Smells Like Infringement: Shannon Watts of “Everytown For Gun Safety” Edition

There ain’t enough Febreze in the world to cover the aroma emanating from Watts.

This isn’t grassroots, but it is definitely something you can use to make grass grow…

Ah, springtime, when the farmers of the world get the soil ready for crops by spreading the “common sense gun control” they collected from the floors of the barn all winter. It’s interesting to note that although the mainstream media is more than happy to fact-check every time Donald Trump says the sky is blue, but that all that burning curiosity and zeal for the truth seems to evaporate like so much air freshener when it’s an anti-gunner making the claims. This week, we’re highlighting some recent developments courtesy of one of our nation’s most prolific producers of fresh, steaming gun control, Shannon Watts. She’d like you to think that what she’s got on tap for the Second Amendment is nothing but common sense, but…take a deep breath. Do you smell that? Smells like infringement to me…

If you don’t recognize Watts’ name, let me introduce you: She’s the founding member of Moms Demand Hot Action From Stepsons…oh, wait, wrong browser tab. It’s actually Moms Demand Action, and her stated “backstory” is even harder to believe than the “plot” of the video I was watching on that other browser tab. You may recall that Shannon claims that her “advocacy” against gun rights started the day after some booger-eater decided to shoot up Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012. Let’s have a look at a very recent quote:

I think I am living proof that someone who has no experience as an activist can make a difference – I was just a really angry mom of five living in Indiana when I got off the sidelines…

There’s just one problem with that: It’s a lie. Shannon Watts is a lying liar who lies. But let’s start by discussing the context in which we discovered that quote. It’s a glowing, fawning interview featured on Levi’s “Unzipped” blog. As you’ll recall, Levi’s recently decided to join the business arm of Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown For Gun Safety (along with Dick’s, because Mike Bloomberg loves Dick’s). So, because Watts is one of the spokespeople for the group, naturally the Levi’s Lizards needed to make sure they gave her plenty of coverage.

And, naturally, they didn’t bother to contest her claims of being “just a mom.” Thing is, she has plenty of experience as an activist. As this NRA-ILA article points out:

…in the mid-1990s Watts was a public relations staffer to Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan. Watts’s Linkedin page listed that from 1993-1998 she had been a “Public Affairs Officer” who “Worked for the administration of Governor Mel Carnahan, the Missouri House of Representatives, and the Missouri Department of Economic Development.”

The Rock knows what Shannon’s been cooking, and he’s not a fan.

Gun-rights activists are fairly used to anti-gunners Astroturfing and fibbing their way into the headlines…it’s really par for the course. But Watts’ modus operandi has an extra twist, which I like to call “crybullying.” It’s a uniquely 21st-century way of trying to silence your opponents, and the way it’s done is that you say or do something outrageous, and then when you’re called out on it you not only refuse to answer, you whine to the news that you’re being oppressed. So when Watts recently announced that the NRA was trying to keep “armor piercing” ammunition legal, she was already practicing her crocodile tears in the mirror.

As GGD readers no doubt know, there are various grades of body armor. Many of them stop pistol rounds, but not all of them will stop rifle rounds–especially centerfire rifles. Which Watts knew, because in order to make her accusation against the NRA, she had to quote them. And before she quoted them, she deleted the part of their quote that explained that all centerfire rifle ammo would have been banned under her (and Bloomberg’s) plan. And then, when the NRA asked her directly over social media if that’s what she wanted–centerfire ammunition being banned–she refused to answer. Instead, she just went on a deleting spree.

Then, she went sobbing to Hill Reporter. (Here’s a link.) Here’s what she had to say: Yep – I disabled the comments after receiving several dozen death threats against me and my children, which is exactly why the @NRA tagged me in the first place. I – and @MomsDemand – have been the most effective at exposing their moral bankruptcy, and they don’t like it.

So, let’s see: She disingenuously altered the NRA’s quote. When they asked her if she was truly trying to ban all centerfire rifle ammo, she refused to answer and disabled comments. Then, she cried to Hill Reporter that she was getting death threats. If that’s true, that’s terrible and I condemn anyone for making death threats. But do you notice what she didn’t do?

She didn’t answer the question. Because when you’re busy trying to slide draconian and unconstitutional gun laws past that part of the populace that doesn’t know much about guns at all, the last thing you want to do is admit that yes, in fact, you’re absolutely trying to ban all rifle ammunition bigger than a .22. And when you have a lapdog press that will take everything you say at face value–even things that they know to be false–it’s up to the rest of us to wrinkle our noses, sniff, and say, “Hmm, that sure does smell an awful lot like infringement. Either that, or Ted’s spreading the manure on his corn crops again.”