GoDaddy founder Bob “Parsons, a gun owner and member of the National Rifle Association, says that firearms aren’t to blame for mass shootings. That’s a hotly-debated and emotional topic, especially after a gunman killed 20 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.” Really, inc.com? Only the most rabid hoplophobes actually blame inanimate firearms for causing mass shootings. But this isn’t about media-driven ignorance or agitprop, it’s about Parsons’ vocal support for Second Amendment rights . . .
Parsons, who once famously filmed his shooting of an elephant during a vacation in Zimbabwe, called recent school shootings “terrible,” but says the weapons aren’t to blame for those deaths.
“Until we have a mechanism or a way that we can track people that have mental problems and are a real danger to society, you’re going to continue to have this stuff–whether they use guns, whether they use knives, fire, whatever they use,” he said during a video interview at the Inc. 5000 conference in Phoenix last week.
Not only is Parsons unapologetic about his elephanticide, but the Marine is happy to tell anyone who’ll listen about his NRA membership and support for Americans’ natural, civil, Constitutional right to keep and bear arms (click here to hear him do it in his own words). A marked contrast to most of his compatriots in Silicon Valley. And for that, he’s TTAG’s gun hero of the day.
Blame cars and booze for drunk driving fatalities, backyard pools for drownings, snow and chairlifts for skiing deaths, etc etc
Skiing deaths are caused by trees, and lack of padded foam hats.
(/sarcasm)
If we’d just banned those high capacity assault trees, Sonny Bono might still be with us!
I don’t think publicly expressing your views makes you a hero, but it would be cool if he chipped in a little to counter the Bloomberg/Gates/Baumer attempt to purchase civilian disarmament in Washington State (and elsewhere).
And if he already has, thank you Mr. Parsons!
This sort of unapologetic, reasoned boldness is what is needed. The anti are on the demonization long game so they are now in the religious belief stage where you’ll never convince them. But you can convince the non gun owning person that doesn’t think about guns that much. With things like what happened in Canada yesterday and in Boston over a year and a half ago, those folks see the limitations of the police, after that it’s a small step to taking responsibility for your own self protection.
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Mr. Parsons follows suit. Support for Second Amendment rights is important. However, people pushing for the “tracking” of crazies just opens the trap-door for people hoping to label all gun owners ‘crazy’.
The enemy of my enemy, if not my outspoken friend, is also my enemy. If being my friend makes you uncomfortable with your friends then tie a pork chop around your neck, because that is your dog.
What about the countless catch and release felons? That end up in jail 5+ times, tons of felonies for robbery, and somehow don’t get an enhanced punishment for repeat offenses?
There’s a lot of work to be done, and none of it involves restricting firearms.
That is easy.
The cops, courts, etc. need those repeat offenders to justify their existence and budgets.
Back to the OP in the quote saying it is a “hotly debated topic”. It is one if you are a complete moron with zero knowledge of firearms, human nature, logic, and reasoning.
Don’t forget the lawyers.
They need the repeat business.
[The existence of] Social Security (‘insurance’) is proof that no one can tell you if you definitively have “enough” no matter how hard you work to provide.
The failure of SS to provide further assurance despite the billions and effort put into it, is proof that government cannot be relied upon to do so either.
The same logic can be applied in the protection of yourself against “guns” or “crazies”, and you cannot depend on your neighbor, or wealthy neighbor as well.
Thank you for posting profiles of positive voices in the community more frequently. It’s nice to get good news every so often.
Yes!
Thank you
i tell people all the time, tell me where on the NRA website do they support killing innocent people and i will cancel my membership
At one point I thought there might be a way to track and stop “the crazies” from doing their crazy violent things involving the use of a gun(s). After a lot of thought and a long worthwhile TTAG discussion with “John in Ohio” a couple months back, I now recognize there’s no way to do that without putting innocent people at risk of false accusation and/or insure ONLY those who are a danger to themselves and , most importantly, OTHERS are 100% stopped from committing terrible crimes, one way or another. There’s no way to know what’s in another person’s mind without some sort of unwanted intrusion, or unless they flat-out declare their intentions.
A restoration and upgrade of the mental health systems could help, but nothing is 100% certain. It drives one to the somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion that we just have to accept this kind of thing will happen now and then, just like we accept automobile accidents will happen, children will drink toxic household chemicals and so forth.
On balance, the low frequency of Newtown-like mass killings, against the thousands of citizen defensive gun uses and the sanctity of our natural civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear Arms makes the risk acceptable.
I applaud Bob Parsons for speaking-out in defense and support of The Second Amendment and the rights of all people to keep and bear Arms.
seems like Mr. Parsons could help “faciliate” (wink wink) a DNS attack or three on Bloomy’s servers. . . . just saying. Cash is great but technology assistance would be better.
Thanks for posting this Dan. I’ve used GoDaddy for a while and have wondered if my money was going to some faceless anti-gun corporation. Now I can spend more money with GoDaddy and feel good about it!
Does he allow employees to carry at the office?
No, he does not.
In fact the employee handbook I saw when I interviewed there even said they can’t have weapons in their cars in the parking lot, even though AZ state law specifically prohibits an employer from restricting weapons properly secured in parked cars.
Well ain’t that something…..
If Apollo Group can live without drug testing for employees, then GoDaddy can live without a “gun-free” policy in the office.
“Gun Hero of the Day?” Sounds like just another rich hypocrite to me. “I can shoot elephants and I can use the media and my money to tout my political positions, but I reserve the right to disarm my employees and even violate state law to do it.” Don’t kid yourself into thinking a guy like this is that much different than Bloomberg. For both of them, it’s about using their money to exercise their egos and show what big kahunas they are.
If he were a real gun hero, he would be giving a lot of his money to gun causes, not grandstanding, and letting his employees enjoy the RTKABA. And here he used to be my hero for putting Danika Patrick in all his commercials!
Parsons doesn’t run GoDaddy, He sold control of the business to KKR, Silver Lake Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures. And he is a big contributor to the NRA.
He is still on the board and is the principal shareholder. He has the juice to get policies changed.
What “recent school shootings”? If you aren’t counting negligent discharges five miles from a school as a “school shooting”, the most recent one was two years ago.
Three hundred million people ÷ one event ÷ two years ago does not = stunningly common school-shooting event, any more than our “recent rash of pressure-cooker bombings”.
That’s fine and good. But Parsons’ own GoDaddy policies prohibit firearms and ammunition sales on GoDaddy webstores. If he can explain how that is any different to Operation Chokepoint in practice, I’m all ears.
He doesn’t run the company. Majority ownership was purchased by the usual sleazy Wall Street types, who are probably the worst enemies of 2A.
If you’ve ever used GoDaddy webhosting “service” then you would never call this guy a “hero”.
was he in his pajamas?