swatting

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence’s Director Of Communications is meshuggener. I used to believe Ladd Everitt was crazy like a fox – creating incendiary rhetoric to stir-up rabid anti-gunners out of expediency, rather than personal belief. Not anymore. First, there was Everitt’s bizarre claim that enacting gun control would restore the “true meaning” of the Second Amendment. And now this . . .

In an article entitled Gun control groups accused of ‘swatting’ open-carry permit holders, putting lives at risk, foxnews.com highlighted CSVG members’ plan to call 911 on Americans open carrying firearms (legally). Although Fox News had Everitt dead-to-rights on the strategy – republishing a CSGV Facebook post [above] recommending dropping the dime on open carriers (a story highlighted here on TTAG) – I was expecting Ladd to prevaricate in the face of the resulting pro-gun outrage. Nope.

“In an era in which individuals are being allowed to carry loaded guns on our streets with no permit, background check or required training, it is common sense for concerned citizens to call 911 when they see an armed individual whose intentions are unclear,” Ladd Everitt, director of communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “These [open carry] laws guarantee that we—and law enforcement—will have no idea about the criminal and/or mental health background of these individuals until they actually commit a crime; and by then it could be far too late.  We have full confidence in our men and women in blue to assess these situations.

“Gun-toters who are truly law-abiding and mentally competent have nothing whatsoever to worry about. Their conversations with law enforcement will be brief and professional,” he added. “As for those who are dangerous and have something to hide which would not withstand the scrutiny of a background check or permitting process, they should expect to face some tough questions as a result of these 911 calls. And that makes us all safer.”

See what I mean? Everitt really does want people to call 911 when they see someone open carrying legally. I don’t think it’s too much of a leap to suggest that the head of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence wants responding police to kill a legally armed American. An outcome many of his followers have openly wished for.

Simply put, the CSGV has proven itself to be the dictionary definition of a hate group, urging violence upon law-abiding Americans. They should be treated as such by the government. What’re the odds?

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89 COMMENTS

  1. This happens all the time with Californians visiting AZ.

    It usually goes like this:

    Scared Anti-gun Mom: There is a guy/gal with a gun!
    Dispatcher: Does s/he have it in their hand?
    Scared Anti-gun Mom: No, it’s on their hip! Out in the open! They’re paying for their coffee at Starbucks.
    Dispatcher: That’s legal, ma’am. *click*

    • An ex coworker told a story from when he visited Az. He was in a Subway restaurant when a guy on a motorcycle pulls up with a shotgun or two slung over his back in true “outlaw” style and starts to enter the restaurant. The narrator jumps over the counter and looks up at the sandwich artist and says “That guys got a gun!” The kid looks down at him and says “You’re not from around here, are you?” The sad thing is that the narrator was(is?) a Marine.

    • Oh how I wish dispatchers could do that with people around here when they call and try to get the police to deal with non-crimes.

    • Live in AZ in a tourism heavy area. California really does leak too much.

      Used to live in NC, also a permitless-open-carry state.

      Pleasingly, law enforcement in both locations seem well informed on firearm laws.

    • God bless Arizona!

      In Virginia, ANY call about a MWAG MUST be answered. Wastes a staggering amount of time. If only Va. LEO’s could handle it like that!

  2. What do you expect from people that relish in the blood of victims? It’s obvious they only want more bloodshed. Spend five minutes reading any of their comments and you see post after post of their followers calling for people to *SHOOT* gun owners. Yes, SHOOT them. You know, with guns. Which they want to get rid of. F***ing hypocrites don’t even realize how hypocritical they are.

    • They should be telling their followers that when they see a person with a gun, they should shoot themselves, and then that other guy!

      • Chances are, with their mental faculties seeming to be so deficient, they would probably miss themselves.

        • That is why they need “high capacity” magazines, for when they miss themselves. That fixes another problem.

    • Goodness gracious no! Then somebody might use that information to SWAT some anti and give them a taste of their own medicine.

      After all, if all you’re doing at 3:00 a.m. is sleeping peacefully in your own home, then your conversation with the entry team should be fairly swift and incident-free. If, however, you’re running a meth lab and brothel with underage girls trying to escape, as someone might claim on a 911 call, then you could be in for some tough questions. Might somebody get hurt in such a prank? I don’t know. Maybe?

      • “After all, if all you’re doing at 3:00 a.m. is sleeping peacefully in your own home, then your conversation with the entry team should be fairly swift and incident-free. If, however, you’re running a meth lab and brothel with underage girls trying to escape…”

        Now that made my morning. Thankee.

  4. Scared anti-gun mom:
    Is this 911?
    Yes mam,
    Is this the police?
    Of course it’s the police! What is your emergency?
    There’s this dude standing on the corner with a big black ugly thing on his hip!
    Is it a gun maybe?
    I think so, It’s got a barrel sticking out the bottom of a pouch, or what ever they call those things. It’s 3′ long, and 4″ around!
    Has it got a thingy on the rear end that goes up?
    Yes, yes it does, please hurry!
    click!

  5. “In an era in which individuals are being allowed to drive high-speed vehicles on our streets with no visible permit, background check or required training, it is common sense for concerned citizens to call 911 when they see an individual whose driving abilities are unclear,”

    It’s no more a reach that what they are trying to promote.

    • More like this:

      “In an era in which individuals are being allowed to vote in our elections with no visible permit, background check or required training, it is common sense for concerned citizens to call 911 when they see an individual whose voting abilities are unclear,”

    • “It’s no more a reach that what they are trying to promote.”

      Neither is “Hello, 911?! There’s a black man walking down the other side of the street from me. He’s a man, therefore he has a penis, and I don’t know what his intentions are with it….what…no, he hasn’t even looked at me, but could you send someone out to check him out anyway?”

  6. Am delighted with CSGV’s recommendation. The more strident and loopy, the faster GSGV becomes regarded as an extremist fringe group like PETA. Would be nice if the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies them as a hate group too.

    Image larger communities have better trained dispatchers and PD. It’s the smaller ones I worry about like this incident: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/11/alabama-cops-leave-a-grandfather-partially-paralyzed-after-frisk-goes-awry/

  7. “Hello 9-1-1? I’m scared. I see someone acting all FREE…
    They look like they are exercising their rights or something and it makes me feel all afraid…”

    • Ding ding ding…

      This is the winner comment.

      THIS is what they fear more than anything…including the gun.

      How DARE someone be free and act accordingly.

    • Exactly! What we are facing as citizens exercising our rights are those who are afraid of freedom. These folk are of the same ilk that Samuel Adams addressed in this famous passage:
      “If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
      ― Samuel Adams

      The rub though is there is no place for them to return to…

      • @Desert Ranger
        The same old dead guy said the following as well:

        “It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”

        “If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”

        “No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”

        “The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.”

    • Agreed. Reminds me of the line from Winter Soldier: “How do you know the good guys from the bad guys?” “The bud guys will be shooting at you.”

      Or something like that, you get the Instagram.

  10. What’s the line? “If we were as dangerous as they say we are, there wouldn’t be any of them left.”

  11. Asking the federal government to treat CSGV as a hate group would be like asking George Wallace to treat the Klan as a hate group.

    • Illegal?

      If a SWATter can publicly admit to saying inflammatory and untrue things on the phone, which swiftly resulted in the outright murder of John Crawford III, and never face even the suggestion of being charged with a crime…

  13. Calling 911 with the intent to harass others is still very much a crime and it’s punishable by fine and confinement. Likewise, abusing 911 and making fraudulent calls is also a crime. If you’re the victim of OC swatting, use your state’s open records laws to get as much information about the 911 call/caller as you can. It will only take a few of these cranks getting arrested and jailed before the others knock off the criminal acts. Oh and don’t forget the civil suit against them and if they’re a member of CSGV be sure to add them to the suit as well – but, that’s like trying to money from the homeless.

    It would seem to me that Ladd is setting himself up for a RICO suit and prosecution by directing a large/wide campaign of criminal acts. 510 U.S. 249, 114 S. Ct. 798, 127 L.Ed. 2d 99 (1994)

    • And with any luck we can get CSGV attached to any civil action that ensues. After all, they are blatantly soliciting their members to commit illegal activities.

      I’d love to see a giant cardboard check from CSGV to NRA/GOA/whoever.

  14. “Gun-toters who are truly law-abiding and mentally competent have nothing whatsoever to worry about. Their conversations with law enforcement will be brief and professional,”

    Except; having a brief & professional conversation with law-enforcement responding to a hysterical man-with-a-gun call will be anything but, as CSGV knows full well.
    These people are the worst sort of cowards, and evidently are now trying to use cops as their own personal attack-dogs.

    • “evidently are now trying to use cops as their own personal attack-dogs.”

      Anaxis, that’s the playbook. Plus attempting to persuade small communities (such as Scotts Valley, CA pop ~ 11,500) to pass restrictive gun ordinances. Fortunately, it failed.

      Municipal taxpayers get socked with litigation costs, gun rights litigants may recover some costs, and Brady, etc. denies responsibility or culpability as in Lucky Gunner win.

    • “Their conversations with police will be brief and professional–at the end of a gun.” Saw this too many times during the “open unloaded carry” (as then permitted by law) events in California. Typically, the dispatcher would tell the caller that the conduct was legal, BUT WOULD SEND A CAR ANYWAY JUST TO “CHECK THINGS OUT.” Time and time again, four to six squads would respond, and these “brief” conversations would last 30 minutes or more even after the legality of the conduct had been established as the police officer in charge sought to dissuade people from exercising their rights. In other states, we have all seen vid after vid of lawful carriers being hassled by police, the ultimate goal being to stop people from doing so.

      Why doesn’t this asshat seem to understand that someone intent on criminal misconduct will not be broadcasting that fact to the world, and that therefore, open carriers are unlikely to be the droids the troopers are looking for.

      • Why doesn’t this asshat seem to understand that someone intent on criminal misconduct will not be broadcasting that fact to the world, and that therefore, open carriers are unlikely to be the droids the troopers are looking for.

        Everitt does understand. His real concern is NOT about potential criminals walking among us. Rather, in your very own words

        … we have all seen vid after vid of lawful carriers being hassled by police, the ultimate goal being to stop people from doing so.

        Everitt’s goal is to stop people from being armed in public. And he is hoping that police harassment will provide the necessary incentive.

  16. “Sir, why did you shoot the man with the cell phone?”

    “Self defense.”

    “Self defense? He had a cell phone.”

    “He was lying to the police in an attempt to get me killed. So I shot him in self defense. Your own 911 tapes will verify what I’m telling you.”

    “Well, deadly force is allowed if you have a reasonable belief that he was trying to injure or kill you. Have a nice day now.”

      • Why not?

        In the past month, I’ve seen chief law enforcement officers claim that a man with his open, empty hands raised above his head in the universal ‘surrender pose’ deserved to be killed for ‘raising his hands in a threatening manner’, and in another jurisdiction, the chief told the media that a man had to be killed because he didn’t raise his hands.

  17. Remember, violent criminals attacked and killed more people with their hands and feet than with long guns last year. Why isn’t Mr. Everett directing his minions to call police when they see a man with hands and feet and are unsure of that man’s intentions?

    The same thing applies to cars as well. Why aren’t Everett’s minions calling the police about every driver they see when they (minions) don’t know the driver’s intentions?

    Oh, and gas cans. Every time they see a person filling up gas cans at the gas station, they should call police as well because the person filling the cans with gasoline could be getting ready to use that gasoline to set a building on fire.

    And rope. Every time they see a person purchasing or handling rope, they should call police because that person could be preparing to strangle someone. Imagine the possible carnage at every boat slip with sailboats? Especially in Boston … where the Boston Strangler killed how many? Ahhhh!!!!!!!

  18. So, in a Southern border state you can’t ask someone that looks Mexican for ID because that’s profiling, but rolling code 3 to interrogate a citizen because they are in legal possession of a firearm is okiedokee fine, right?

    Profiled, discriminated, segregated, interrogated… we really are the only real minority left. So far.

    • No, it’s much much worse than that. They don’t want police officers who pull a person over for a vehicle related infraction, and can’t understand or speak English, to be barred from asking about any forms of identification.

  19. RF, why do you keep calling it the “Campaign” and not the “Coalition”? Just wondering…

  20. This appears to me to be an attempt to directly incite a group of citizens and governmental agencies to deprive another group of their Constitutionally protected rights, under color of law. As such, wouldn’t this be a conspiracy that could be prosecuted under Federal law? Specifically, 18 USC Section 241:

    If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or

    If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—

    They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death

    Seems to me that a suitable representative of the gun rights movement should swear out a complaint and have these asshats arrested for civil rights violations.

  21. Sounds to me like he is suggesting that bad people need to wear a clear and visible symbol on them, to ensure public safety. As without such clear and visible label, anyone could be standing next to you and you nor the police wouldn’t know the better.

    Alright then, let’s start defining who is bad and needs to sew a tag on their jackets…….(yellow stars used to be popular for that purpose) ………/s

    What a moron!

  23. This is a serious matter. The question is, is this campaign shared with all police and 911 centers throughout the US to caution them?

    When a person is gunned down in a SWATTING, it will be no laughing matter. CSVG should be put on notice by legal counsel to let them know they will be held accountable.

    Ladd Everitt is way over the line on this.

  24. Regarding Evertt’s proposal for his minions to call police when they see an armed person in public … how is that any different than calling the local gang (the Bloods) and reporting that you think the person in front of you is a member of an opposing gang (the Crips)?

  25. It’s interesting that these people are using the PDs for their own personal good squads. “I don’t think you should have a gun so I’ll call someone with a gun to tell them they shouldn’t.”

    Lets hope no one gets killed because of this stupidity.

  26. As far as I’m concerned this constitutes an admission on their part that they know an open carrier is no threat. They are organizing this as a political strategy. There is no public alert, concern for each others safety. Any supposed danger posed by the carrier is not stated up front as the reason for doing this. Instead the instructions come first and the justifications comes later. This is purely “here’s how we get these guys!”

    I look forward to the first story of one of these guys being imprisoned for this.

    • In fact, they bend over backwards to avoid saying openly that open carriers are dangerous. They know it would be libel.

  27. I probably should know this, but don’t: lawful open carry of a holstered (orange tip) toy pistol?

    Seems like it might be covered under 1A, but not clear. Might be worthwhile trolling pearl-clutching 9-1-1 callers.

  28. The way things are going, and I hope that I’m wrong, the police will become stretched so thin that their response time will be in hours instead of minutes.
    When this comes to pass, the same idjits calling for swatting the POTG will be in for a very rude awakening.

  29. “First, there was Everitt’s bizarre claim that enacting gun control would restore the “true meaning” of the Second Amendment.”

    Nothing bizarre at all.

    Repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth.

  30. “Gun-toters who are truly law-abiding and mentally competent have nothing whatsoever to worry about.”

    I seem to remember a law abiding man carrying a BB gun in a Walmart when an overly frantic individual called the cops on him. It didn’t end well.

  31. I have been saying this for a long, long time now. Ladd Everitt has serious issues, and it seems like most of the people on his page do as well. He is also predictable, if he even knows that this or the fox article exists, his reaction would most likely be in the area of “that’s not bad publicity, it is just showing us that they are scared”. In reality though, no one is fearing CSGV, they are just pointing out how cracked out in the head he and his people are. Nothing more, nothing less.

  32. My biggest fear is that while the legally armed are showing the police their permits, some unarmed person is being beaten, robbed, raped or murdered just a few blocks away.

    Stretching police protection too thin.

    • What’s this “police protection” you speak of?

      Is it that thing which countless courts have found that you have no right to?

      Is it that thing that books like Dial 9-1-1 and Die have proven never existed?

  33. So, in other words, CSGV believes that in order to exercise our natural rights protected by the second amendment, we must forfeit our natural rights protected by the first, fourth, fifth, and fourteenth amendments (among others)?

    Bite me, Ladd.

  34. I never had, and hope to never have, an issue while OC’ing in Ohio. Every now and then I will get some looks from some ladies, or a cashier, but never any negative remarks. Now that I think about it, I have only had positive remarks and positive interests. I have had citizens ask questions, inquire about the laws, even interested in which model and make of gun I was carrying. One situation went like this, COP” Is that a gun?” Me”Yes sir it is” COP” A glock?” Me”Yes sir, a Glock 19 Generation 4″ COP”Cool, have a good day” 🙂 Gotta love Ohio haha

  35. I’m sure this is COMPLETELY unrelated to the article, but for some reason I’m remembering one of Aesop’s fables. Something about a kid and cries of “WOLF!’…

    • I actually think if this does become a problem, it will solve itself rather quickly, as your ordinary patrol officers will rapidly get tired of being called away from the donut shop to investigate a non-crime. Some additional dispatcher training will ensue, and “call us when you see something actually illegal” will become a more frequent response. Hopefully BEFORE another Timothy Crawford gets shot. Hopefully AFTER a couple of gun-grabber fanatics get arrested for false report, abuse of 911, whatever..

  37. If you were a victim of such a tactic, would it be possible to FOI the 911 call records to ID and then sue the caller civil court?

  38. I wonder how the #BlackLivesMatter crowd would feel about a statement such as:

    “Black people who are truly law-abiding and mentally competent have nothing whatsoever to worry about. Their conversations with law enforcement will be brief and professional.”

  39. I was wearing a body brace that looked like a bullet proof vest and the cops came by. If you are that scared stay home so the criminals know where you are unarmed and will not get blood on the street.

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