Even as Alex Jones has failed to apologize beyond the old “sorry if your feelings were hurt” for spreading the baseless conspiracy theory that Clinton campaign staffers were running a child sex ring out of the back of a Washington, DC pizza parlor, the guy who took that theory seriously enough to open fire inside said restaurant is discovering that, once you go offline, there are consequences for your actions.
CNN reports that 29-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch has been sentenced to four years in prison and 36 months of probation and ordered to pay the very specific amount of $5,744.33 in restitution to the owners of Comet Ping Pong, the restaurant/music venue where Welch fired three shots from a AR-15 rifle during business hours last December. Welch was there attempting to rescue the child sex slaves slimy talk-radio types like Jones had told him were being kept in the restaurant’s basement; once he discovered that there was no there there, so to speak, he surrendered without incident.
Judge Ketanji B. Jackson said she believed that Welch had “good intentions” in charging into the restaurant, but a harsh sentence had to be handed down in order to discourage future “ill-conceived plots” by gullible people whipped into a frenzy by unscrupulous conspiracy peddlers. Welch, who pled guilty to gun charges, also apologized for his actions.