Hawaii man charged with threatening to kill Obama

[BlueJessamine]

Source: AP News

By AUDREY McAVOY

HONOLULU (AP) — Federal agents have arrested a Hawaii man after he allegedly threatened to attack and kill President-elect Barack Obama when he visits Hawaii on vacation this month.

Mark Miyashiro allegedly made the threats Dec. 3 to a doctor who is treating him for a schizophrenic disorder, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Friday.

Miyashiro then allegedly made more threats when Secret Services agents interviewed and arrested him at his home in Kaneohe the next day after the doctor notified authorities. They also confiscated a Russian SKS assault rifle.

Miyashiro is charged with one count of threatening the life of the president or the president-elect, which is punishable by up to five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years probation. He was being held at the Federal Detention Center in Honolulu.

His attorney, Matthew C. Winter, was out of the office Wednesday and could not immediately be reached for comment.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ieEHNx5DYjbyd2Mw1rfU2p5MpTdgD9507S580

[Ian David]

1. Oooh... bad time for Atty Winter to be on vacation.

Boy, his voicemail is gonna be really full when he gets back to work.

[brentspeak]

2. How did this deranged guy get a hold of a Russian SKS?

[bertman]

6. The SKS is a fairly common rifle. A semi-auto that pre-dated the AK-47. My guess is

it's very easy to come by one. Especially in Hawaii where many U.S. Army troops returned from Vietnam with "souvenirs".

[guruoo]

7. Ahh, err, I swear, it's just for hunting...

http://www.sks-rifles.com



"The SKS rifle is one of the top selling rifles on the market. Due to the surplus of millions of these remarkable SKS rifles, they are relatively inexpensive, as well as meticulously maintained. The SKS rifle operates on a short stroke gas piston, tilting bolt design, which shares many features with most modern firearms. After the development of the AK-47 rifle, the SKS rifles were all but abandoned, due to the high cost of production, when compared to the stamped AK47 rifles.

Despite this fact the SKS hunting community is continuing to grow, due to the inexpensive price tag of these firearms, and great number of SKS parts available. SKS rifles can be found imported from Russia, China, Yugoslavia, Romania, East Germany, Albania, Vietnam, North Korea, and many other places. With only cosmetic changes in most cases, these SKS rifles share the same SKS parts, and accuracy.

When considering the price of the SKS rifle being far below the six hundred dollar average of most hunting rifles, many people dubbed the SKS rifle as “the poor man’s hunting rifle.” In all of my experience, I have found the SKS rifle to be a solid repeating rifle, which makes hunting accessible to all walks of life."

[sofa king]

9. Definitely inexpensive.

Sort of the Volkswagen Beetle of combat arms, as I vaguely recall it being described. Inexpensive, relatively easy to maintain (though capable of delivering a nasty magazine-emptying surprise, according to Wikipedia), still works even when it doesn't work well. In some ways, it's comparable to the US M1, which was also a popular hunting rifle for similar reasons.

Around fifteen years ago or maybe longer, I had about 200 bucks to blow. I was torn between a 55 gallon fish tank with most of the gear, or an SKS with 300 rounds thrown in. The SKS I looked at even had a soon-to-be-illegal side-folding spike bayonet, which was about to qualify it as "scary looking" under the Assault Weapons Ban.

I did the world a favor and chose to blow that money on booze, dope, and women instead. In retrospect, I now realize that all three of those choices were certain to come to a bad end. But hey, at least I didn't drown or shoot myself.

[Posteritatis]

10. If someone's in treatment they get the exact same rights that everyone else does

Not condoning the guy's actions, I'm indifferent on the guns issue, but good Goddamn am I ever sick of the "someone's diagnosed with a mentaldisorder so they should automatically have restrictions on what they can and cannot do" attitude. Fuck that sideways.

[No Elephants]

13. "Automatically," no. But there are vaild reasons to separate guns from psychotics.

[Patiod]

15. Advocates for the mentally ill fight restrictions

Saying it futher stigmatizes the mentally ill.

While gun advocates have been fighting restrictions on felons and convicted wife-beaters.

Guns for all! Put conditions and restrictions on driver's licenses, professional licenses, business licenses, beauticians, tattoo parlors - just about everything else, but God forbid that even literal raving schizophrenics should have their precious 2nd amendment rights challenged. It's un-American!

[No Elephants]

16. "Mentally ill" and "psychotic" are not always synonymous.

[Posteritatis]

21. Are you equating the mentally ill with felons and wifebeaters? Wow (nt)

[Patiod]

22. In terms of gun possession, absolutely

And I'd include certain mental impairment as well.

Before my work schedule interfered, I used to be a hospice volunteer. On one visit, I noticed that a patient with head and neck cancer had (what he claimed was a loaded) gun sitting right on top of his TV. He said he was afraid of the neighborhood kids, who "bothered" him. I should note that this was an upscale, virtually crime-free little suburban neighborhood, and that I saw firsthand what he meant about about the kids "bothering" him - the next door-neighbor's kid came over, peered in the screen, and said "my mother wants to know if you need anything at the store". Oooo - scary.

The guy was on the kind of massive doses of morphine that hospice does so well, and he was also hallucinating, and describing some of the hallucinations to me.

I reported this to hospice, and refused to go back to that house. I don't even want to think what might have happened if the hallucinations coincided with a knock on the door from a neighbor (adult or child).

Someone should have been able to take the goddamn gun away from him. Fuck the 2nd amendment, morphine psychosis and guns don't mix.

I'm not suggesting that anyone with any mental illnes at all be prohibited from owning guns, but we don't let epileptics drive, so why in the hell would we let paranoid schizophrenics or those taking high doses of pschosis-inducing pharmaceuticals have a gun?

[Posteritatis]

23. "Don't let epileptics drive?"

Think you can throw out some other false statements while you're at it? That one hasn't been true for awhile provided there's a seizure-free period and the person's been cleared by a doctor, which isn't terribly different from someone with mental illness receiving regular treatment for his own condition.

Of course, you can go right ahead and equate those sorts of situations with massive doses of morphine if you'd like, but it isn't exactly making it sound like you know much about mental disorders and their treatment if that's the case.

Also, how do you reconcile "I'm not suggesting that anyone with any mental illness at all be prohibited from owning guns" on the one hand, while saying you "absolutely" equate the mentally ill with felons and wife-beaters on the other? Which felons and wife-beaters should be allowed to have guns, then?

[Patiod]

24. But there ARE specific conditions on driving with epilepsy

And as you point out, the person with epilepsy needs that doctor's permission, or they don't get to drive.

Why should it be any different with mental illness or impairment? I view mental illness the same way I view any bio-chemical condition our body throws at us (diabetes, epilepsy, glaucoma). And currently, if your physiology or bio-chemistry would make driving dangerous to others, then driving is, by your own admission, in some way restricted. And if your bio-chemical condition makes gun ownersip dangerous to others, then gun ownership should be restricted, too.

And yet the Absolute Gun Rights folks don't think anyone should be restricted for any reason. I think guns should be managed exactly the same way driving is managed. Take a test to prove you're capable of handling the vehicle/gun safely, and if you have some bio-chemical or physical condition that might make vehicle/gun use unsafe for others, you should have to provide a doctor's certification that, as with epilepsy, it won't harm others.

[Bjorn Against]

25. My brother has schizophrenia, my father's career is as an advocate for the mentally ill...

My father would never fight restrictions on firearms ownership for the mentally ill. While my brother is doing pretty well these days, back in the days before they found a treatment that works for him he would have been extremely dangerous if he had a gun. My brother would never harm anyone today, he is about the most innocent person you will ever meet in fact. I still wouldn't want him to have a gun however because if he ever forgot to take his meds I would worry about him having a gun within reach. My parents are pretty well known across the state when it comes to advocates for mental health issues, and I can assure you that neither of them would ever even consider advocating that restrictions should be lifted on gun ownership rights for mentally ill individuals.

[Bjorn Against]

27. Having grown up in a house with someone who had schizophrenia...

Let me just say that I am glad he didn't have a gun, and today I am sure he is glad he did not have that right when he was younger. He is doing much better now, but he could not have been trusted with a gun at one point in his life and I am very thankful he didn't have one. There are good reasons to restrict people with serious mental illnesses from owning firearms. My father was actually a lobbyist for a major mental health organization at one time and he would tell you the same thing, you can support the rights of the mentally ill and still realize that there are certain rules that need to be put in place to protect the safety of both the individual and the public.

[old mark]

11. My guess is - he bought it. Oh, and it's not an

"assault rifle", and they are great for deer hunting.

They used to be sold for about $65 till they were banned, now the price is around $250 and up.
They are primitive by today's standards, hold 10 shots have a wooden stock and are used mostly for parades in the countries that once used them militarily.

If this guy has a record of previous threats and was in treatment before he should not have legally owned a gun, but this varies by state.

mark

[slackmaster]

19. He probably bought it at a gun store, background check and all

They are very common and not expensive.

No worries. After this episode he'll have a felony conviction, a mental health adjudication, or both; he won't be buying any more firearms in Hawaii.

[bluestateguy]

3. And I suppose "schizophrenic" will be his excuse

Bad behavior is bad behavior.

[mainer]

12. Schizophrenia is a valid excuse

The man was apparently already diagnosed as mentally ill, so it's not as if he cooked that up as a defense.

[GOPNotForMe]

18. Schizophrenia is not ADD or some other disorder of the month.

Schizophrenia is not something to mess around with. That is a very serious mental illness. Your mind does all kinds of bad bad things. (btw, no offense to those legitimately suffering from ADD)

[Bjorn Against]

26. As someone who has a brother with schizophrenia I can have some sympathy for this guy...

When he made those comments about Obama he was not thinking straight, my brother made some comments years ago very similar to these when he was at the height of his illness years ago but now that he has been on the right medication for several years he would never even consider saying such things.

The guy who made these threats is not just another criminal, he has a serious illness and he needs medical treatment. If he receives the proper medication and counseling his situation can improve, and he will not be a threat to Obama or anyone else. Don't get me wrong, this guy needs to be locked up but he should be locked up in a medical facility where he can get help rather than a prison.

[Nitrogenica]

4. Here is a link to his photo album.

http://fifdififdi.com/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=2yz05t8cx9aiw

[BlueJessamine]

5. More from UPI:

HONOLULU, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors say they are holding a Hawaiian man who allegedly threatened to attack Barrack Obama to prove the new U.S. president is the Antichrist.

According to a Secret Service affidavit, Mark Miyashiro told his psychiatrist that he wanted to test his theory by killing Obama and then seeing if he rose from the dead.

KITV-TV, Honolulu, said Wednesday that Miyashiro, 56, allegedly told the doctor he would carry out the attack with a slingshot and a marble; however, when agents checked his apartment they found a significantly more dangerous Russian assault rifle with a reference to the Bible passage Luke 11:21 carved into the stock.

Luke 11:21 reads, "When a stray man, fully armed, guards his own mansion, his property is safe."

The affidavit, which was presented at a court hearing in Honolulu Tuesday, said Miyashiro didn't recant statements about his alleged plot when agents confronted him.


http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/12/10/Man_held_in_Obama_Antichrist_threat/UPI-19591228932321/

[Johnyawl]

8. UPI has the quote wrong. It's STRONG man, not STRAY man..

Luke 11:21: "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed."

but the dude should have read the next verse also, as it's somewhat prophetic in his case.

Luke 11:22: "But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder."

The Secret Service (much stronger then the individual nutjob), attacked him, and took away his armor (his SKS assault rifle) on which he had relied.

Ya gotta read the whole Bible, not just cherry pick the versus you like.

[No Elephants]

14. UPI may well have correctly quoted what they guy had carved on his rifle.

[LiberalFighter]

17. But it is the cherry part that the guys like him like.

Excuse me for being a bit vulgar.

[slackmaster]

20. Engrish

:rofl: