Politics

Gun Control Activist: Woman Wants Gun For Self-Defense Because Of ‘Paranoia’ And ‘Racism’

(Photo by Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images for EPIX)

Derek Hunter Contributor
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Gun control activist Shannon Watts thinks people who want a gun for self-defense are motivated by “paranoia” and that white privilege helps white women with guns feels safe.

Watts, who runs the groups Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety, and is funded by billionaire former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, complained that an op-ed in the New York Times by Bethany Mandel was accompanied by a photo of a woman of color.

The op-ed describes how Mandel’s mother used a gun to protect her from a would-be intruder when she was a child and how that event inspired her to own a gun to protect her family. Mandel and her husband Seth are Jewish and were targets of anti-Semitic “alt-right” trolls during the 2016 election.

Watts dismissed Mandel’s story.

Mandel then recounted her “privileged” upbringing, which involved poverty, her mother passing away when she was 16 and her father’s suicide when she was 19.

Watts was not interested, insisting Mandel’s skin color was the major determining factor in her life, not her any of the hardships she worked through. In a tweet she eventually deleted, Watts repeated her claim that race makes it safe for Mandel to protect her family with a gun, and if Bethany disagrees it’s because she does not “believe in racism.”

Screen capture from Twitter.

Watts remained disinterested in the concept of defending one’s self from threats by owning a weapon, preferring a dog instead.

She then tried to one-up Mandel’s concern for her family by citing her own.