We’ve been watching the coverage of the March For Our Lives today and thought it would be nice to provide a little reminder about the hypocrisy of some of the people marching and demanding that your Second Amendment rights be restricted.
Shannon Watts
The founder of “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense” has been working directly with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg for several years, and even officially combined her organization with his gun control group in 2014. Watts enjoys the benefits that come along with being bankrolled by a literal billionaire, including having drivers and armed security personnel.
Back when she was working for TheBlaze, Dana Loesch exposed Watts’ hypocrisy when she confronted the gun control activist at an NRA Convention in Indianapolis in 2014. Watts refused to retract false statements she had made about Loesch working for Magpul, a gun accessories manufacturer, and Watts’ security personnel got physical with Loesch and her producer, bumping them out of the way as they whisked Watts off to a waiting SUV.
The communications director for Watts’ organization admitted on Twitter that they did indeed employ armed security, blaming “people on your side of the debate,” meaning those who support gun rights, who “threaten our lives.”
Ah, yes. So, protecting yourself with guns is fine as long as you have the resources to pay for a security guard to follow you around. I’ve worked on political campaigns where we unfortunately had threats against the candidate and hired security for travel or certain events. It is very expensive and unaffordable for the majority of Americans. Buying your own gun and ammunition and paying the required license fees in most jurisdictions is less expensive than even just one day of hiring armed security.
But Watts thinks if you do want to buy your own gun to protect yourself and your family, well, you just must be one of those “gun bullies,” as she called Loesch.
The March For Our Lives itself
As RedState’s Brad Slager reported earlier today, today’s March For Our Lives in Washington, D.C. “enjoys a surprising amount of armed security.”
Photos and video from the march shows a high level of police presence, with many uniformed officers visible in photos (and presumably, additional undercover police in plainclothes) plus road blockades, security fencing, and military vehicles.
Amy Schumer
The actress, whose father is a second cousin to liberal Congressman Chuck Schumer (D-NY), will be speaking at the Los Angeles march, tweeting that she is supporting “common-sense gun safety laws.”
In a September 2016 interview with Lena Dunham, Schumer discussed her support for gun control, while admitting that she had ramped up her own security at her comedy shows because she wanted to “protect herself.” (The interview has for some reason been memory-holed from Dunham’s website, but you can read an archived version here.)
“Do you have increased security at your shows now because of it?” asked Dunham. “Because people are so f***ing nuts.”
“Yes,” replied Schumer. “Security is up. I’m really trying to protect myself. I am not being an idiot.”
In other words, wanting to “protect” yourself is smart and how you avoid “being an idiot,” but only if you have the cold, hard cash to outsource the job.
Kim Kardashian West
Probably the most famous of the Kardashian clan, West attended the March with her husband, Kanye West. She has posted many tweets in support of the protests and, of course, “common sense gun safety laws.”
This is a family that employs a large number of armed security, and for good reason. This became terrifyingly clear one evening in Paris in October 2016, when armed robbers posing as French police threatened the concierge at the hotel where West was staying and forced him to open the door to her room. West was alone at the time and was handcuffed, gagged with tape, and put in the bathtub while the robbers stole millions of dollars worth of jewelry from her room. After the robbers left, West was able to free herself and called police.
You better believe West is never without armed security now. And that’s great. I don’t want any harm to come to her, or especially to her children. She is smart to have armed security.
But while the majority of us don’t have the celebrity stalkers or multi-million-dollar-burglary risks, there are millions of everyday Americans who have to live in crime-ridden neighborhoods, truckers making late-night drives, college students walking alone across campus, small business owners making after-hours bank deposits, and women traveling alone who can’t afford armed security but still have a need to exercise their right to have a gun and protect themselves.
U.S. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL)
This Orlando-area Congresswoman tweeted this image comparing the deaths in war to deaths from gun violence and calling for an “exit strategy.” What Demings doesn’t mention is that a large part of those deaths from gun violence are caused by criminals who are not legally allowed to possess guns.
And how do criminals get guns they are not allowed to legally purchase? Frequently, they steal them, a fact which Demings should be painfully aware.
Why? Because in 2009, when she was the Orlando Police Chief, her agency-issued handgun was stolen from her city vehicle while it was parked in her driveway. She left the gun, along with some ammunition and other items in a duffle bag on the floor of the SUV in plain sight. She later admitted she had failed to ensure the doors were locked. She was given a “written censure” after an internal affairs investigation but no other consequences.
Demings has been tweeting that she wants “common sense” gun laws, but isn’t it basic common sense to lock your car doors and not leave anything that could be attractive to thieves within plain sight? She’s also been touting her experience as a “former law enforcement officer,” but when she was a law enforcement officer, her failure to properly secure her weapon was a pretty big failure to protect the public.
Considering comments like these from Demings and the seemingly endless list of failures of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Scott Israel, it’s not hard to see why people are skeptical of law enforcement officers who support restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners.
For the record, Demings has a history of not being very respectful of her constituents’ First Amendment rights, either.
I could go on, but I trust RedState readers to be smart enough to get the point: many of the people who are seeking to restrict your right to protect yourself enjoy the benefits of being protected by guns themselves. They have the financial resources to allow them to never have to mow their own lawns, scoop their own dogs’ poop, or worry if their gun clashes with the trendy outfit of the day for their Instagram page, but somehow can’t respect our right to bear arms ourselves.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter: @rumpfshaker.