As more is becoming known about Travis Reinking, the suspect wanted for murdering four people in a Nashville area Waffle House this morning, we’re hearing a familiar refrain. Reinking was well known to both federal and state authorities.

In July 2017, the U.S. Secret Service arrested Reinking for being in a “restricted area” near the White House, according to the Secret Service. After the arrest, his Illinois firearms authorization was revoked and local Illinois police seized four weapons.

The firearms were given back to his family.

“Among the weapons seized by those authorities was the AR-15 rifle used at the Waffle House today,” said Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron at a Sunday afternoon news conference.

Police believe Reinking’s father received the weapons after their confiscation, and returned them to his son. Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said he believes under Illinois law, guns seized can be returned to someone who has a valid state authorization.

Reinking is still on the loose and police believe he may be armed. According to an NPR report, the only reason the number of casualties this morning wasn’t higher was that Reinking’s rifle jammed.

A Waffle House patron who saw that the gunman was “apparently struggling or looking at” with his rifle, and took advantage of the moment by “rushing him,” wresting the gun away and throwing it behind the counter – prompting the gunman to leave.

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66 COMMENTS

  1. Law enforcement and judicial failures are unheard of in this country. Absolutely unheard of. Just ask The Amazing Scott Israel.

    • Mentally unstable yes, registered Republican in this case. He is an Inforwars, Illuminati type, nutter. His father is a big time Republican donor in Central Illinois, but his dad wouldn’t give him a job anymore, so he moved to Nashville.

      When he was arrested by the Secret Service, he said he wanted to meet with the president to see how he could go after those that opposed the president.

      So weird when a crazy person goes crazy and people say that’s so crazy, crazy right?

      • Notice how Infowars has conspicuously not had a thing on this one. Hmm, Alex Jones made him do it, that’s obviously the reason, Waffle House is the Illuminati Pizza child sex slave ring, with a side of globalist banking cabal, followed up with some sweet Soros money for desert.

        Or something else, whatever, your choice.

        • You make it sound like you have to be crazy to think that there are corrupt people in banking and corporations.

          Alex did get someone to fire a gun at a pizza place because he said there were children being sexually abused… He also got people to think Sandy Hook was totally fake and that Trump is on the side of the people.

      • Must be a really crazy Republican, since it seems he jumped a fence to kill Trump, the hero of the illuminutti types from what I can tell. Yet another depraved lib attempting yet another assassination or mass murder is a far more likely scenario.

        • He didn’t jump a fence, he walked away from the tour, Trump was in Florida at the real White House at the time. He stated he was a sovereign citizen and wanted to talk with Trump about getting the people that were after both of them. No kungfu level redirection, makes this guy into any kind of liberal assassin. He was most definitely a crazy man, and his daddy bears at least as much blame as he personally has.

  3. So…maybe Mom and/or Dad need to be charged in this one as well…unless he stole the guns from a locked safe like Sandyhook Lanza did.

  5. Did the father legally give his son the guns?

    The parents usually know when their kid is crazy and shouldn’t be armed. They rarely do anything about it. When their kid then commits murder they act like they never knew he was capable and willing.

    Parents should be held accountable for obvious negligence on their part. Like prison time or a huge fine. Then they will more likely take responsibility for their offspring.

    • His Illinois FOID had been revoked, so no, his father couldn’t legally give the guns back to him. No FOID, no guns.

      • I wonder if the father delivered the guns to him after he moved to TN. If so, then it wouldn’t be a violation of IL law.

        While not relevant to this particular case, I wonder how a CWP/FOID revocation intersects with a submission to the NICS database.

        Consider a couple of alternative scenarios. A CWP/FOID holder inadvertently walks into a GFZ and is “made”. A CWP/FOID holder does something that calls into question his mental fitness or his suitability to keep or bear arms such as brandishing or trying to get access to the White House.

        What should the NICS response be? Certainly suspending a CWP for 6 months is appropriate for the GFZ infraction. But not a NICS report. In the case of a brandishing or White House security breach, a NICS report seems in order.

    • I have no doubt the victims will be suing his father. Unlike suing the manufacturer, they will likely win.

  6. iS THAT THE SAME sHERIFF sCOTT Israel,

    Is that the same Scott Israel who plays a sheriff on TV press conferences when not serving coffee to Hillary Clinton? The reincarnation of Barney Fife? The word is that he will be joining Comey on his book tour. His job will be to hold the book open for Comey to autograph for the six people who come to his book signing. Not to worry. Israel will be coming out with his own book, titled, “I became a sheriff by finding a badge in a Crackerjack box.”

  8. Have we identified that guy as the shooter? Previous article said the car left at the scene was registered to him, but that doesn’t mean he did it. I’m not saying he did or didn’t do it, but have we any definitive proof that it was indeed this guy. And please don’t call him a kid anymore, he’s 29.

    • Unless the known crazy guy’s crazy girlfriend did this with his stolen car, I’m guessing the known crazy guy was just being crazy. Crazy loves company, so it’s possible, but Occam’s Razor suggests the single crazy guy is the most likely explanation.

      Forget school shootings: I want to see the CDC produce some Waffle-House Specific stats, both shooting-related and heart-disease related.

      • I’ve read quite a few stories of murders being committed at Waffle House all over the country.

        And to the point, yes, it more than likely was him. The first release by PD was he was being sought as a “person of interest”. There was no confirmed reports that he was the shooter, so that was my reasoning for the oringial post.

        • My post was that he likely fit the profile of “crazy guy who went crazy” based on what little was known about him even then. Yet another guy who we’ll find had no business walking around without a leash, but it was “too hard” to have him committed/arrested through processes already in place, yet somehow stealing the private property (guns) of everyone else is the only practical answer.

  9. Sadly, Nashville’s mayor is blaming the weapon rather than the nut behind the trigger. And, why on earth would authorities return confiscated weapons to anyone other than the lawful adult owner?

    • Ummm, because in most cases if you become a prohibited person, you can’t, um…you know…have the guns yourself. Most states have provisions that if they have your firearms, the only place they can release them is to an FFL for disposition or in some cases to a non-prohibited person designated by the owner of the firearms (and generally not living under the same roof).

      In this case the guns were turned over to the dad, who probably promptly (and illegally) turned around and gave the guns back to the son.

      Just because police seize your guns, it doesn’t make them theirs. They are still your property, you just can’t touch them anymore. So you can have police turn them over to an FFL and have the FLL consign them, give them to your cousin or friend, etc.

      And yeah in this case it looks like the father needs to be spending a LONG time in prison. How in the hell didn’t he realize his son was a threat? Not all crazy people are dangerous. In fact few are, less than the general population, but a lot of times the dangerous ones are pretty obviously clear that they are dangerous. In this case it seems abundantly clear even proceeding him going nuts in a waffle house that he was dangerous.

      • His daddy gave his guns back after they were taken the first time when he was threatening people in his home town, wearing a pink dress, with the same rifle, then exposing himself and jumping into the local public pool, his reasoning, Taylor Swift was stalking him. Police took his guns and gave them to his rich dad. Dad gave them back.

        He went to DC, left the WH tour and was busted in private areas of the White House, his reasoning, he’s a sovereign citizen so he owns the White House so he’s allowed to go anywhere. He also wanted to talk to the president about “getting” those people who are after them both. He had some guns with him, the local police in Illinois confiscated the rest of his guns, his rifle included, then gave them to his rich dad, who then gave them back.

        Illinois had revoked his FOID card, and the Secret Service had added his restraining order to NICS so he was a prohibited person, daddy just kept giving them back.

        Dad is going to be both criminally and civilly liable, and deserves to be.

  10. Someone name the maker of that jammed rifle.

    I’m tired of seeing these crazy people in society. In the old days, there were mental hospitals to lock them up in.

    • Anyone else find it absolutely strange how often guns jam in these high-profile shootings? Seems to happen more often than not, which is far more frequent than ever experienced at the range or in service with these same guns. Even happens when the shooter was known to frequently practice/etc, and isn’t using an ill maintained weapon.

      • Naw, it was an AR-15. I’ve found that platform to constantly jam. I’ve tried over and over to give that platform a second chance. And then it will jam, failure to feed or failure to eject, again and again.

        Certain AR style weapons and certain AR brands will give better reliability, but it still is hit or miss, unlike the AK platform. Which is why my main military style rifles are the M1A, the L1A1/FAL and the AK platform in 7.62 x 39 and in .223/.556.

        • Ummm, yeah. I guess those multiple AR’s that have been jamming in various mass shootings were also some of those “shitty” rifles, fortunately.

        • The AR platform requires a lot more maintenance than an AK or Garand patterned rifle. A Garand is self cleaning to a limited extent so you can put a lot more rounds through it before it chokes. But all the cool kids have an AR so the crazies got to have one. Most AR owners never exploit the characteristics that play to its advantages over the Mini-14 just like most Glock owners never replace the trigger and/or sights and most P320 owners will never use the pistol’s modular capabilities.

        • Yep. The reliability of the AK versus the AR is like the difference between the reliability of the Glock versus the 1911.

          The manufacturer makes a huge difference in reliability with the AR and the 1911. Where as with the AK, not so much.

          While I carry daily a Kimber 1911 TLE-RL, and with much practice and use, I trust this particular 1911 to be very reliable with hundreds of rounds fired in one day; I would never assert that this particular firearm, let alone a generic 1911,’would be as reliable over hundreds or even thousands of rounds without cleaning, unlike any generic Glock out of a box.

          So if I had a choice to pick up from the ground an unknown AK or an unknown AR to continue the fight, I would without a seconds hesitation, pick up the AK.

        • Ummm, @ThomasR, there could be a HELL of a big difference in performance of AK’s (a 4x multiple in the difference between manufacturers of mil-speck AR’s).

          This is especially true when you start to factor in higher round counts through them. But I’d take an AR over an AK if I saw a battlefield littered with both, unless I only saw banana mags.

          I’d take a Russian rack-AK over anything made in Africa or South America / Mexico.

          AR’s are replacing all major NATO country service rifles because they suck or they’re less prolific, OR? ? ?
          ?sarc

        • Ahh, Joe R. The never-ending debate about reliability over precision.

          Like I said, good quality manufacturers of an AR can produce a very reliable weapon, once it’s been test fired and adjusted for any feeding or ejection problems, mostly.

          But just because the US military, along with the Nato nations, have decided that the M4 is adequate for their needs, doesn’t mean it’s the most reliable platform available.

          I, on the other hand, since I’m not part of a military structure, don’t need to make sure my equipment is completely interchangeable with fellow soldiers. I can indulge my desire to have absolute reliability of an AK with the Precision of an AR with the ability to Interchange magazines and ammunition. One example, my .223 VEPR. It has a heavy barrel with an RPK trunnion and a thicker walled receiver. Along with a mag adapter that lets me use unmodified AR magazines. With this particular firearm, I get 1 inch to less than 2 inch MOA at a hundred yards.

          There are currently other AK manufacturers here in the US that also make firearms capable of shooting inch groups at a hundred yards with the .223/.556; even the 7.62 x 39 can be brought to 2 to 3 inch MOA.

          In the end, I will get a AR platform firearm. I do like it’s modularity and the ability to switch uppers for different calibers, as long as I can find one that I feel is reliable enough.

        • I mean, I don’t have ridiculous amounts of experience with ARs, only a few thousand rounds through 1 AR pistol and 3 AR rifles I built from receivers and various different manufacturers parts but the only failure I’ve had in a few thousand rounds is the occasional failure to pick-up the first round from a magazine when I attempt to insert the mag with the bolt closed and I didn’t seat the magazine completely. I’ve never at a stove pipe, failure to feed, failure to eject, double feed, light primer strike, etc. I mean, I do clean mine fairly often, probably no more than maybe 300 or 400 rounds between cleanings (usually every other range trip I’ll run a patch through the barrel and swab out the upper and chamber a little bit). I’ve seen scads of ARs that have gone several thousand rounds between cleanings and they keep running.

          No AK experience what-so-ever for me.

          But if you want to look at environmental…do not look for mud videos of ARs versus AKs. You’d be quickly disappointed (and sand is going to cause similar issues) if you think AKs are better off than ARs for that kind of stuff.

          I HAVE seen ARs with issues, but it is usually an issue from the factory with an out of spec part, that when fixed it runs just fine. Which means the jamming ones have been jamming all along and no one bothered to diagnose and fix it.

          I have seen plenty of guys assembling their own do things like put the hammer spring in backwards so they get repeated light strikes, or a barrel with the gas port partially obstructed from poor QA after machining (burr in the hole) causing occasional short stroking.

          I have heard of people having to mortar their ARs. But in several hundred range hours I’ve never personally observed someone have an issue with an AR. That said, there are a lot more (probably 30:1) ARs at ranges near me than AKs (because AKs are banned in my state, though grandfathered). I can’t say I’ve seen anyone with AK issues at a range either. I have seen plenty of other guns have issues from handguns to other rifles with stove pipes, F2F, etc.

        • @ThomasR

          U.S. Special forces use the AR / SCAR platform predominantly with the AR being the most heavily weighted in use. That’s because they’re so good at what they do, they want to give up the advantage to the POS MFn Shithole dwellers of the world slinging the AK, because they don’t even want to use the U.S. Manufactured AK variety.

        • Touched a nerve, have we Joe R? It is funny you mention the SCAR. In it’s initial testing phase by the military, it was found to be superior to the AR platform. This is with the SCAR’s short stroke adjustable gas piston and a bolt that floats on rails with a return spring incorporated with the bolt, allowing for a folding stock. ( Much more similar to an AK operation system design rather than the AR system) You remind me that of any military style rifles I would pick as a superior system to my AK VEPR variation, it would be a SCAR.

          So as you note, even some of our best of the best choose to carry a SCAR over the M4. Hmm, what do you know, there is a difference of opinion even among our best of the best as to which is the best battle field choice for a firearm.

          So I will just leave this as we will agree to disagree; but I believe we both agree that it is because we live in the greatest and freest country in the world, one reason is because we both can choose to keep and bear what we believe is to be the superior weapon for our individual and financial choices and thank God we have the freedom to do so.

  11. I can’t believe you skipped the fact that the original AP story on this reported about the shooter’s “AK-15” which was later corrected. I guess just the sensationalism of mentioning such an ominous and scary weapon as the AK-15 acts as a force multiple to the loser’s already illegal and despicable actions. Dumb @$$ media.

    • Yes, I think at this point it’s just as likely this guy had nothing to do with this shooting and his involvement was media fabrication, as is the possibility that a second crazy person stole his car & did this.

      • Um, the guy who took the gun specifically said its this guy. He was like 1 foot from his face.

        Wait, your saying that guy didn’t take the gun, he was actually the gunman, and just threw the gun. Or are you saying that the whole thing is made up.

  12. At the least daddy should get prison. Ditto the idiots who returned his guns. In Illinoisistan no FOID-no gat. You can’t even legally handle one in a shop. Whatever…just another nail in our coffins. The corrupt sleazemedia won’t report any of this BS😧😡Keep your powder dry.

    • “Ditto the idiots who returned his guns. ”

      He owns them, he’s newly prohibited from possessing them in IL, are you saying they should now belong to the cops and he shouldn’t be allowed to sell/transfer them to any licensed owner of his own choosing?

      I put the blame for illegal possession solely on the father, not on the authorities who handed them over to the duly licensed father.

      • Just saw daddy’s house…they got some serious bucks. Reports on fakebook he’s a local bigwig. Yeah I blame BOTH. Deal with it…

  13. After the arrest, his Illinois firearms authorization was revoked and local Illinois police seized four weapons.
    So he passed the FOID background check which said he was good to go.
    After the arrest, his Illinois firearms authorization was revoked and local Illinois police seized four weapons.
    Police believe Reinking’s father received the weapons after their confiscation, and returned them to his son.
    I have read reports of people in Illinois having felony convictions for not having a FOID card while handling a shotgun while hunting.
    So all this FOID gun control is working?

    • What’s the FBI to do with this? Illinois State Police, and Secret Service, and his dad. He didn’t buy a new gun, so there was no NICS, so the FBI was not involved in any way.

  16. What’s with these kids? I was just informed that a sixteen year old destroyed the inside of a local conveint store then drove his pickup thru a school from one end to the other. He posted the pictures of his escapades on Facebook.

      • No links, it’s a small town, somewhere on Facebook or Twitter. It will probably be in the local newspaper. Here’s the story I’m getting. Kids Mom got fired from the convenience store. A bank would not give them a lone, and don’t know why he drove his pickup through the school. This all happened at 22.30 hours so no one was hurt. In this small town the one convenient store closes at 21.00 hours.

  17. $0.25 / a square ? ? ?

    What’s left, anything good?

    I’ll take anything with “prescription drugs” and/or “Liberal-Fuck parents” up to $5.00.

      • And what, only the second largest POS (D)NC donor in IL?

        This guy’s ‘crazy’ is made (manufactured). And, if you check the tag, it’s the kind that the POS evil (D) like to make, and they do it through t.v., schools, and meds/docs against GLOCKS.

        F em all.

  18. another hetero- , white male, lone-nut-gun-man…..
    hmmm….
    well…i’m having some difficulties suspending my ‘dis-belief’ ;
    or…even…staying awake…..
    this is sooooo predictable 😴

  19. Anyone want to take bets on the doctor-prescribed pshycotrophic dope he’s on as well. Amazing how the facts always have to trickle in as the stories develop, and also how the first thing that needs to happen is to ban everyone’s firearms to make us safe. Quite the pattern.

  20. Guess we should be grateful that most mass killers are incompetent and use the deadly jammomatic AR “assault rifle” because the media tells them is super powerful and not another modern simiauto that does not use DI.

  21. Illinois has a background check procedure known as a Firearms Owner IDentification or FOID card. In order to buy a firearm, ammuniion or just “have” such items you must have a FOID. Illinois has even gone into te computer age, even non-dealers must check with the Illinois State Police to verify that the FOID is valid and current. It is a crime when this isn’t done.
    Federal Law makes it a crime to transfer a firearm when the people are not residents of the same state unless a Federally licensed dealer [ FFL] is a middleman.
    The father is reported to have been given possession of the guns after the ISP cancelled the FOID.
    Facts I do not know… the killing took place in Tennessee, was the killer a Tennessee resident legally? Is the father still an Illinois resident or a resident in the same state as the killer?
    Federal law says it is a crime to transfer a gun to anyone you know or should know is a prohibited person… the father knows his kid is a nut job.
    There are certainly violations of federal law, perhaps Illinois law if either one was still an Illinois resident
    Maybe “they” need a law that makes being insane or delusional a crime. A law against public nudity, … Oh wait… Those things are all already covered by law.
    They system failed again unless murder and mayhem is desired so that even more repressive laws and violations of constitutional rights can be passed and the USA can become a socialist dictatorship.

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