The Weaponization of Mass Shootings

Summary

It Could Happen Here: The Weaponization of Mass Shootings

Podcast: It Could Happen Here (Cool Zone Media, iHeartPodcasts)
Date: October 8, 2025
Host/Narrator: Garrison Davis (with context from the wider team: Robert Evans, Mia Wong, James Stout)

---

Overview

This episode delves into how mass shootings in the U.S. are rapidly and cynically weaponized by both political actors and media. Through the lens of several 2025 mass shootings, host Garrison Davis explores the urge to assign ideological blame before facts are known, the partisan manipulation of violence, and the core reality: most mass shootings are not neatly reducible to left-versus-right narratives, but are complex events rooted in social breakdown, alienation, and American gun culture.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Grand Blanc, Michigan Mormon Church Shooting (01:53–06:23)

• Incident Recap:
  On September 28, a 40-year-old Marine veteran shot 12 people (killing 4) and set fire to a Mormon church in Michigan, before being killed by police.
• Immediate Political Framing:
  National and right-wing media quickly framed the attack as another example of anti-Christian persecution, even as the building was still burning.
  • Quote/Attribution:
    “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians.” — White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt on Fox and Friends [02:38]
  • Right-wing influencers (e.g., Benny Johnson on X) posted: “Church is on fire. Christianity is under attack. Pray.” [02:46]
• Facts Contradict the Narrative:
  The shooter was a Christian Trump supporter with an obsession against Mormons, stemming from a personal grievance due to a breakup.
  • “This was a classic American shooting… a Marine veteran… got involved with a Mormon woman, had negative experiences... continued to have very strong anti Mormon sentiments...” — Garrison Davis [05:35]
• Weaponization and Disinformation:
  As more details emerged, the Trump administration and conservative outlets shifted focus or spread misinformation, doctoring photos and attributing fabricated left-wing affiliations to the shooter.

2. The Cycle of Blame: Binary Weaponization of Violence (06:51–08:24)

• Partisan Simplification:
  Media and politicians immediately seek to label shooters by political leaning, using each incident as a cudgel against opponents.
  • Former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker blamed “irresponsible politicians,” but offered no relevance to this specific case. [06:23]
  • “Both politicians and the media have this obsession with only talking about shooters insofar as they can try to identify a shooter's orientation towards a political party and then weaponize that suspected orientation…” — Garrison Davis [06:51]
• Examples of Competitive Framing:
  Each side rushes to define even ambiguous cases as “leftist” or “right-wing”—ignoring nuance, context, and individual motivation.

3. Other Recent Mass Shootings: Motives & Media Spin (08:24–13:15)

• Midtown Manhattan NFL Offices Shooting:
  A July shooting targeting NFL offices was motivated by the shooter’s belief that football gave him CTE; no ideological motive.
  • “No clear ideological motivations here.” — Garrison Davis [08:24]
• Leftist Shooters?
  The only recent attacker that could accurately be called “leftist” was a former PSL member who assassinated two Israeli embassy staff. [13:15]
• The ‘Kirk Assassination’ and Bill Maher/Ben Shapiro Exchange:
  Media debates (referencing the assassination of Charlie Kirk) featured figures like Ben Shapiro and Bill Maher arguing over premature ideological assignments.
  • Memorable Exchange:
    • Ben Shapiro: “We do know that... this kid was of the political left. That is according to contemporaneous reporting...”
    • Bill Maher: “Today, it’s two days out. We don’t know shit... The Internet is undefeated in getting it wrong to begin with.” [13:59–14:44]

4. Personal Motives vs. Ideological Narrative (15:30–21:29)

• Personal/Idiosyncratic Motives:
  High-profile shootings, including attempts on politicians, often turn out to be driven by personal issues, social alienation, or mental health struggles—not ideological extremism.
  • “Just because the target of violence is a political figure does not mean that it’s political violence.” — Garrison Davis [15:30]
• Role of Online Shooter Communities:
  Some perpetrators are inspired by “True Crime Community” or mass-shooter fandoms online, further complicating motives.
• Dallas ICE Office Shooting:
  In a copycat act, a shooter targeting ICE wrote “anti-ICE” messages but was described by friends as a “libertarian leaning 4chan edgelord” who hated both parties.
  • “Friends believed that the bullet inscriptions could have been written as a joke intended to rile people up.” — Garrison Davis [18:45–19:33]
• Societal Factors:
  Access to guns, social isolation, and a drive for self-annihilation are recurrent themes in these cases.

5. The Real Impact: Authoritarian Crackdowns and Manipulation of Narrative (26:20–29:31)

• State Response:
  Politicians use the confusion and fear generated by such violence to justify surveillance, crackdowns, and suppression—often targeting perceived political opponents.
  • “...partisan rhetoric on targeted violence and political violence is in service of authoritarian crackdowns and enhanced surveillance against their political opposition…” — Garrison Davis [27:59]
• Recent Example:
  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched 'undercover operations' to infiltrate “leftist terror cells,” echoing national policies targeting a range of left-coded beliefs and protests.
• Selectivity in Outrage:
  A mass shooting by another Iraq veteran at a North Carolina bar received little attention because it lacked a culture war angle, demonstrating selective media amplification.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the rush to frame violence ideologically:
  “Both politicians and the media have this obsession with only talking about shooters insofar as they can try to identify a shooter's orientation towards a political party and then weaponize that suspected orientation…” — Garrison Davis [06:51]

• On the Bill Maher—Ben Shapiro clash:
  “Today, it’s two days out. We don’t know shit. ...The Internet is undefeated in getting it wrong to begin with.” — Bill Maher [14:22]
  “A minute ago you were sure what he was.” — Bill Maher [15:23]
  “Hold on, Bill, hold on. Okay. Because I mean…” — Ben Shapiro [15:25]

• On personal vs. political motive:
  “Just because the target of violence is a political figure does not mean that it’s political violence…” — Garrison Davis [15:30]

• On state exploitation of tragedy:
  “...they are more than happy to simply pick and choose and magnify and obscure various events to fit their preferred version of reality.” — Garrison Davis [26:57]

---

Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:53] — Grand Blanc, Michigan, Mormon church shooting and rapid politicization
• [06:23] — Chris Swecker’s Fox News blame and the partisan blame game
• [08:24] — Midtown Manhattan NFL offices shooting; non-ideological motive
• [13:15] — The only recent 'leftist' shooter and Maher–Shapiro ideological spat
• [15:30] — The myth that all political acts of violence are ideological
• [18:45] — The ICE office shooter and anti-ICE bullet casings
• [26:20] — State crackdowns and narrative manipulation
• [27:59] — Policy responses and “anti-leftist terror” rhetoric

---

Tone & Language

The episode maintains an ironic, sharp, and occasionally sardonic tone. The narration is both critical and analytical, blending tragic detail with wry commentary. There is an undercurrent of frustration toward both the bipartisan political class and the media’s reductionist framing of violence.

---

Takeaways

• Most mass shootings in America are cynically leveraged by political actors for their own narratives, regardless of the perpetrator’s actual motivations.
• Media and government responses to shootings are often more about reinforcing culture war narratives and justifying increased state power than about understanding root causes.
• The reality of mass shootings is far more complex, driven by social alienation, personal trauma, and America’s unique gun environment, not simply partisan politics.
• Selective outrage and amplification by media and politicians highlight which tragedies become fodder for national debate and which are quickly forgotten.
• The cycle of tragedy, political exploitation, and crackdowns erodes public trust, narrows public discourse, and enhances authoritarian tendencies—without ever addressing the underlying causes of violence.

---

Transcript

[Ed Helms]

This is an iHeart podcast.

Hey, it's Ed Helms, host of Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu. Every single episode.

[Maggie Freeling]

32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop.

[Advertisement Voice]

What?

[Ed Helms]

Yeah, it's gonna be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous guests. Paul Scheer, Angela and Jenna, Nick Kroll, Jordan Klepper. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app app podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maggie Freeling]

The murder of an 18 year old girl in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

[Ed Helms]

America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns.

[Maggie Freeling]

Listen to Graves county on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

There's a vile sickness in Apostown. You must excise it, dig into the deep earth and cut it out.

[Aaron Manke]

From iheart Podcasts and Grim and Mil from Aaron Manke. This is Havoc Town, a new fiction podcast set in the Bridgewater Audio universe starring Jewel State and Ray Wise. Listen to Havoc town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maggie Freeling]

Media.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

This is it. Could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. On the morning of Sunday, September 28, a 40 year old man drove a pickup truck into a Grand Blanc, Michigan church. The man started shooting people inside and then set the church on fire, burning the building down. Four churchgoers died, eight others were injured but have survived and police killed the shooter on the scene. The President, the Vice President and the rest of the right were quick to call this yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States. To quote Trump on Truth Social, White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt went on Fox and Friends the day after the shooting and said this it's unfathomable.

[Maggie Freeling]

And as the President rightfully put in his True Social yesterday, this appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

As the church was still burning. Right wing podcaster Betty Johnson, who recently rode with Ice in Chicago, posted on X the Everything app Church is on fire. Christianity is under attack. Pray unquote. What Benny Johnson neglected to mention this was a Mormon church and pretty soon it became clear the attacker was not some transgender leftist antifa but a Christian Trump supporter who thought Mormons were, quote, unquote, the Antichrist. According to Burton City Council candidate Chris Johns, who claims to have spoken with the shooter just days PR While canvassing, one of the shooter's friends told the New York Times that the shooter believed that Mormons, quote, are going to take over the world, unquote. This guy obsessively talked about his dislike of Mormons stemming from a breakup with a Mormon girlfriend over a decade ago. After the background of this shooter and his apparent motive became more clear, the Trump admin quite quickly stopped talking about this specific attack, save for vague references to attacks on Christianity. But this attack was more deadly than any recent school shooting or any instance of targeted violence, which the administration has then framed as political violence happening this year. After the shooter was identified. Rather than talk about his apparent motive, people online argued about his political orientation. A picture spread online of him wearing a Trump 2020 camo shirt that read make liberals cry Again. The right wing outlet the Daily Caller attacked Democrat Representative Eric Swalwell for posting a photo of that shirt, claiming that the Trump graphic was photoshopped with the Daily Caller sharing a version of the shirt that they alleged to be the original unedited photo without the Trump graphic. Except that version without the Trump graphic is in fact the doctored photo. The Trump one is the authentic version. Right wing users on X the Everything app spread a list of political donations to progressive organizations that they attributed to the shooter, as well as a screenshot of a Twitter account with a bio that read politically active, Democratic, Socialist. Except that account and those donations were from a completely different person, just with a similar name. Now just because it's pretty clear that this shooter supported Trump doesn't mean that we should frame this as partisan political violence. This was a classic American shooting. A Marine veteran who moved to Utah after getting back from Iraq, got involved with a Mormon woman, had negative experiences with the Mormon Church, moved to Michigan, but continued to have very strong anti Mormon sentiments which he held until he acted on those sentiments leading to his death and the deaths of four other people. An extremely tragic yet extremely American sequence of events. But the conversation and coverage surrounding this Mormon church shooting is such an open display of this game of picking and choosing shootings to care about and then which can be weaponized against political enemies. Former Assistant FBI Director Chris Swecker went on Fox News to discuss this shooting where he laid blame on politicians rhetoric, calling people Nazis.

[Chris Swecker]

So you know this is a situation of you find a manufactured grievance if you will and then a whole lot of stimulus from people either on the Internet or even politicians. Irresponsible politicians. We all know who they are. You know, they're talking about Nazis and anarchists and existential threats. You know they need to crawl back into their dark places. These people are out there. That has to be taken into account when you start firing off your mouth.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

That simply has nothing to do with this specific attack. But both politicians and the media have this obsession with only talking about shooters insofar as they can try to identify a shooter's orientation towards a political party and then weaponize that suspected orientation against political opponents by trying to frame every deranged shooter as emblematic of the oppositional political project. Checked Following Charlie Kirk's assassination and the media blitz around it, fellow far right commentator Steven Crowder has revived his long dormant college debate series Change My Mind now with the prompt the left is violent. Propagandists collapse political violence into a simple binary, which is just a very limited way in trying to actually understand public acts of violence. The idea that things can only happen because of ideologies, not downstream of personal experiences, material conditions or class. This year there's been one other targeted attack that ties the Mormon church shooting for the highest fatalities and attacks this year, and that was the Midtown Manhattan mass shooting in July where the gunman attempted to shoot up the NFL offices motivated by getting CTE from playing football in high school. No clear ideological motivations here.

[Advertisement Voice]

Let's be real life happens, kids spill, pets shed and accidents are inevitable. Find a sofa that can keep [e-mail]. starting at just $699, our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out so you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry free living. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics, they're kid proof, pet friendly and built for everyday life. Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment. Plus, they're earth friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers. It's time to upgrade to a stress free mess proof sofa. Visit washablesofas.com today and save that's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

All I know is what I've been.

[Aaron Manke]

Told and that to have truth is a whole lie.

[Maggie Freeling]

For almost a decade, the murder of an 18 year old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist, and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her.

[Maggie Freeling]

We know a story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national tv.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky.

[Ed Helms]

Housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran.

[Maggie Freeling]

My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

I did not know her and I did not kill her or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y' all said.

[Maggie Freeling]

They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her from lava for good. This is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

[Ed Helms]

America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people and small towns.

[Maggie Freeling]

Listen to Graves county in the Bone Valley feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to binge the entire season ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ed Helms. And welcome back to Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new Snafu Every single episode.

[Maggie Freeling]

32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop.

[Advertisement Voice]

What?

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

Yeah, Ernie Shackleton Sounds like a solid.

[Ed Helms]

70S bastard basketball player who still wore knee pads.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

Yes.

[Ed Helms]

It's gonna be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of guests. The great Paul Scheer made me feel good. I'm like, oh, wow. Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched you're here.

[Maggie Freeling]

What was that like for you to soft launch into the show?

[Ed Helms]

Sorry, Jenna. I'll be asking the questions today.

[Maggie Freeling]

I forgot whose podcast we were doing.

[Ed Helms]

Nick Kroll. I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's, let's. Let's see how it goes. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

There's a vile sickness in Abbas town. You must excise it. Dig into the deep earth and cut it out. The village is ravaged. Entire families have been consumed.

[Maggie Freeling]

You know how waking up from a dream, a familiar place can look completely alien.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

Get back, everyone.

[Ed Helms]

Let's go.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

Next. And if you see the devil walking around inside of another man. You must cut out the very heart of him, burn his body, and scatter the ashes in the furthest corner of this town.

[Aaron Manke]

As a wide warning from iHeart podcasts and grim and mild from Aaron Manke, this is Havoc Town, a new fiction podcast set in the Bridgewater Audio universe, starring Jewel State and Ray Wise. Listen to Havoc town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

The Devil Walks in Abbostown.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

Lots of shooters aren't typically ideological in like, the ordinary political sense. The only recent shooter that could be accurately categorized as, quote unquote leftist is the former PSL member who assassinated two Israeli embassy staffers in May of 2025. Now, under no circumstances do you have to hand it to Bill Maher, but this exchange between him and Ben Shapiro just two days after the Charlie Kirk assassination demonstrates this point about how media and politicians only understand and weaponize public acts of violence through ideology long before we have any actual clear indication on what motivated a shooter to commit an attack.

[Ed Helms]

There's a shooting at a synagogue. It is very likely to be either a white supremacist or a radical Muslim. If it is a shooting of a Republican politician, it is very likely to be a trans antifa Marxist shooting.

[Bill Maher]

That is just not true. We don't know what this kid is.

[Ed Helms]

We do know this kid was of the left.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

Left.

[Ed Helms]

We do know that. We do know what that this kid was of the political left. That is according to contemporaneous reporting from the Guardian as well as Tablet magazine.

[Bill Maher]

Today, it's two days out. We don't know shit. But here's we don't know shit. They never do. The Internet is undefeated in getting it wrong to begin with.

[Ed Helms]

It's not about the Internet. That's about the. That's about the actual reporting by mainstream. Except the Guardian is not a right wing.

[Bill Maher]

Here's what I here's what we heard, here's what I was told so far, and I'll tell you what was wrong. First I heard he's a registered Republican. Not true.

[Ed Helms]

Not true.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, then. He was a donor to Trump. Not true. His father works in the sheriff's office. Not true. There was a picture of him wearing a pro Trump shirt. Not true. Member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Not true. We don't know what he is. Well, how are you so sure he's of the left now? I agree. When you write on a bullet, what did he write on the bullet?

[Ed Helms]

Catch this fascist. Which is also a gamer thing.

[Bill Maher]

Okay, but now I'm hearing he may have been part of that group for whom Charlie Kirk was not right wing enough.

[Ed Helms]

I mean, the groipers. Yes. I mean, so that would.

[Bill Maher]

That you're sure he's not that.

[Ed Helms]

I'm not sure that he's not that.

[Bill Maher]

A minute ago you were sure what he was.

[Ed Helms]

Hold on, hold on, Bill, hold on. Okay. Because I mean.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

Another thing that can be tricky to understand is just because the target of violence is a political figure does not mean that it's political violence. The attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan is a key example of this. And for the Kirk assassination, available evidence points towards more of a personal motivation based on romantic attraction a la Dog Day afternoon over any larger partisan political motivation. It doesn't even make sense to view the first attempted Trump assassination as political violence. Thomas Crooks searched online for a variety of events to commit a shooting at. In the month prior to the shooting, he did more than 60 Internet searches related to Biden, Trump and information about the upcoming DNC and RNC conventions. Donald Trump's campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania just happened to fall into the right place at the right time. The mass killer obsessed school shooter from last August who shot two kids at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, which the right branded as a trans terrorist, originally planned to do the shooting at a small LGBTQ music venue, but feared that trans girls attending the concert would be armed for self defense. As I've previously reported on this show, this shooting bears similarity to TCC or True Crime community, not as in True Crime Podcasts, but an online community of usually young people obsessed with school shooters or mass shooters, akin to neo columbiners who encourage each other online to then commit their own acts of violence inspired by or replicating those of previous school shootings or mass shootings. This pseudo mass shooter fandom demonstrates the extent to which the role of the shooter can be its own motivating force beyond any culture war issues or ordinary partisan politics that might get sprinkled on top as seasoning. On Wednesday, September 24, the 29 year old opened fire with a bolt action rifle targeting an ICE field office in Dallas, Texas. This attack claimed the lives of three immigrants who were detained by ICE in a copycat style following the Kirk assassination and the United Healthcare CEO assassination. This shooter allegedly wrote anti ICE on unfired bullet casings. In the immediate wake of this attack, the right attributed this shooting to the radical left and blamed Democrat politicians for spreading anti ICE rhetoric. At a North Carolina event, JD Vance said, quote, here's what happens when Democrats like Gavin Newsom say these people are part of an authoritarian government. When the left wing media lies about what they're doing, when they lie about who they're arresting, when they lie about the actual job of law enforcement, what they are doing is encouraging crazy people to go and commit violence. Here's a brief Fox News report. We have a problem America. We are living through a scourge of left wing political violence that three weeks into this month has made it bloody September. Today, another attack on ice. As is not uncommon with mass shooters, this guy was a registered independent and the shooter's brother told NBC News that he wasn't really interested in politics. I find it highly unlikely that this millennial and other Gen Z shooters are regularly watching liberal news, getting their opinions from politicians and news anchors on MSNBC or cnn. Journalist Ken Klippenstein spoke with friends of this shooter who described him as a libertarian leaning 4chan edgelord who hated both political parties and most mainstream politicians. Friends believed that the bullet inscriptions could have been written as a joke intended to rile people up. They told Kleppenstein the shooter became more isolated in recent years as friends drifted away due to his continuous antisocial edgelord behavior in regular day to day interactions. Nancy Larson, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas said the shooter left behind a writing where he referred to ICE operations and as human trafficking. Larson says the shooter did not mention any government agency besides ice, but left a note for police reading quote good luck with the digital footprint. This shooter killed himself after the attack. These public acts of violence usually have a suicidal component, a drive for self annihilation while simultaneously gaining some final sense of meaning or purpose by crudely emblazoning yourself in history through a violent act. What causes someone to do this can be a mix of many factors including access to guns, individual motivations, social alienation, self annihilation. Insofar as there's an overtly political element, it's often the result of a political alienation. Usually the type of person who commits a bloody act of violence lacks a recognizably coherent political philosophy that can be easily grafted onto our Democrat Republican binary with there sometimes being a mix of political beliefs across the left right spectrum. Mass shootings which are accompanied by express political motivations usually stem from anti Muslim or great replacement rhetoric. The idea that white people in Western culture will slowly be replaced by brown immigrants.

[Advertisement Voice]

Life's messy. We're talking spills, stains, pets and kids. But with anabe you never have to stress about Messes [e-mail], discover Anabe Sofas, the only fully machine washable sofas inside and out starting at just $699. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics, that means fewer stains and more pieces. Peace of Mind Designed for real life, Our sofas feature changeable fabric covers allowing you to refresh your style anytime. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly. Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes. Plus, they're earth friendly and built to last. That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch. Upgrade your space today. Visit washable washablesofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

All I know is what I've been.

[Aaron Manke]

Told and that's a half truth is a whole lie.

[Maggie Freeling]

For almost a decade, the murder of an 18 year old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her.

[Maggie Freeling]

We know a story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national tv.

[Ed Helms]

Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky housewife helped give justice to Jessica Kerr.

[Maggie Freeling]

My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist producer and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

[Ed Helms]

I did not know her and I.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

Did not kill her or rape or burn or any of that other stuff that y' all said.

[Maggie Freeling]

They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her from Lava for good. This is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

[Ed Helms]

America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people and small towns.

[Maggie Freeling]

Listen to Graves county in the Bone Valley feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast and to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ed Helms. And welcome back to snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu every single episode.

[Maggie Freeling]

32 lock nuclear weapons you're like, wait, stop.

[Advertisement Voice]

What?

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

Yeah, Ernie Shackleton sounds like a solid.

[Ed Helms]

70S basketball player who still wore knee pads. Yes, it's gonna be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of guests. The great Paul Scheer made me feel good. I'm like, oh wow, Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched you're here.

[Maggie Freeling]

What was that like for you to soft launch into the show?

[Ed Helms]

Sorry, Jenna, I'll be asking the questions today.

[Maggie Freeling]

I forgot whose podcast we were doing.

[Ed Helms]

Nick Kroll. I hope this story is good enough to get you to toss that sandwich. So let's, let's, let's see how it goes. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

There's a vile sickness in Abbas Town. You must excise it, dig into the deep earth and cut it out. The village is ravaged. Entire families have been consumed.

[Maggie Freeling]

You know how waking up from a dream, a familiar place can look completely alien?

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

Get back everyone. He's got nats. And if you see the devil walking around inside of another man, you must cut out the very heart of him, burn his body and scatter the ashes in the furthest corner of this town.

[Aaron Manke]

As a warning from iHeart podcasts and grim and mild from Aaron Manke, this is Havoc Town, a new fiction podcast set in the Bridgewater Audio universe starring Jewel State and Ray Wise. Listen to Havoc town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

The devil walks in.

[Political Analyst / Narrator]

But throughout the next three years under Trump's federal government and the right wing anti woke backlash currently flexing dominance over our culture, nihilistic self destructive acts against American society may take a form which could be characterized as quote unquote left wing violence. Despite most of these shooters being far from your average DNC acolyte or bread tube watching leftist. Considering the Mormon Church shooting, the Kirk assassination, the ICE detainee shooting, and the Minneapolis Catholic School shooting in the year of our brain rot 2025, I think it's pretty clear that the current US state apparatus does not need to stage false flags. The state just tries to take advantage of naturally emergent events, twisting them to fit narratives in an ad hoc manipulation of consensus reality. No crude fabrication of physical reality is needed. They are more than happy to simply pick and choose and magnify and obscure various events to fit their preferred version of reality. The night before the shooting at the Mormon Church, another Iraq War veteran did a mass shooting in North Carolina which did not result in nearly as many national headlines. The shooter targeted a waterfront bar, killing three people injuring six others. The suspect rode a boat up to the bar, fired with an AR mounted with a scope and silencer before speeding off on water. Police have also deemed this a targeted attack, but without a tangential link to culture war issues, this event will be quickly forgotten. As I'm recording this episode, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that he's launching undercover operations to infiltrate and uproot, quote, leftist terror cells in Texas. Leftist political terrorism is a clear and present danger. There can be no compromise with those who want us dead. Unquote. This mirrors President Trump's National Security Presidential Memorandum Number seven, which targets, quote, unquote, domestic terrorism indicators like anti Christianity, anti capitalism, anti Americanism, extremism on race, gender, immigration, and hostility towards traditional American values. All this partisan rhetoric on targeted violence and political violence is in service of authoritarian crackdowns and enhanced surveillance against their political opposition. Meanwhile, this past Saturday morning, the home of a South Carolina Circuit Court judge was burned down, hospitalizing her husband, a former state senator, and their son. The judge was out of the house at the time. Last month, the judge temporarily blocked a voter suppression executive order signed by President Trump. In the weeks leading up to the fire, the judge had received death threats. This has been It Could Happen Here. See you on the other side.

[Maggie Freeling]

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can now find sources for It Could Happen here, listed directly in episode Descriptions. Thanks for listening.

[Ed Helms]

Hey, it's Ed Helms, host of Snafu, my podcast about history's greatest screw ups. On our new season, we're bringing you a new snafu. Every single episode.

[Maggie Freeling]

32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop what?

[Ed Helms]

It's going to be a whole lot of history, a whole lot of funny, and a whole lot of fabulous guests. Paul Scheer, Angela and Jenna, Nick Kroll, Jordan Klepper. Listen to season four of SNAFU with Ed Helms on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maggie Freeling]

The murder of an 18 year old girl in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved for years until a local housewife, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

[Ed Helms]

America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people in small towns.

[Maggie Freeling]

Listen to Graves county on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Narrator (Havoc Town)]

There's a vile sickness in Abbott's Town. You must excise it, dig into the deep earth and cut it out.

[Aaron Manke]

From iheart Podcasts and Grim and miles from Aaron Manke. This is Havoc Town, a new fiction podcast set in the Bridgewater Audio universe, starring Jewel State and Ray Wise. Listen to Havoc town on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ed Helms]

This is an iHeart podcast.