Moms Demand Action for Guns Sense in America jefe Shannon Watts and her bodyguards (courtesy The Truth About Guns)

“Moms will no longer tolerate America’s culture of gun violence. We demand to be safe in the places we go with our children — schools, restaurants, stores, parks and in our own homes. By opposing legislation to close the deadly loopholes in our background check system that allow minors and dangerous people like felons and domestic abusers easy access to guns, as well as reasonable limits on where, when and how loaded gun[s] are carried and used in public, it’s crystal clear the gun lobby is out of touch with the concerns of American parents, including those who are gun owners.” – Shannon Watts, quoted in School Violence And Gun-Related Injuries Rank Among Top Concerns For American Families [via huffingtonpost.com]

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101 COMMENTS

  1. It’s funny how these clowns think they can speak for gun owners like they purport to do in the last sentence. I’m a parent and a firearm owner and my feelings on this are nowhere near aligned with that statement.

    • Well, that is because you are, quite obviously, a rapist, misogynist, sexist, anti-America, fringe lunatic…

      You should have your rights striped, your property taken, and you should be forced to wear a dress.

      You and your dress wearing ilk sicken me.

    • Agreed. I too “demand to be safe” in the places I go with my children, by being allowed to carry a concealed weapon anywhere my family goes.

      • I’ll assume that you mean the “state not prohibiting you” from carrying a weapon wherever you go.

        The state doesn’t “allow” you to do anything. Businesses and organizations do allow (or not allow) you to, since they own and/or manage the property that they sit on, but they can generally be avoided if they don’t meet your needs. Governments don’t allow things, they disallow (prohibit) things.

      • Just replace “by being allowed” with “without someone denying my right” and you sir are spot on.

    • No longer tolerate? She has the audacity to spew lies and more lies. Long past is the time she would have been give the “benefit of the doubt” and long past is the time she would have been “mistaken”. If she was capable of having an open mind and looked at the facts instead of being a factory of misinformation and threats and selling her PR skills to Bloomberg she would have long ago closed down the farce of MDA.

      She has worn out any tolerance I have had for willfully ignorant and deliberately exploitative persons. I feel pity for her exploited followers but she deserves jail time for racketeering and fraud. Since she is now clearly profiteering from lies and illegitimate attacks she should no longer be able to shield herself with the false assertion that she is not a lobbyist and propagandist.

      • …racketeering and fraud

        I think you’re on to something. Can we include Bloomie in the RICO charges? That would make it perfect.

  4. I actually think minors are dangerous people like felons… Have you met any teenagers recently?

    • Yeah I own a couple. They eat a lot and are fundamentally retarded but on the upside they do mow the lawn and take out the trash right proper.

      All depends on the kids. Even with my own one is much more mature than the other right now.

      • If you raise one child you never know what you will get. Could be a good kid or mybe wind up being lazy not good for much but eating all the groceries (except leftovers, what is the deal with kids refusing leftovers?). But if you have two children, at least one of them is going to turn out awesome. I think they see the other one screw up all the time and learn not to be that way.
        To the article, what did she mean that “loopholes allow minors to get guns”?

        • I have no idea. Maybe she imagines that 14 year olds go to sportsmen and outdoor shows and are sold ARs and AKs by unscrupulous evil arms dealers.

        • Oh and I know what you mean about leftovers. One will eat them, and he’s my easy going one. The other won’t and he’s the one that gives me fits at times. (Of course grandma says it’s the Lord’s revenge for how I was as a teenager.)

          Maybe that should be the test. “hey kid, do you eat leftovers? Yeah, okay then here’s your drivers license.” 🙂

        • They literally lie about problems to make uninformed people scared. It’s the worst kind of political debate.

        • Doesn’t she have one in the basement that was “terrified” by a movie last year?

          Did he sneak off to a gun store with his dad while she was out crusading with the Three Stooges?

          Inquiring minds want to know.

        • @ Michael in GA, by ‘loopholes that allow minors to get guns’ I think she means reality. After all, the reality is that if minors want to get guns they will find a way to get them regardless of how illegal it is. Because obviously no underage people have ever gotten alcohol or cigarettes, or have they?

    • Yeah, I have one in my household. I’m not sure how he eats as much as he does. He also sleeps until the crack of noon. He does, however, (mostly) do what I ask.

  5. Drugs: talk to your kids, teach them, educate them.

    Alcohol: talk to your kids, teach them, educate them.

    Sex: talk to your kids, teach them, educate them.

    Vehicles: talk to your kids, teach them, educate them.

    Guns: death machines, hide them, ban them, destroy them, you don’t need them, no one wants them, don’t bring your kids around them.

    Run away, flee, hide!

    Makes perfect sense. 8\

    • +1

      Also, with drugs, alcohol, and especially sex, they begin with the assumption that we can’t possibly stop it. Funny how that doesn’t apply to something specifically mentioned in the bill of rights.

      • I know you were alluding to this very point, but I want to say it explicitly.

        That is no accident. The very people the Second Amendment was written to caution us against the are the ones pushing for ALL the infringements.

        There is no reason for any liberty loving individual person to be on board with gun control. The only group gun control benefits is the State.

        • “Campaign finance reform” and “Common sennse gun control” are very similar in that regard. They’re a one-two punch on the first and second amendments, to the benefit of the entrenched government.

    • To the elite, vices are not a threat they’re a tool, a lever, the real opiate of the masses.

    • We demand you do as we say in places where we may, or may not, have our children…

      FIFY.

      • We demand you do as we say in places where we may, or may not, have our children….. because our FEELINGS tell us we are right and EVERYONE else is wrong, despite countless facts that say otherwise, because those facts don’t satisfy our FEELINGS. (As she rides away towards her rainbow on her unicorn dropping rose petals behind her, with blue bird of happiness singing and harps playing in the background)

        (Just wanted to finish off the scene)

    • Right, by making people who actually take responsibility for their own safety disarmed. They want me to be less safe so they can feel safe. SMH

  7. Considering the ages of the people they consider “children” I would think the top concerns would include getting laid, working your first job, buying your first car, selling your first crack rock, etc.

  8. I’m a dad of 2 daughters in their late 20’s. The US Army taught my oldest how to defend herself with or without a gun. I taught the other the proper use and reason for firearms. Mom’s “reasonable” limits are this dad’s recipe for foolhardy illusion that more laws will suddenly have some magical effect on the mentally unstable and criminally intent. I choose self defense, not self delusion.

    • +1. It’s all about maintaining the illusion to fool the public that words on a piece of paper will stop a criminal from acting like a criminal. The attempt to create this delusional perception of reality only puts more people at risk. The cops can’t be there when you need them and that is a basic fact. Google Barbara Killebrew Milwaukee and see how useful the cops were there.

    • We need to form an organization named: Dads Demand Daughters’ Self-Defense. When the Mom’s are quoted as the highest authority we must insist that the media give us equal time to make the case for our daughters, wives, mothers.

      • Instead what we have are people at gun shows selling “D.A.D.D.” T shirts for “Dads against Daughters Dating.” Without qualification at all–it’s not ‘Dads against daughters dating dufuses’, just dads against dating, period. There’s a positive message; you as a daughter never get to own your own life.

  9. Allow me to retort.

    We, the Armed citizens of America, demand to be safe everywhere we go. We realize the criminals and disturbed among us will pay less heed to a gun free zone sign then even your plaid press statements. By opposing legislation which enables criminals and hurts the security of the people, we seek to ensure that both our kids and yours not only feel safe, but have logical reason to do so.

    -ST

  10. Apparently MDA is totally okay with you owning and carrying a gun, as long as you are dressed like you’re on the way to an audition for Reservoir Dogs 2: More Madonna Analogies. I suppose that is part of the where, when, and how of carrying concealed.

  11. “Moms will no longer tolerate America’s culture of gun violence.”

    What in the Hell is she talking about?!?!?!? There is no “American culture of gun violence.” I don’t know anyone who likes or wants violence whether firearms are involved or not.

    Rather, there is a violent criminal gangbanger subculture of violence (NOT limited to firearms) — which happens to be responsible for about 80% of all violent crime in the United States. Violent gangbangers do NOT represent “American culture” any more so than pedophiles represent American culture.

    So. much. fail.

  12. “Moms will no longer tolerate America’s culture of gun violence. We demand to be safe in the places we go with our children — schools, restaurants, stores, parks and in our own homes.”

    So…. go after the root problem. Criminals and those who break the law. To their credit they at least want to restrict gun ownership when it comes to felons and domestic abusers — aka people with records of violence.

    But then it all goes downhill and is woefully misguided when they target law-abiding gun owners with ridiculous legislation that makes it impossible for law-abiding citizens people to own/carry in schools, restaurants, stores, parks, and homes — places that are made safer when law-abiding gun owners are allowed to carry there.

    • Note: I’m saying active violent felons and active violent domestic abusers should be the ones scrutinized when it comes to gun ownership. Not people that are no longer violent or never were with bogus charges filed against them — I understand that once you’re “marked”, legit or not, it’s really difficult to expunge that from your permanent record. A failing of our Justice System to recognize abuses of law (ie. false claims that stick).

  13. I wonder what made Shannon such a hateful woman. BTW, is that a picture of the protest where she hired two armed thugs to intimidate pro-2nd amendment folks.

    • It’s her job. She’s a PR hack.

      She may or may not even really care about this particular issue. Who knows for sure?

      She was hired to generate the illusion that she cares, though.

      The truly funny thing is that as a PR person, she is not very good. Her statements are laughable and easily proven wrong, she misreads the ‘mood’ of her target audience and in the ultimate test of her effectiveness, her message fails to resonate with darn near anyone.

      She’s just another symbolism over substance glory seeking wannabe that is a failure precisely because there is no substance underpinning her message.

    • Yes it is. She laughed off the hypocrisy with an air of “You stupid peasants don’t understand how important I am.”

  14. “… legislation to close the deadly loopholes in our background check system that allow minors and dangerous people like felons and domestic abusers easy access to guns …”

    Newsflash: minors, felons, and domestic abusers have easy access to guns through theft or the black market. Background checks are irrelevant as are sales at gun stores.

    Furthermore, domestic abusers do NOT need a firearm to easily harm/kill their girlfriend/wife who sleeps in the same home with the abuser. (Hint: the abuser can easily harm/kill the victim any number of ways without a firearm when the victim is sleeping.)

    • The only way to close that “loophole” is to confiscate every gun in America and ban further manufacture and sales. I am pretty sure they realize this, and they really do want to close the loophole.

  15. I went over to the Huffpost site and there was very good rebuttals by pro-gun people. There was actually mostly civil back and forth initially; and then of course; some of the anti’s start in with “ammosexual”, accusing gun owners of wanting children to be shot in school and one anti talking about “penile replacements”.

    And the pro-gun people mostly respond with civility and with facts.

    Not all, but a number of the anti’s really do come across as immature children yelling taunts and insults on the play ground as the adults are trying to talk logic and facts to them.

    • Yep. And they are invariably the people that start advocating for violence against those they disagree with. It’s a commie thing.

    • it wont let me see the comments. I wonder if they closed them cause the antis where being themselves (rude and ignorant with some violence thrown in)

      • If you’re using a browser add-on like the wonderful “No Script” you need to tweak its settings.

  17. She demands that she “be safe.” See, this is the problem — a truly deep cognitive misunderstanding.
    Safety does not exist — hazards exist. Safety is not a “being” it is a “doing.” “Being” safe can’t be done. Being is not a doing. One literally cannot BE safe. One can, however act safely.

    Safety is not an existential condition — nor is safety found the absence of threats. Quite the contrary — hazards are all around you — and while capable of minimization — they can never truly be eliminated.

    People doing the appropriate things, at the appropriate times, and in the appropriate places and in the right manner can “make safe” a variety of otherwise relatively dangerous conditions and activities. Safety requires attention, judgment, will and continuing effort. Safety is taking the actions and devoting the necessary attention and vigilance to the hazards that exist — to make them merely manageable. It can be done.

    Somehow these people must be taught — only then will they understand why their endless debate is fruitless, pointless — and indeed dangerous, in and of itself.

    “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” — George Orwell

  18. Don’t they realize that every time they say ‘common sense’ and ‘reasonable’ it brings to attention that their proposals are exactly the opposite?

    • I think they do realize that. It is observably the cycle of progression in Statist control seeking clearly in evidence over the last half century or longer.

      (1) Propose something that won’t work.
      (2) Cry out how it was not enough…need to go further.
      (3) Goto (1)

    • They realize that but they firmly believe that 99% of people are too stupid to see it. It’s more political poopy-talk words designed to mask their true intent.

      The Commie has a long history of coming up with euphemisms that mask their true intentions with benign expressions and terms. For example, damn near every Commie country has called themselves The People’s Democratic something or other.

      • “People’s Democratic” (on their part) isn’t so much a lie as a totally different understanding of what those words mean. The idealists–the true believers–really do think they are the people’s true representatives and they know what’s best, they also don’t think a democracy should ever have an inequality of outcomes. So they’re not lying, just very, very wrong, and dangerously so.

        • The USA is not a democracy, by design anyways, for good purpose. Do not let them get you believing it is.

      • Repeat a lie enough times and the people will believe it. I think that’s been proven, and it’s why every single time they come out with a Reasonable, Common-Sense proposal, we need to loudly call them on it.

  19. The “loophole” in “our” background check system is the one which makes our right to keep and bear arms subject to the very government against which our right to keep and bear arms is a check.

  21. Hey, Shannon, newsflash for you: You don’t speak for “Moms.”

    You might speak for 20-30 Moms, but there are a LOT of women out there taking responsibility for their own self protection and that of their children.

    There are a LOT of Moms in this country that think you are a ridiculous circus clown spouting nonsense.

    I know it comes from the playbook and all, but stop trying to make it sound like you represent some unified group of women. That lie is just too easily debunked.

    Now, if you start using “Statist Moms that don’t have a clue about the real world,” I could not argue that you don’t speak for that group.

  22. If this group of moms cares so much about the children they would spend their time helping ALL moms become better mothers to their children instead of blaming guns for violence.

  23. So the paid puppet of Bloomberg speaks out against my self defense while surrounded by her thug bodyguards. That makes perfect sense – to a liberal progressive statist.

    I have a challenge: if you wanted to teach trusting the police for self defense don’t walk around with your own personal police force.

  24. The background check system does not allow minors and dangerous people like felons and domestic abusers ANY access to guns … much less “easy” access to guns… so what the hell is she talking about? Where are the liberal fact-checkers when she makes misleading claims like that to trick people into voting for more gun control?

    • Liberal fact checkers. Lol. 🙂

      It doesn’t matter if it’s a lie. That’s part of the game you see.

    • “liberal fact-checkers”

      In the sense that you are using ‘liberal’ here, that is indeed an oxymoron.

      “Liberals” in this sense are nothing more than the mouthpiece, the vocal wing, of Statists. Manipulation by pure emotional argument is one of the key tools of their trade.

  26. Shannon,
    Exactly how are any of your proposals going to take guns from the hands of criminals and keep them from attacking our children in parks, restaurants, schools stores and our homes?

  27. I only feel unsafe around men-in-black. These armed manics must be removed from our public places and from around our children and those that bring them to such places should be condemned as violence mongers.

    I need and must feel safe and everyone else must change. Do it now.

  29. Last gasp of a dying organization. Moms ! Moms demand this and moms demand that. Well, your mommy sensibilities don’t trump my rights. I see the mom card as being played out at this point. Mommies with martyr complexes might think everyone cares what they think and feel, but I kinda doubt that’s true.

  33. “it’s crystal clear the gun lobby is out of touch with the concerns of American parents, including those who are gun owners.” Shannon Watts

    Shannon, please don’t speak for me,

  34. “Moms will no longer tolerate America’s culture of gun violence.”

    -Anything violent within that “culture” is already against the laws. New laws will do NOTHING.

    “We demand to be safe”

    -Demand all you want, stamp your feet and cross your arms if it makes you feel better but the safety of yourself and those you care for is YOUR OWN responsibility. Your petty demand for safety FROM OTHERS does not trump my RIGHT to safety through the defense of myself.

    ” in the places we go with our children — schools, restaurants, stores, parks and in our own homes.”

    -Don’t go there. Stupid people, places, things….. Other children may actually benefit if you home school(indoctrinate) yours.

    “By opposing legislation to close the deadly loopholes in our background check system that allow minors and dangerous people like felons and domestic abusers easy access to guns”

    -Proof or it didn’t happen. You don’t get to make up “facts” as it pleases you. Not all felons are dangerous. If a person is too dangerous to own a firearm they do not belong on the street AT ALL…. The problem lies elsewhere. Your irrational fear does NOT trump my rights.

    “as well as reasonable limits on where, when and how loaded gun[s] are carried and used in public”

    -“Reasonable” is a subjective term. What is “reasonable” to you strikes me as batshit crazy delusions from the mind of a freedom hating lunatic. Your OPINION of reasonable does not trump my rights.

    “it’s crystal clear”

    -Something else is crystal clear as well… SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. It’s a phrase, made of words, that have definitions…. Look. Them. Up.

    “the gun lobby is out of touch”

    -How would you know? You regularly refuse to hear or address opposing viewpoints and willfully ignore pertinent FACTS when brought to your attention.

    In closing…. Bite me.

  35. Many parents think their 14 year old son seeing partially covered boobs of a very attractive woman on a magazine damages them. I don’t think I care much what parents say just because they are parents.

  36. Sigh. Huffpo. Looks like the author got the Talking Points Memo, and simply regurgitated the MDA presser.
    Makes you wonder how much she got paid by Bloomie for that bit of agitpop, and perhaps did Huffpo, get remunerated for once again being the progtard echo chamber. You know their business model has been…shaky, for awhile.

    I also see the predictable lefty moonbats are out, with the same tired “evilllll NRA mind control” hysterical shrieking in forum comments via FakeBook. We all know how valid those stats and ‘infuence shaping’ is, too.

    My question is, how many are paid troll for OFA, using up that “approved for presidential campaign” money, that Obama turned over to them(illegally), and how many more might be pisting for clicks working for the many faux ngo’s spawned by Soro’s Center for Progress, also illegally using tax free money for political campaigning under IRS rules, and how many are paid contractors working for the taxpayer funded “Nudge Team”, seeking to shape impressions…

    Whatever…the point is, no matter how often the left recycles the same already discredited statistics, lies, and shopworn mistruths, and shibboleths “its for the children” the fact is an increasing percentage of the moderate middle is simply not buying it, and former belevers in Hope and Change, are enraged for being misled, like we hear from black protesters in Ferguson, and millenials here at TTAG.

    So, go ahead, Bloomie, and Ms Watts, press on. And Huffpo, and Hospital whatever, keep selling your credibility for pay…the sooner its worth nothing the better.

  37. Some people have the illusion that writing words down on paper will actually stop a bad guy. They won’t.

    Some people have the illusion that bad guys magically become good guys if they can’t legally purchase a gun. They don’t.

    Some people ignore the fact that a woman who trains with her firearm and carries it is better prepared to defend herself against a would-be assailant who is bigger and stronger than her than someone who is not armed.

    Some people ignore the fact that the elderly couple who can’t run or move fast is much more likely to be able to defend themselves from the hoodlum if they are armed vs. if they are not.

    Some people ignore the fact that the would-be victims of violent bigotry, e.g. gays, transsexuals, persons of minority religions and races, etc. are better able to defend themselves from thugs if they are armed than those who are not armed.

    Some people think that a woman is better off raped and dead vs. actually defending herself with a gun.

    Some people continue to use discredited statistics to attempt to prove a point, hoping they will convince people that guns are bad. They won’t.

    Some people use definitions of children that include older teenagers – including those aged 18 & 19 – to make points about guns killing children. They also ignore the fact that many teenage gun deaths are gang-related.

    Some people ignore the fact that an AR-15 is a very good weapon for home defense and has been used by people for defensive purposes.

    Some people ignore the fact that murders receive vastly more media coverage than defensive gun uses.

    Some people think that background checks permanently stop criminals from obtaining guns. They don’t.

    Some people ignore the fact that many of those who use guns to kill others already broke existing laws to obtain those guns.

    Some people have the continued delusion that if we “just pass another law” that gun control will finally eliminate “gun violence.” It won’t.

    Some people refuse to accept responsibility for their own safety and demand that others provide some level of safety for them.

    Some people utterly misunderstand the concept of “safety,” thinking that there is some magical “state of being safe” where one is immune from all hazards, and they do not understand that while there are different levels of safety, no one is ever completely safe. [H/T to Neminem]

    Some people ignore the fact that people can take steps to make themselves safer by learning how to defend themselves.

    Some people ignore the fact that if even a tenth of all gun owners were as racist, sexist, bigoted, mentally unstable and/or violent as they are portrayed by anti-gun folks, there would be millions of gun deaths each year. There aren’t.

    Some people ignore the fact that there are many moms and dads out there that protect what they love most with the most effective means possible – a firearm.

  38. So, not to be too anal here, just wondering, why U of Michagan study, when there are so many other insititutions with better surveys?
    And why would Dr Davis, director of the hospital, chose to highlight and conflate gun concerns, and school violence, when lose are number 9 and 10 on the national list, and dropped off the local list.

    And sort of slide over number one, childhood obesity, top for past years as well.

    Could it be that Obama has visited U Michigan more often lately, than any other university?
    http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/04/obamas_april_2_visit_to_univer.html

    Understandable, given Ann Arbor is 67 % liberal. I’m sure there are education dollars at stake, and grants for future surveys, hospital research, too.

    I suppose glossing over the Childhood obesity epidemic is a polite way of ignoring the complete disaster Mrs Obamas leadership? on school lunches, and exercise, has been…

    Again, the good news is despite the obvious collaboration amongst the progtard left in academia, and the StateRunMedia™, and astroturfing orgs like MDA being flogged about by the Journolistas,

    its clear that young people are waking up and using their own brains, rather than dumbly accept the mush delivered to the sheeple, that the Left believes will work…

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/obama-university-of-michigan

    Keep Calm and Carry On.

  39. I don’t give a flying flip what you demand, Shannon. Your demands don’t trump my rights.

    And they are but your personal demands; you don’t speak for “moms”. My wife? She’s a mom. She’ll tell you to take a long walk off of a short pier with your “demands”, too.

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