Shannon Watts

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, announced in January that she would retire from her anti-gun group sometime this year. Don’t expect a quiet exit as she’s now talking about restricting free speech.

Watts, whose gun control group is controlled by billionaire and former failed gun control presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, took to social media and bragging about her role in forcing a music video network to remove country music star Jason Aldean’s latest hit.

Watts, along with other gun control activists, jumped through hoops to claim Aldean’s song lyrics glorify and encourage the use of firearms to commit acts ofviolence. Hardly the case, but the truth has never mattered when gun control activists push to limit constitutional rights.

Lyrical Delusions

Aldean drew Watts’s ire because the lyrics of his song “Try That in a Small Town.” The only reference to a firearm in the song is in the phrase, “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that sh*t might fly in the city, good luck.”

Watts tweeted her outrage at the artist and his lyrics, even referencing that Aldean was performing at the Las Vegas Route 91 music festival in 2017, as if Aldean had anything to do with the fact that a deranged murderer took the lives of 60 innocent Americans.

Watts falsely claimed the lyrics matter-of-factly state, “…how he (Aldean) and his friends will shoot you if you try and take their guns.”

Watts stirred up the online mob against Aldean and pressured Country Music Television to take down the music video of the song. CMT – owned by Paramount – caved and took down the video. Watts took a self-congratulatory victory lap.

“Proud to have a hand in getting CMT to reject this racist and violent song…,” Watts tweeted, linking to a news article about CMT’s decision.

To Aldean’s credit, he’s unbowed and rejected the claims of stoking violence. It turns out standing up to gun control activists like Watts is good for business, beyond being good on principles.

Streaming downloads of Aldean’s song jumped 999 percent and the tune shot to the top of the charts (it’s currently number 4), and number 4 on YouTube’s chart for trending music videos.

Selective Outrage

Watts’s move to music censorship isn’t all that surprising and mimics a similar mission creep among the most ardent gun control activists. When they fail to restrict one Constitutionally-guaranteed right, they try to change the rules of the game or go around it completely. When it comes to music lyrics, one example is especially aggravating.

Look no further than California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom praised legislation he signed into law last year. At the time, the governor hosted a video bill signing for AB 2799 and was joined by several hip-hop artists. The bill, titled the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act, prevents prosecutors from using violent and descriptive rap music lyrics in criminal court cases against criminals who have broken the law.

In addition, AB 2799 requires “a court, in a criminal proceeding where a party seeks to admit as evidence a form of creative expression, to consider specified factors when balancing the probative value of that evidence against the substantial danger of undue prejudice.”

Gavin Newsom angry pointing
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (AP Photo/José Luis Villegas)

“Artists of all kinds should be able to create without the fear of unfair and prejudicial prosecution,” Gov. Newsom said. “California… is taking a nation-leading role to protect creative expression and ensure that artists are not criminalized under biased policies.”

In contrast to Aldean’s innocuous lyrics, while there certainly is plenty of non-violent rap music, it is no secret that much of it also contains violent, descriptive language. Violent crimes are often bragged about, including criminal firearm misuse against law enforcement.

Earlier this year, the governor signed a different piece of legislation into law that criminalizes First Amendment freedom of speech by banning firearm advertising “attractive to minors.” That law, AB 2571, prohibits firearm industry businesses, including gun and ammunition manufacturers, distributors, retailers and ranges, “from advertising or marketing any firearm-related product, as defined, in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.”

State authorities in California are the arbiters determining if an advertisement is “attractive” to minors. Breaking the law could lead to a $25,000 minimum penalty for sponsoring any adult-supervised youth shooting event. That includes the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife’s hunter education and Boy Scouts target shooting merit badge courses.

For Gov. Newsom, Watts and others, they are losing the argument over gun rights and turning their attention to free speech rights. Watts has never crowed about the criminal misuse of firearms portrayed in music videos on other channels.

Listen To This

Watts has no interest in listening to any pro-Second Amendment voice that may oppose her radical gun control views. Her group Moms Demand Action, Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and other gun control industry groups are failing to convince the American people they need more gun control and she’s now changed her tune to censoring free speech.

Shannon Watts
By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America – Shannon Watts, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

That effort is a failing one, too. When they push increasing gun control, America continues to vote with their wallets. In June, background checks for firearm sales topped 1 million for nearly four years running. When Watts and others tried to silence free speech as an end run around, Aldean’s video skyrocketed to the top of the charts.

Turns out, no one is tuning into what Watts is broadcasting.

 

Larry Keane is SVP for Government and Public Affairs, Assistant Secretary and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

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67 COMMENTS

  1. The words “liberalism” and “progressivism” are synonyms for authoritarianism and tyranny.

    This isn’t just a disagreement over policy differences, they’re waging a relentless war with the goal of “fundamentally transforming” this Country.

    • As long as the sycophants and zealots of Liberalism and Progressivism are allowed. They will always be a threat to Liberty and Freedom. Just like the British crown was and as such must be dealt with in the same fashion.

    • Monsanto mommy is unleashing her inner fascist.

      Although I think she missed her true calling of a dominatrix.

      Is she now alongside Greta Thunberg as dacian’s pinup girl?

    • “Man I miss Dirk Diggler🙄”

      Somewhere, right now, Dr. Diggler is fantasizing about where Shannon’s lips are resting, and what they are doing…

      *Snicker* 😉

      • “You sure got a pretty mouth…”

        Say his name three times and he shall appear. Well, twice, but who’s counting?

        A woman with crazy eyes is wild in the sack. She has crazy eyes. Like AOC.

    • Did everyone forget Aldean’s anti gun statements a while back? I’m betting the gun his Granddad gave him wasn’t one of those scary black ones Aldean thinks civilians don’t need to be able to have. At best Aldean is a Fudd, but regardless he is a hypocrite.

      • Democrats and Pr0gressives want to round up ALL guns, regardless of type. dacian is willing to murder a third of the nation’s population in the process.

      • If he’s like most modern country artists (and a fair bit of proper country artists to be fair) he doesn’t even write his own songs. So who knows what dude really thinks. Nothing profound I’m sure.

  3. Wait fir the forum’s resident hypocrites to attempt to seperate themselves from watts and her ilk after blatantly wishing and wanting to deny my right of Free Speech. Such losers possess all the attributes of democRats who realize they cannot win so they shift to slandering and going after Free Speech in a manner that would make any diehard democRat proud…you know who you are.

    • “…blatantly wishing and wanting to deny my right of Free Speech.”

      Now that’s fucking *hilarious*, the ‘Speech Nazi’ herself crying and whining like a petulant two-year old about _her_ speech being silenced?

      Good God almighty, the cognitive dissonance on display there is truly mind-boggling… 🤣

    • Being told you are wrong or retarded is not denying your right to free speech it’s just pointing out you are irrelevant and annoying. Quit bitching we deserve the responses we get.

  4. Tired of these Oligarchs, Bloomie being a great example, who think they are sooo important they should be giving me orders and shutting me up on command!

    • Giving you orders and shutting you up is the function of leftists. How else can they “progress” this country into their wonderful new Socialist Utopia without demanding that we give up some liberty? Shannon might be taking a new job, but in reality she is just renaming the old one with a few minor modifications. She needs to rename her old position before SCOTUS knocks it down with her still in it. Leftists need to be able to claim victory at least to other leftists, otherwise the donations stop showing up in their bank account.

    • “Giving you orders and shutting you up is the function of leftists. How else can they “progress” this country into their wonderful new $oci@list Utopia without demanding that we give up some liberty? Shannon might be taking a new job, but in reality she is just renaming the old one with a few minor modifications. She needs to rename her old position before SCOTUS knocks it down with her still in it. Leftists need to be able to claim victory at least to other leftists, otherwise the donations stop showing up in their bank account.”

      M0derated again and the n0 n0 word was $oci@list…

    • The oligarchs think if they buy the rev0lution they won’t be among the victims. If anything, they think they will be the ones in charge. Until they outlive their usefulness by putting profit ahead of ideology.

  6. That heifer provided him with amazing advertising!

    Thanks to the efforts of people like her, Aldean’s song is now #1 on iTunes, #1 on Billboard, #1 on YouTube Musi, and #1 on iTunes…and he is laughing all the way to the bank….lol

    • And she heard the lyrics correctly and that’s what shook her up, ” we ain’t skeered “.

  7. Shannon Watts is in the vanguard of the American Khmer Rouge, demanding that the civil rights of Americans be abrogated. These leftists literally want to put a plastic blue bag over the head of each and every American that disagrees with them. People, such as Watts, are extremely dangerous and homicidal.

  10. I really get irked at how the background check stats keep getting referenced and published in articles everywhere nowadays. I understand that the BGC stats are a quick and easy gage for firearm sales, but the support this unconstitutional procedure has from allegedly pro-2A organizations such as NRA and NSSF is disappointing. The masses just go along with nary a complaint because acceptance of this “assumed guilty until proven innocent via BGC” process is now fully engrained.

    Before 1968, we didn’t have background checks and assumption of guilt. We didn’t have FFLs and federal licensing schemes. We didn’t have the ATF or DHS. We didn’t place restrictions on purchases, such as age or location. So much is wrong with the system we’ve allowed today.

    • It’s gonna take some time to hash that stuff out, what we need to do is maintain the High court balance in our favor until those cases hit the SCotUS in-basket…

    • Saying that x-thousands of background checks were performed is not the same as approving of background checks.

      As you pointed out, there’s no other handy way to approximate the number of firearm sales.

      And recall that most Americans, including a majority of gun owners, approve of background checks, the reasoning among POTG is that it may prevent criminals from obtaining firearms.

      • The way to deal with criminals and guns is to make the penalty for a criminal to use one so onerous, they won’t wanna touch it in the first place.

        That’s not gonna happen, since the prison population will explode to embarrassing proportions.

        It’s stupid simple to set up. If a prohibited person is found with a gun, throw the proverbial book at them. If the person isn’t prohibited and the serial number doesn’t come up as stolen, the citizen is free to go…

      • @Man,

        I’ve heard that “most Americans want BGCs” trope plenty before, and I’m always curious to know (1) the demographic of the Americans who were questioned, (2) if all of those questioned are truly and legally Americans or are included in the poll simply because they’re physically within or borders (which should disqualify them from the poll), and (3) the context in which the respondents were asked the question.

        Do most Americans wish for violent criminals to not have access to guns? I would expect this to be an overwhelming “yes”.

        But if a BGC is required of everyone, then everyone is assumed by default to be a violent felon and not allowed to proceed until declared innocent of suspicion, and via a method approved and monitored by those who assume everyone to be violent felons. The system is faulty by design.

        • Haz, all good concerns. Yes, the “polling” shows something like 90% of respondents in favor of universal background checks — until the questions drill down to what UBCs actually are. Each poll is slightly different in how the questions are phrased and who makes up the sample.

          For the polls that ask about background checks in general, most of us favor them because, as you pointed out, most Americans and most gun owners do not want criminals to have access to guns.

          And basically, those who answer “yes” to such a poll are actually just verifying that they think the laws in place now need to be enforced rather than passing new, useless ones.

      • The percentage of NICS denials that result in actual prosecutions is low single digits in percentages. Most denials are false positives caused by bad data being logged.

    • “…allegedly pro-2A organizations such as NRA and NSSF…”

      Remember, in reality, the NSSF is not so much pro-2A as it is pro-firearms sales.

      • hawkeye, Pro firearms sales? One can look at it, that way, but the more guns out there, the less likely the anti-gun fanatics can get them

  11. It’s really not much of a leap from gun control to speech control. It’s all control. Respect muh authorities, or I’ll take away your liberty to eat and to breathe.

    Hubris is a thing, and it didn’t disappear from the world when King Xerxes breathed his last. Xerxes thought people should bow down and worship him, gun controllers think the same.

  12. Shes always been attacking free speech.

    The anti-gun have a core ‘trinity’ of rights they attack..

    1st Amendment – 2nd Amendment – 5th Amendment (combined with elements of the 14th Amendment)

    If they can keep you silenced, keep you from defending or resisting, bias ‘judicial’ process against you —- the key ‘trinity’ of tactics of tyranny that’s been used by every totalitarian regime in human history and in more modern day since Karl Marx and used today in Russia and China and in place today in every ‘gun ban’ country in the world. Its the precursor to an eventual totalitarian regime.

  13. This is a typical Leftist-Socialist tactic. If they can’t counter your argument, they want to shut you down.

  14. James Lindsay DISSECTS The True Nature of “Wokeness” Threatening The West. (note: left-wing, liberal, progressive are just more synonyms, among others, for ‘wokeness’ and they all aim at removing resistance and rights in any form including disarming).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QveeRbsrYKQ

  15. The socialist progressive and the liberal are the same thing.

    Any so-called “liberal”, who wants to argue otherwise, it is just a deceitful liar. You guys support the welfare industrial complex. You support replacing the father with a welfare check. You support defunding the police. You support ordering the police to stand down, while innocent people are murdered where they stand. And private property is burned to the ground.

    You are against the law abiding using deadly force to stop any and all criminals.

    A liberal is a fascist who smiles a lot. More so than a Communist does.

  18. My friend, Charlie, says he does not understand why I take the risk everyday of wearing patriotic t-shirts, Ultra-Maga button (altenated with a ‘Trump Won’ button, and a cowboy hat. He thinks it is too dangerous. He supports the ideas but does not want the risk exposure.

    I just reassure him, if they (the left) want war, they will get war. It has nothing to do with my freedom of speech.

  19. Shannon Watts is the Karen-iest of the Karens. Queen of Karenland if you will.

    She should move to the dictatorship of her choice instead of trying to turn our Republic into one.

    • But Monsanto mommy wants to one of those in charge as recognition for her heroic efforts.

      Spanking Bloomberg with a paddle was tiring effort, but necessary to keep Everytown funded.

  20. It would be nice for us if she did, but I don’t think they’d let her in. Remember, Madalyn Murray O’Hair twice tried to defect to the Soviet Union, and was twice rebuffed. At the regime level, evil doesn’t automatically mean stupid.

  24. I know I’m not supposed to say this but – She’s still a lobsided faced google-eyed looney.

  27. The left that is excoriating Florida/Desantis for banning books (from elementary classrooms) – what could be more unamerican? – is at the same time unabashedly pushing to openly limit free speech. And they don’t seem to see the irony.

  28. Ole Shanny LowWattage always looks like her face was the first at the scene in a tragic accident, and repaired by a low bid trainee bodyman.

  29. I downloaded that Aldean song on iTunes just so I could roll the windows down and play it at stoplights when I pulled up near cars with certain virtue-signaling bumpers stickers. It was fun for a few days.

  31. Your next article about Shannon Watts should include the fact that she was the executive vice president in charge of Monsanto’s PR department during the cancer lawsuit AND headed up Well Points PR department during their lawsuit over denying coverage of cancer treatments.

    Like Ryan Busse, she’ll say anything for a dollar.

  32. Still, you have to respect the intellectual consistency. First amendment, Second, Fourth, Sixth, Fourteenth, pfft, it’s all the same, they’re for us enlightened, progressive intelligentsia; you ignorant deplorable peons don’t know what’s good for you.

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