No Charges Filed After Alleged Right-Wing Shooting Threat at Buffalo Campus

Campus police at the University at Buffalo (UB) spent this past Wednesday night dealing with something no campus ever wants to see on its incident log. Students reported a classmate in Baldy Hall was openly talking about having a foldable AR-style rifle in his backpack and planning to “shoot up the school” the next day.

Two students independently told police they heard him describe the weapon, talk about an extended magazine that would exceed New York’s ten-round limit, and lay out how long he believed he’d have before officers arrived. In other words, this wasn’t idle small talk about weekend plans.

Using a photo the witnesses provided, campus police identified the student. I’m not naming him here because, for reasons no one has bothered to explain, he hasn’t been charged with anything. If the system isn’t going to treat him like a criminal suspect, I’m not going to elevate him by treating him like a household name. But, I digress.

As I mentioned, despite the gravity of the allegations, police say no charges have been filed. That leaves a few fairly obvious questions hanging in the hallway like a bad smell.

Did he or did he not have a rifle in his backpack?

Students say he claimed he did. He allegedly described it in detail. He supposedly talked about what he intended to do with it.

If he didn’t actually possess the weapon, then what exactly did witnesses overhear? And if he did possess it, why is this not already a criminal case?

Also, did he or did he not possess an illegal extended magazine?

New York’s magazine-capacity limit isn’t a mystery. Exceed it, and it’s a chargeable offense all by itself. If there was probable cause to remove “multiple firearms” under a Temporary Extreme Risk Protection Order from the student’s home, surely someone can answer whether the magazine in question actually existed.

Yet here we are.

And now to the part some people wish wasn’t part of the story.

According to court documents, the student in question is the president of the campus chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, a well-established right-wing student organization. He’d also just found himself at the center of a viral TikTok frenzy over a pro-ICE tabling session, pulling in more than 225,000 likes and comments.

It’s strange, isn’t it? The same commentators who insist mass shootings are “left-wing violence” never seem to have much to say when someone steeped in hard-right student politics allegedly brags about carrying a rifle through campus buildings. It’s almost like ideological purity tests stop being helpful when they run headfirst into reality.

A student allegedly describes having a rifle. He allegedly lays out how he’d use it. He’s tied to a conservative campus organization. He’s in possession of firearm licenses. His home contains multiple firearms, which police removed under a red-flag order.

And yet, as of the latest update, still no charges.

If the same allegations had been made about a left-wing activist? The national pundit circuit would already be performing interpretive dances about ideological corruption and political terrorism.

When the script flips, though, the volume suddenly drops.

Violence doesn’t belong to one political side, no matter how many people desperately want that to be true. Pretending otherwise isn’t analysis; it’s tribal mythology, and it’s dangerous.

UB police say they don’t believe there’s an ongoing threat, and hopefully that holds. But the lack of charges, combined with the alleged statements, the described weapon, the political affiliation, and the red-flag seizure of multiple firearms, raises more questions than campus officials seem comfortable answering.

If this case highlights anything, it’s that extremism doesn’t care about your preferred narrative. And ignoring that just makes it easier for the next person, whatever their ideology is, to slip through the cracks.

(Source)