Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Of Course Shannon Watts and Everytown are Anti-gun and Hate the Second Amendment

Monday, October 28, 2019

Of Course Shannon Watts and Everytown are Anti-gun and Hate the Second Amendment

Shannon Watts must be making a late run at PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year. On the October 18 edition of CBS’s “The Takeout with Major Garrett,” the gun control activist told the correspondent, “Often people think that because we're doing this work, we're anti-gun or we don't support the Second Amendment. Nothing could be further from the truth.” Anyone remotely familiar with the American gun control debate will know that nothing could be closer to a demonstrable lie.

As it pertains to herself, Watt’s statement is laughable. The gun control activist’s Twitter account is a fevered anti-gun stream-of-consciousness. Watts has promoted nearly every gun control measure up to and including the confiscation of lawfully-possessed firearms.

In March, Watts repeatedly cheered on as New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern worked to ban and confiscate entire categories of lawfully-possessed guns.

Ardern’s effort prohibited the sale and civilian possession of all centerfire semi-automatic rifles. Further, the measure banned semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns “that are capable of holding more than 5 cartridges commensurate with that firearm’s chamber size” or capable of accepting a detachable magazine. All detachable centerfire rifle magazines were also prohibited.

Ardern’s measure required law-abiding gun owners to turn-in their firearms to the government for a set amount of compensation. Otherwise law-abiding individuals found in unlawful possession of the newly-prohibited firearms face up to five years in prison. Those found in possession of a newly-prohibited magazine face up to two years imprisonment.

As if her animus towards commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms and their owners weren’t enough, Watts has even criticized the lawful sale of bolt-action .22 rimfire rifles. Watts has also appeared to support a ban on all centerfire rifle ammunition.

Looking closer at Watt’s remarks to Garrett, note her use of “we.” In her statement she was speaking for not only herself, but her organization.

Moms Demand Action, along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, is a subsidiary of billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. Bloomberg founded Everytown in 2014 and made an initial investment of $50 million to develop and fund the astroturf group. Following that initial investment, Bloomberg has continued to bankroll the organization and its preferred candidates, sometimes through his Independence USA PAC. In short, Everytown is Bloomberg.

In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Bloomberg stated, “if you want to have a gun in your house, I think you’re pretty stupid – particularly if you have kids – but I guess you have a right to do that.” Aside from dripping with condescension, few would quibble that the statement was anti-gun.

Moreover, the sardonic “I guess you have a right” language confirmed that Bloomberg does not believe Americans have an individual right to possess firearms for self-defense that is protected by the Second Amendment. Confirmed, because the Everytown founder made his opinion on the Second Amendment clear in 2008.

While Bloomberg was mayor of New York City, the city joined an amicus brief for “major American cities” in the landmark Second Amendment case District of Columbia v. Heller. The brief took the position that the Second Amendment did not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Some excerpts:

Contrary to Respondent’s assertions, moreover, the Second Amendment was not intended to vest armed power in citizens acting outside of any governmental military effort—either federal or state.

The Amendment cannot reasonably be understood, as Respondent suggests, to protect a right to possess firearms for the purpose of engaging in violence against a government that an individual believes to have overstepped its bounds.

Unlike provisions of the Bill of Rights that, for example, ensure fair procedures for criminal defendants or protect an individual’s right to speak without governmental interference, the Second Amendment was designed to serve a much different, structural function.

It is clear from the brief that Everytown’s founder and financier does not support the Second Amendment as interpreted in D.C. v. Heller and McDonald V. Chicago. Nor the Second Amendment as it its understood by the vast majority of Americans.

Everytown routinely files anti-Second Amendment briefs in pending litigation. In recent years this has ranged from the high-profile Supreme Court case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York, to a brief supporting Hawaii’s stun gun and taser ban in Roberts v. Suzuki.

Watts’s claim that she and Everytown aren’t anti-gun or anti-Second Amendment is just the latest chapter in a long history of deceptive gun control messaging. Americans know and oppose “gun control,” so the same anti-gun measures have been rebranded as “commonsense gun safety” or “gun reform.” The public doesn’t support gun confiscation, so its proponents dub the policy a “buyback” and avoid discussing the logical consequences.

If there’s anything to be gained from this episode of dishonesty it’s that Watts’s statement to Garrett was such a ridiculous lie that it should prompt thinking individuals to question what else she is lying about . . .

IN THIS ARTICLE
Shannon Watts
TRENDING NOW
Undercover Video: Sen. Fetterman (D-Pa.) staffer claims boss would be “okay with like overturning the Second Amendment”

News  

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Undercover Video: Sen. Fetterman (D-Pa.) staffer claims boss would be “okay with like overturning the Second Amendment”

It seems as though Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) may like to overturn more than just the U.S. Senate’s standards of professional attire. According to an undercover video of Fetterman senate staffer Luke Borwegen, obtained by O’Keefe Media Group, ...

Connecticut:  Gun Control Bill Passes the House and Moves to the Senate

Saturday, May 27, 2023

Connecticut: Gun Control Bill Passes the House and Moves to the Senate

On Thursday, the House passed HB 6667 on a vote of 96-51.  This drastic gun control legislation has a bit of everything.  It contains a ban on open carry and strengthens prohibitions and registration of semi-auto "assault ...

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

News  

Monday, January 30, 2023

Updates to ATF Final Rule on Stabilizing Braces

On Monday, January 30, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) published the final Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached “Stabilizing Braces” rule for public inspection in the federal register.

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Advances Pistol Brace Resolution

News  

Monday, April 24, 2023

U.S. House Judiciary Committee Advances Pistol Brace Resolution

On April 19, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 23-15 to advance H.J.Res.44, which would reign in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ attempt to regulate pistol stabilizing braces. The resolution employs ...

Need a Good Lawyer? Don’t Use Anti-Gun Groups as a Resource

News  

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Need a Good Lawyer? Don’t Use Anti-Gun Groups as a Resource

The anti-gun extremists at Giffords and March for Our Lives are running a joint operation to try to convince students in law school to sign a pledge to never represent anyone within “the gun industry or gun ...

Hypothesis or Hyperbole Gun Control Researchers Balk at Betting on Gun Control

News  

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Hypothesis or Hyperbole Gun Control Researchers Balk at Betting on Gun Control

Dr. John Lott, Jr., a leading researcher and founder of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), recently embarked on an unusual personal experiment: how many pro-gun control academics would literally bet in favor of their own ...

Connecticut:  Gun Control Legislation Nearing House Vote

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Connecticut: Gun Control Legislation Nearing House Vote

Gun banners in Hartford have been busy all session cooking up a concoction of more gun control.  In a state where there is already a large buffet of gun laws, it’s time for Connecticut gun ...

Louisiana House Passes Constitutional Carry

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Louisiana House Passes Constitutional Carry

Last week, the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee held their “Gun Day,” where multiple pro-gun bills passed out of committee and the lone anti-gun measure was involuntarily deferred. Your active participation was crucial to protecting and ...

South Carolina: Constitutional Carry Advances to Floor from Senate Judiciary Committee

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

South Carolina: Constitutional Carry Advances to Floor from Senate Judiciary Committee

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-11 to pass S.109, the NRA-backed Constitutional Carry bill, and it has now been sent to the Senate floor for further consideration. This is a huge step toward South Carolina becoming the next state ...

NRA Challenges ATF Brace Rule

News  

Second Amendment  

Thursday, February 9, 2023

NRA Challenges ATF Brace Rule

The National Rifle Association announced the filing of an NRA-backed and supported lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) unlawful rule on stabilizing braces.

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.