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.

  • blattrules@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    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.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      5 hours ago

      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.

      • blattrules@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        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.

  • AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    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.

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    14 hours ago

    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.

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        12 hours ago

        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?

        • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          His motives are still “under investigation”.

          His political activities include social media comments that “appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes” and “espouse political violence”. Pretty shit political beliefs, if you want to call them that.

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      13 hours ago

      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.

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          12 hours ago

          A white supremacist fever dream fanfiction in which American whites rise up under white supremacy and slaughter all people of color and “race traitors” in the country on the oft-cited “Day of the Rope.” It culminates with the movement taking control of the US nuclear arsenal and taking their holocaust international.

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    15 hours ago

    Why can’t 2nd amendment advocates open carry at Trump’s rallies? Does he not support gun rights?

    • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
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      16 hours ago

      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.

      • Chozo@fedia.io
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        13 hours ago

        I dunno, a homemade shotgun worked well enough on Shinzo Abe.

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          11 hours ago

          He also was able to get much closer to Abe because guns are illegal in Japan. This gave the assassin a number of avenues of cover. It was a makeshift weapon so didn’t really look like a gun, it wasn’t easy for security to identify it as a gun, and the lack of guns added to the sense of security allowing people to be closer to Abe.

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        15 hours ago

        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.

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          14 hours ago

          Lincoln completely different story. Doesn’t count.

          Garfield shot by a walk up, McKinley, Reagan; all same.

          Jackson one failed, T. Roosevelt one failed, F. D. Roosevelt one miss, Ford two (nothing chambered, to slow),

          Bush one shoe and some “cat like reflects.” Also a handkerchief almost got his ass.

          That is it. U.S. history over the last 248 years.

          A Nevada man with a shotgun, loaded handgun, ammunition and several fake passports in his vehicle was arrested at a security checkpoint outside Donald Trump’s rally Saturday night in the Southern California desert, authorities said. He was released the same day on $5,000 bail.

          The suspect, a 49-year-old resident of Las Vegas, was driving an unregistered black SUV with a “homemade” license plate that was stopped by deputies assigned to the rally in Coachella, east of Los Angeles, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

          I wonder how they spotted him?

          https://apnews.com/article/trump-rally-arrest-coachella-california-282a384e3fae256352c685174a3a74f4

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots

          • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            You seem to be implying that handguns don’t count even though it has happened, or actual attempts, multiple times. Ok…?

            • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
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              11 hours ago

              I’m saying serious attempts in 2024 won’t be a close range weapon. Back in the 1800s or early 1900s it was an option. The wiki is a very interesting read. Hell Reagan almost died from a horrible shot that got luck.

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        16 hours ago

        “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.

      • Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip
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        16 hours ago

        Looks like this is California. High capacity there is just a standard magazine you get most everywhere else.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    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?”

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      12 hours ago

      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.

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    17 hours ago

    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.

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        15 hours ago

        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.

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            4 hours ago

            I may possibly not have been serious.

            But also, as you will see if you hang out with us at InsanePeopleFacebook, plenty of them drive nice cars. And they can afford to pay lots of money to grifters who claim to tell them the cheat codes to beat the system.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      15 hours ago

      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?

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    16 hours ago

    What about all the good guys with guns? We can stop this guy with guns in his car but school shootings? Impossible to prevent.

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    16 hours ago

    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.

    • elbucho@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      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.