It’s nice to see that more people are noticing the threats of violence against peaceful people that are a regular feature of the Moms Demand Action Facebook page. Charles C. W. Cooke at nationalreview.com has noted them, too. I would have been happy to have him use my photograph (with attribution), but perhaps because MDA misappropriated it, he never contacted me. He does a good job of covering the issue, including threats to “SWAT” open carriers, but I would have been happy to give him more background . . .
Reacting to a photograph of a man standing at a checkout with a handgun holstered upon his hip, mom-who-demands-action Joyce Ward asks, “Why weren’t the police called immediately?” And “why,” Ward continues, “wasn’t he shot by the police for having a weapon”? Fellow poster Lisa McLogan Shaheen has a similar inquiry, wondering, “Why hasn’t someone called 911 so the cops can gun him down?” Others go a little further, proposing that they might help their cause along if they were actively to bring about an altercation. “Every time I see someone with a gun in a store I will call 911,” Jennifer Decker vows, “they’ll get tired of that right quick!!!” Even that plan is too limited for Ann Marie. “Just call the police every time you see someone with one,” she counsels, “the police will get sick of it eventually or have a run in with one of these clowns and then things will change.”
I am that person in the checkout line they are discussing, so the threats are of more than academic interest to me. Here’s the original story in which it was featured. To understand why the people making these threats are doing so, I have found this article by Sarah Thompson, M.D. to be informative. For those of you who do not wish to read the whole article, she discusses projection, denial, reaction formation, and rage.
I commented at the nationalreview.com site, and offered them the photograph, as long as they used attribution and a link.
©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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