by Cliff Ball
Chapter 19
“Are you all setup for the operation?” asked Michael, who was on the phone with his contact in the field.
“Yes we are, Mr. Evans. The building has been setup, all the people are in place, the national media are waiting to begin filming, and all local authorities alerted. It’ll look realistic enough when the cameras roll and everyone will be convinced it really happened. There will probably be some who wonder how the media got there so quickly, but it can’t be helped. We await your permission to start,”
“Give me a minute, I want to inform Speaker Rooney and Majority Leader Meeds.” Michael went over to his computer, which had video chat capability, called up the feeds for Rooney and Meeds, and said to them, “We’re about to begin. Do you have the legislation ready to submit to your members?”
“Yes, we do. We should be able to get it through Congress, onto the President’s desk, and then he’ll sign it into law, all within two weeks of this event. I’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time. By the way, where is this taking place again?” asked Rooney.
“We’ll be using an amusement park in the Midwest, which we closed for the day. The owners were told that we were having a private party and wanted the park to ourselves. Everything you see on TV will be acting and the still pictures of people that are shown who died will be of people in Europe who died under various circumstances,”
“Mr. Evans, without you, nothing we’ve wanted would have come to pass. While I’m sorry that Congresswoman Cindy Vickers was assassinated for the cause, she knew the risk when she proposed it, and her husband has become a tireless advocate for us when it comes to these gun control measures. Now, along with the restaurant massacre in Utah and the unexpected workplace violence at Fort Hood, what we do here today will change the course of American history. My one question is: how do we prevent Americans, especially those annoying Tea Partiers, from finding out this operation was a false flag and then protest against the measures we plan on taking? Plus, how do we prevent one of our actors from spilling the beans later on if they get it into their heads to do so? asked Meeds.
“You’ll introduce a bill that places limits on the internet. You’ll say that we have to shut down certain websites due to problems with national security or there are problems with lots and lots of digital piracy. The proposal will give the President the power to shut down the internet at a moment’s notice, will give the FBI the power to shut down websites they don’t like, and everything anyone says online will be monitored through a national database housed in a facility I setup in Nevada. The national database will record the internet address of the user who gets a hit for something they said, the internet provider will provide the name and mailing address of the user, and if the user’s enough of a threat, the authorities will swoop in and arrest them. As for any actors who dare tell the public what really happened, they’ll be derided as delusional and their careers over within a matter of moments. Simple as that, no need to over-think anything. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other things to take care of.” Michael clicked the button that closed the feeds without giving the two politicians a chance to say anything else.
“William, you have a go.” Michael told the man who was still waiting on the cell phone.
“I’m on it.” then he hung up the phone.
Michael went online and brought up the website of one of the national TV networks to wait for the national news to begin streaming the breaking news. He didn’t have to wait long when a pop-up on the site announced the news alert, so he clicked it, and it took him to the page.
“We have a breaking news story. In the Midwest, there’s an amusement park that has been targeted by a gunman, with possible loss of life. We take you there now, where we have our reporter Francine Viega reporting. Francine, what do you know?”
“Well, Chris, we have reports of gunfire coming from the park. We also saw someone, who could possibly be a second gunman, running out into the woods, with police chasing after him. We have pictures of children being led out by their parents as the threat continues,” the picture came up on screen, showing five kids ranging in age from six to twelve walking calmly behind an adult, acting like nothing at all happened, but the reporter chose to ignore that, kept talking about how many people were inside, and what possible motive the shooter might have to have targeted an amusement park.
Michael knew he should’ve paid more attention to every little detail of the operation, but he thought everyone would put way more thought into it, including asking the children to act like they were upset and on the verge of crying. Maybe the low-info sheep won’t notice, he thought. Michael cringed even more when Francine reappeared on screen to talk. Behind her, there were some adults laughing, and if this event was supposed to be tragic, they should not be doing that. Michael, who was irritated, picked up his cell and called William, “William, this is Evans. So far, your team has made a couple of mistakes and is screwing this up. The pictures being shown do not show upset children or adults and there are adults behind Viega who are laughing. You need to fix that right away. May I suggest a few pictures of people screaming and maybe helicopter shots of police storming the amusement park,”
“Sorry, Mr. Evans. I’ll fix that right away. You won’t be disappointed.”
“You better hope not, William. I’ve got too much invested in this to be an epic failure. Heads will literally roll if the script isn’t followed to the letter or the reporters make glaring mistakes on air or if the actors do something beyond stupid. Tell everyone that their careers will be over with if this doesn’t turn into a success. Got it?”
“I’ve got it, Mr. Evans. I’ll tell everyone to watch what they’re doing. Anything else, sir?”
“No. Goodbye.” Then he said out loud, to himself, since no one was in the room, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I should’ve really gone up there myself to direct everything, and those hopeless hacks better hope Americans are convinced that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as gun control is concerned. I really need the President to act concerned more, especially when he goes with the ‘It’s for the children!’ meme. Anyway, I guess I’ll go back to watching this unfolding drama.”
The action now unfolded the way Michael had wanted it to unfold after the network went to commercial for about five minutes. People were interviewed: “Can you tell us what happened in the amusement park?” asked Viega of a woman who looked vaguely upset.
“We were having a private party and some insane maniac showed up with military style machine guns and started shooting at everything that moves. He had all black on and I think he even had a flak jacket on too. He killed a lot of little kids and a couple of adults. It was terrifying!” then the woman put her face in her hands and acted like she was weeping.
A few minutes later, Viega reported, “We’ve been told that the shooter shot himself in the head as the police approached. They say he was using multiple guns, mostly military style, with large capacity magazines. One of the weapons, according to my sources, was manufactured by 3D printer. Here are pictures of these weapons the police say the shooter was using.”
The pictures of the weapons used were the type that only the U.S. Military used, that no civilian could ever get their hands on. That was followed by a pre-packaged video about the various capacities of gun magazines and the weapons used by other mass murderers in these types of situations. The video went on to detail every mass murder in the United States involving guns since the Columbine High School incident, along with pictures of the dead.
The video ended, with an official representative who appeared to be FBI, standing next to Viega, and she asked, “Agent Thompson, what can you tell us?”
“What I can tell you is that thirty people are dead; twenty children and ten adults. The shooter’s name is Matthew Christopher and we’re in the process of going to his home to find out what we can about him. He treated this whole thing like a military-style exercise, by
dropping his magazines to make sure he didn’t run out of bullets. Once we got close to him, he shot himself. That’s all I have for you now.”
“We have a reporter who is accompanying the FBI as they go to the Christopher home. Stay tuned for updates to this story.”
Five minutes later, like a well oiled machine, the President’s Secretary of the Press came on TV, and said, “The President, who is currently on a trip, has expressed his shock and sadness at this shocking mass murder at the amusement park. He wishes to express his condolences to the families. He’s calling on Congress to begin legislation to stop these kinds of weapons from getting into the hands of people like Christopher, because we can’t have more children being murdered. The President has authorized me to release a picture of him when he received the news about this tragic and shocking mass murder,”
A video of President Marsh came on screen, who looked like he was on Air Force One, and it showed him being told the news by one of his advisers. The President acted like he was about to cry as he used a handkerchief to dab his eyes. The video stopped there, as the Press Secretary came back on screen to say, “Again, we express our condolences to the families. We call on Congress to limit the access to guns and if they don’t, the President will use his powers as President of the United States to issue an Executive Order banning guns. I will take no questions for now.”
The investigators for the shooting at the amusement park, used a vacant home, claiming that it was the home of Matthew Christopher, who lived with his parents. The media interviewed “neighbors” of the Christopher’s who said they were a quiet family and some of the nicest people anyone could meet. The investigators made sure that they appeared to thoroughly go through the house, before they sent out a representative to speak with the media, “Ladies and gentlemen of the Press. We have conducted our investigation. We found both of Matthew’s parents murdered in their beds; he apparently shot them while they were asleep. We found the boy’s computer and found that he was involved with online multi-player gaming, specifically the game Call of the Battlefield, which is a first person shooter that is completely realistic, but he was also into other just as violent games, such as War Duty Online. We feel those kind of video games don’t belong in the hands of the public. He also had mental problems, as he was diagnosed with Down Syndrome as a child. His parents claimed he was hard to control and had a temper, they were afraid he would do something horrible, but they also trained him on how to use guns. He was mostly home-schooled as a child, which limited his interaction with people and his parents were deeply religious people, so we wonder about the psychological aspect such actions did to the boy. Matthew was nineteen years old. We express regret about the shocking incident at the amusement park and we express our condolences to the families.”
The next day, Rooney and Meeds appeared together in a joint press conference with members of Congress behind them. The pictures of the victims, all of which were white, none of the victims shown were African-American, Hispanic, or Asian, was situated behind the members. Rooney talked first: “Both Houses of Congress are deeply saddened by this turn of events. We regret the loss of innocent life to a psycho who shouldn’t have had access to weapons of any sort. We shouldn’t have to keep burying innocents because of the free access to the type of weapons Matthew Christopher was using. That is why Congress is going to pass a gun control bill that will stop the sale of all guns anywhere within the United States. All gun manufacturers will be required to leave the United States, while the American Gun Association will be required to shutdown and its membership rolls will be handed over to the federal government. While we will not go door-to-door to seize weapons, Americans who own weapons will be watched closely. We must do this for the children so they can grow up in a safe environment. Now, Majority Leader Jack Meeds would like to speak.”
“Thank you, Darcy. Congress will also look into the possible link that certain medical problems, such as Down Syndrome, Autism, and others have that causes such violence to occur from these kinds of people. The Health Administration will research the possible reasons for this violence, what can be done about it, and how it might be prevented in the future. If it starts in the womb, we will take care of such problems. If it occurs due to nurture, the parents and their mental health will be examined. It might be best if children were raised by the community, so that’s something we’ll examine. We will leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of gun violence. We’ll take a couple of questions,”
“Speaker Rooney, what’s being done to curb the speculation online that this whole thing was a set-up to take away guns from the American people?” asked the reporter from Affiliated Press.
“Speech like that is what causes people like Christopher Matthews to commit gun violence in the first place. We have no use for it in today’s America. We will also look into the possible link the internet and violence has when pushed together, since too many people can gather together from all over the place to push their bad ideas in chat rooms and social networks. We must put a stop to it and I ask my friends in the Senate to help me find ways to limit such gross misconduct on the internet. Thank you for your time, ladies and gentlemen of the Press, we have work to do.”
In less than a week, when it normally takes them months or even years, Congress passed gun control legislation that would stop all gun sales, close down gun manufacturers, and banned the American Gun Association from continuing to operate in the United States. The mainstream media made sure to incessantly talk about gun violence right on up to the signing of the legislation. They ignored the violence in cities like Chicago, and mostly focused on the violence in cities in red states, such as Dallas. Congress informed A.G.A. members that if the authorities caught anyone with weapons, they would be sent to jail immediately. States with concealed-carry were over-ruled by this new law when the Supreme Court let the government have that power after a lawsuit was filed by gun rights advocates. The advocates ended up being threatened with years of jail time if they kept pushing the issue, so a majority of them yielded to the pressure.
An amendment was attached to the bill that would also shut down social networks, blogs, conservative news sites, and other websites that advocated for gun rights or had members on those sites who were gun rights supporters. Violent video games and online games that had anything to do with guns and violence were shut down and banned because the politicians claimed it was for the children. The bill eventually shut down even the most popular social networks since government bureaucrats never knew when to quit.
The media had the fake relatives of the victims go on television every day to complain about guns and the problems they caused to mess up their lives. Some people around the country had a hard time believing the Amusement Park Massacre was real, since the media, the government, and the “victims” were so over-the-top about the massacre. However, none of them voiced their opinions publicly for fear of being labeled a nut, but there were some who voiced their opinion online on their blogs anyway.
At the bill signing ceremony, the children who were shown escaping the Amusement Park Massacre, were now standing behind President Marsh as he signed the bill into law. Once he signed the bill, he got up, hugged the children, and said, “This bill is for the children. No more will we have children fearing that they will be killed by guns. They will have a safe, happy future, free from fear. We have hope for a brighter tomorrow and this will take us forward. Thank you and God Bless America!”
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