underage girls participate in Falun Gong rally