File this one next to Joe Exotic under “News of the Wait, What?” In July, Tulsa World reported that 2018 Republican gubernatorial candidate Christopher Jonathan Barnett was arrested for shooting a process server in the elbow. Barnett, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense, was released after posting $75,000 bond only to be arrested again later that day for a post on his website threatening an act of violence against the University of Tulsa, which suspended Barnett’s husband from its theater department in 2014.
Tulsa World reported a page titled “How would Chris Barnett take down TU?” includes the specific threat listed on the criminal charge. “Wait for football season to come, start getting every single AR-15 put into place on the highest floor,” the blog post states. “Rig up a system that will fire all of the guns at once. … Wait until almost half time or when everyone is leaving the game. When people start to flood the gates to leave, the automatic system built starts firing.”
The post also names witnesses, lawyers and a judge in the lawsuit Barnett’s husband filed against the university over his suspension (for, get this, “alleged social media harassment”) as well as Parkland school shooting survivor and activist David Hogg and OJ Simpson, but maybe authorities missed the sentence at the top of the page stating that this 22-step plan is “all hypothetical and not a threat … but it’ll drive the far left crazy.” Other than detailing a mass-murder plot to own the libs, Barnett, according to an investigator’s affidavit, also used the internet to Google search “Can you legally shoot a process server?” According to Tulsa World, Barnett finished “third to last in a field of 10 Republicans” in the 2018 primaries with 5,212 votes, but judging by the current state of the GOP, we worry he might actually do better now.
This article appears in Ticket masters.