Good old Shannon Watts. She likes to claim to the fawning media that she was simply a little ol’ housewife who decided to get active promoting gun control after Sandy Hook. If only. Now she’s branching out. She’s advocating not only for curtailment of Americans’ Second Amendment rights, but our First Amendment rights as well.
Yes, as the fable goes, Michael Bloomberg plucked Watts from obscurity to act as the face of his Moms Demand Action operation. And that fake news narrative continues to this day. From the Denver Post:
How a Colorado mother became the National Rifle Association’s worst nightmare
Shannon Watts folded laundry as news of the horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 children and six adults flashed across her television screen in 2012, rattling something inside the mother of five that couldn’t be stifled. That newfound, burning activism would soon position the Colorado woman to identify herself as the National Rifle Association’s worst nightmare.
Watts scoured Facebook after the Sandy Hook shooting, looking to join a group similar to Mothers Against Drunk Driving but with a focus on ending gun violence. When she couldn’t find what she was looking for, she made her own.
Yet, for anyone willing to do two minutes of Googling, one can quickly find her pedigree in big time public relations. In fact, under her maiden name of Shannon Troughton, she served as president and owner of VoxPop Public Relations, a boutique liberal PR firm.
Before that, well, we’ll let her explain from her press release via PR Newswire:
According to PR Week, “Shannon Troughton recently left a position at the helm of a 30-person corporate communications team at WellPoint, one of the largest health insurers in the US, to start her own healthcare firm, VoxPop Public Relations. She started the firm because she saw a need for boutique agencies that can provide the same service at a lower cost during the recession. At WellPoint, she launched a number of key efforts, such as its Zagats partnership, which allows users to rate their doctors, and the establishment of personalized health records for WellPoint members.”
Troughton has worked in public relations for nearly 20 years, specializing in media relations, product promotion, government affairs, and issues and crisis management.
At WellPoint, Troughton led a team of 40 public relations professionals responsible for implementing communications programs for the 14 states in which the company operates, as well as the company’s business units.
Previously, Ms. Troughton served as director of Global Communications for GE Healthcare, a $15 billion medical diagnostics and device business within General Electric.
Troughton also served as director of Public and Corporate Affairs for Monsanto Company in St. Louis..
Troughton began her career as a communications staffer for the administration of the late Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan in Jefferson City and is a graduate of the University of Missouri.
Just a typical housewife and mom, right?
And now, when she can’t win a debate arguing to grab your guns with her fancy, big-dollar PR skillz, she has begun to trot out her latest ploy to demonize and other-ize America’s 100+ million gun owners…she wants to silence the opposition’s voice.
She’s now going after conservative commentator Ben Shapiro for his stance on protecting how his children are raised and educated.
Ben Shapiro is making a death threat. “Come and take it” is also a death threat. Given our gun violence crisis, law enforcement must stop giving pundits and politicians who say these things a pass. https://t.co/1jhDdLZZJn
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 11, 2019
Sorry Shannon, but “Come and take it” isn’t a death threat. And claiming that it is only betrays your ignorance.
“Come and take it” merely communicates steadfast opposition to would-be tyrants who would oppress gun-owning Americans. People just like you.
It’s not a threat. It’s a warning.
It’s promise.
No edit button.
It’s a promise.
Don’t start none, won’t be none.
The phrase, “Come and take it!” is all of those things and more.
It is a warning. It is a promise. It is a taunt. And it is most certainly a death threat.
We must also clearly mention that, “Come and take it!” is a defensive death threat, not an offensive death threat. And that is why prosecutors have no righteous authority to prosecute someone for saying, “Come and take it!”.
“It is a warning. It is a promise. It is a taunt. And it is most certainly a death threat.”
Yes. Adding that it’s a CONDITIONAL threat assuming the other side goes lawless, ignores the Constitution, and tries to use force to deprive innocent citizens of fundamental civil rights.
Their “Hell yes we’re going to take your AR-15” is all of those things as well, but theirs is NOT conditional on our behavior.
“adding that it’s a CONDITIONAL threat”
No edit; acknowledging that you made that point too.
It’s a promise.
The problem is that these bastards get to set the definition and we cannot override the thing. It just may very well come down to a second revolution before we regain the upper hand.
Any one of these gun grabbers can be doxxed. What’s sauce for the goose, etc.
Dirk doxxed Shannon *cold* a few years back. She wasn’t pleased. That made Dirk *very* happy… 🙂
“The problem is that these bastards get to set the definition…”
Only if we let them. Granted, they do have the benefit of controlling most of public education, higher ed, media, and entertainment. It’s amazing how we use communist terms and slogans all the time without even knowing it. “Main street vs. Wall Street (brought to us by CPUSA),” “Middle class” instead of middle income, even “capitalism” is a pejoritive term invented by communists to describe free markets. We can all do our part be rejecting these terms and pointing it out when we do.
For example, don’t say “liberal,” unless you use it to describe actual liberals (people who favor individual freedom and limits on government authority to dictate how we live). Use more accurate terms: “Leftist,” “oligarchal collectivist,” or “collectivist authoritarian.”
Don’t say “middle class,” unless you refer to someone who is toward the middle of the current caste system in the “progressive stack,” and therefore truly born into special treatment from leftists. Say middle income, which recognizes that anyone can achieve this with some combination of hard work, talent, and good ideas (with free markets, at least).
If we use their terms, we accept their premises. They have understood this for 150 years.
“…it is only betrays your ignorance.”
She is NOT ignorant. She is willfully deceiving and invigorating her target audience of stupid and gullible anti’s. She know EXACTLY what is doing and saying
Public and Corporate Affairs for Monsanto. If that doesn’t just give you a warm and fuzzy.
I knew that, I didn’t know she had headed leftist oriented PR firm of her own. Learned a few things from this article.
Tipper Gore and her Biddies for Banning Not Nice Things for the new millennium.
With any luck she’ll fade away just the same and occasionally be seen sitting alone in a field somewhere painting the grass.
Since Shannon Watts came on the scene as this supposed do-gooder housewife that supposedly started “Moms Demand Action”. I have always been suspicious about her background and with a simple LinkedIn search you can see that she has over 20 years’ of experience working for a variety of different companies doing Public Relations for them.
With that being said this is not her first rodeo doing Public Relations for companies. But more likely she was recruited by The Bloomberg organization for her experience in PR and was hired to be it’s chief PR person & spokesperson. I also believe she is most likely paid a salary as well. I am glad that this site is calling her out on who she really is. This is not a grassroots movement and that she claims but a carefully orchestrated gun control effort funded by Michael Bloomberg
Here is a Link to here LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannontroughton
Shows you how interested the media is in telling the truth, doesn’t it. This is easy to find, if only you look…but they’re not looking and they don’t care.
Does anyone believe Bloomberg is on this gun-grabbing campaign to “save the children”? Through opposition research, he is well-informed that the facts are not on his side. Yet, remains on-mission, and that mission is not philanthropic.
Just asking…
Around here? I doubt it.
In general? Well you know what they say about suckers and minutes.
Because Capo Bloomberg, along with other “champagne and caviar billionaire socialists” know if they are not controlling the revolution, or at least a major part of it, they will be among the victims.
She used to be part of Monsanto; that company has killed far, far more than guns ever will. And it doesn’t just kill them, it kills them slowly over the course of decades. Agent Orange, RBST, Sauget Illinois, PCB pollution on the east coast, Round Up. That laundry list goes down the block and around the corner. So, on the list of people who argue some sort of moral obligation, Shannon Watts is down there with the tobacco industry.
Chris,
You have it exactly! “Monsanto…has killed far, far more than guns ever will”. They are monsters. Bayer is regretting swallowing them. The law suits continue to roll-in, and Monsanto is losing. It will not make up for all the damage they have done, but, we need to stop them.
Guns save lives; Monsanto’s chemicals and genetically engineered (Round-up Ready) crops destroy lives.
This article really sums up what kind of person she really is:
https://dcdirtylaundry.com/concerned-mom-or-political-mercenary-anti-gun-mom-shannon-watts-also-promoted-toxic-cancer-causing-glyphosate-herbicide-found-in-kids-breakfast-cereals/
From 1998 to 2001, Watts directed a team that managed crises for Monsanto and Bayer. The most current crisis for Monsanto is their court loss in California, a $290 million case that confirmed that Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing products cause cancer — and the corporation hid the fact for years. After defending Monsanto for three years, Watts was promoted to Director, Global Public and Corporate Affairs Company for Monsanto. Watts “provided corporate communications strategy and support” in support of Monsanto’s agricultural life sciences. The lawsuit found that Monsanto hid the cancer risks of glyphosate during the time Shannon Watts was defending Monsanto.
Trying to appear as a heroic mom, Watts claims she was a stay-at-home mother during her tenure defending Monsanto. Glyphosate, found at unprecedented levels in children’s breakfast cereals, is a known carcinogen.
so a CA court decided roundupo causes cancer…
pfff… a CA court has decided everything causes cancer at one point or another. i remember them saying the acrylamides that form in fried foods cause cancer (yes, in case you’re wondering, that’s what those notices about stuff that may cause cancer on the walls of fast food places in CA are about…)
That evil greedy woman, ex PR Exec. She probably thinks she can clean up her image being the MDA front woman.
There really are tons of stupid people running around, but Watts takes the cake. What’s really bad is there are people that believe her.
People took Jenny McCarthy’s word over doctors and scientists.
The world is full uf stupid and guillible people. Unfortunately, they are the ones running things these days.
Actually, there are many doctors (including pediatricians) and scientists/researchers upon whose work Jenney McCarthy’s stands. I’ve met these people, gone to their conferences, read their books, and even sat one-on-one with some of them. So, it is not ‘Jenney against the scientists’; it is a real divide within the scientific community.
I have no intention of arguing this point on TTAG. I only want to make it clear the Jenney McCarthy is credible and that there is a substantial and credible body of science behind her position.
If you disagree, that is fine with me. Freedom of thought and speech is what we all fight for.
Hand-over-heart, respect and friendship.
And I am one of the doctors on the other side of this argument, so don’t drag those of us who really struggle in the trenches for the better of our patients into the muck of those who are slaves to the publicity, pharmaceuticals and insurance companies. I will quite very assuredly die a pauper because I chose to stand up for my patients and for what is right. There are no heroes. I do not have a reality TV show; yet I have the very heavy brass equipment to testify as an expert against major pharmaceutical corporations; I stand up for my patient’s rights, I serve as a consultant to insurance companies and accept my role as an advocate for the patients which has caused more than a little friction.
I am covered in mud only because I chose to dive into the trenches for the sake of the patients,
SoBe,
You are a model of courage and integrity. We have worked with a couple of physicians who have done as you have. We have seen the struggle. God bless you!!
What is your standard weight used for one person. I used to do weight and balance for aircraft and used a standard weight including weight for carry on. Also tons is plural, so, do you use tons as 2 tons equaling 4000 pounds?
So, if I use my assumptions of your data using my standard male weight of 225 pounds then you know 18 stupid people (rounded up). That is a lot of stupid people that you admit to knowing. Have you considered getting an education?
Nobody but her own pay any attention to Ms Watts.
Shes yesterdays very old Libitard news. She says what Bloomberg tells her to because NO one at all listens to the mighty midget or his money that matters anymore.
I actually attended an in-person debate between Shannon Watts and John Lott Jr. hosted at my university when I was finishing grad school. A pretty typical lefty academic crowd… except a ton of local gun owners came to it as well. Watts spouted lots of platitudes, and the gun friendly crowd wouldn’t let her get away with any of it. Lott was great as usual. It was quite a show and pretty heartening to this gun-owning academic.
Napresto,
You are a gun owning academic? You must be in engineering then.
U_C,
LOL!!!
You, sir, have a dry wit!
CS and game design actually. But even in STEM, gun-owning right-wingers like me are pretty hard to find. The upside is that I get to “corrupt” my students by teaching them to think for themselves.
Napresto, that is better than having the students sitting in a circle clapping and chanting “one settler, one bullet” over and over.
If you actually bother to scroll through that Twitter feed you’ll see a portion of what we’re up against.
I apparently blacked out for a bit during the video because I didn’t see Shapiro threaten to pull a school shooting but between the jokes about how he can’t reach the gas pedal and the comments that he shouldn’t be allowed to speak publicly, there’s a thread in there about how he shouldn’t have access to guns and has publicly threatened to commit a school shooting.
Twitter is catnip for liars and retards.
Catnip for liars and retards… I like. That’s the essence of it, right there.
She and her Demanding Commie Mommy’s want the entire Constitution thrown out,it’s not news.
The Leftists are the enemies domestic the founders warned of .
I spent time at GE medical. Real cutthroat company. She’s a former GE suit and the training is all about winning and using up people. Dirk diggler needs to be careful with this one.
Well, if we want to go down the First Amendment road, consider this: Quite a few “assault weapon” bans are not only violations of the Second Amendment, but they also violate the First.
From Wikipedia:
Common attributes used in legislative definitions of assault weapons include:
• Semi-automatic firearm capable of accepting a detachable magazine
• Folding or telescoping (collapsible) stock, which reduces the overall length of the firearm
• A pistol grip that protrudes beneath the action of the weapon
• Bayonet lug, which allows the mounting of a bayonet
• Threaded barrel, which can accept devices such as a flash suppressor, Suppressor, compensator or muzzle brake
• Grenade launcher
• Barrel shroud, which prevents burning of shooter’s arm or hand as a safety device.
Notice that, frequently, definitions of “assault weapon” include a lot of stuff that have nothing to do with the functioning of the firearm. Even the ATF restricts it’s definition to the lower receiver (yes, I’m aware of this controversy). Everything else that hangs off that part is a design feature that affects the look of the gun, but not the functioning of it. As such, it is a visual expression of the will of the designer.
In other words, it’s art. And art is protected under the First Amendment.
Banning a firearm on the basis of cosmetic features such as telescoping stocks, pistol grips, barrel shrouds, etc etc is essentially the same as telling a sculptor that they cannot sculpt a statue that has arms. Or telling a painter that they can only use red and green in their pallete. It is a restriction on free expression and it is definitely a violation of the First Amendment.
A ban law that restricts itself to just the engineering of the firearm steers clear of this violation. But most of the bans don’t stop there. Most of those in force or proposed take the extra step and actually start listing design elements along with engineering elements in their definitions of what an “assault weapon” is. A ban that prohibits one firearm for having, say, a pistol grip, and allowing an identically engineered firearm without a pistol grip is a restriction on the visual, not the functional aspects of the firearm, and therefor constitutes a violation of the First.
Just my opinion, anyway.
An interesting way of putting it.
Should print up a sign with a bunch of gucci’d out ARs that says “guns are art” and take it to the DC rally.
Die Bitch!!!
I think the proper term is cvnt!
IT IS NOT THE IMPLEMENTS, LADY, its concept of freedom and protecting it. The cost to society of surrendering freedom is MUCH greater than the cost of defending the 2nd Amendment. If you can’t comprehend that you are a much more serious problem than any law-abiding gun owner. Anyone who is anti-Bill of Rights is very dangerous, very.
It is ABSOLUTELY a death threat, because I fully intend to kill anyone smashing down the door to my home to take my guns.
In such a scenario, I expect to live a few seconds longer than the men I just killed. And that’s just how it will be. Every one of us will die one day. If I die defending my home and my God given rights, is that really any worse than dying of cancer or dimentia or some other debilitating disease?
If there is going to be another civil war, then let it begin soon, while I’m still able enough to help win it.
Funny how the christian conservatives where so correct about the homosexual agenda of getting ahold your children. Disarming the society by eliminating 2A education in schools. Eliminating rifle teams in schools. Making it illegal for a 16 year old to be able to buy their own shotgun at the gun store.
The atheist, the gays, are all socialist progressive in their political orientation. They want YOUR guns. But they are Keeping THEIR guns.
Are gays they really inclusive as they claim to be? Are gay gun owners working to change the minds of anti-civil rights gay people?
It seems the not even the Pulse nightclub massacre have stopped the worship of government by gay people.
https://crosscut.com/2019/08/outcasts-within-outcast-community-seattles-lgbtq-gun-club-upends-stereotypes
btw
Right wing christians have supported gun rights for everyone. But you will find Left wing christians who want to disarm everyone. And they are Socialist Progressive in their political orientation as well.
There is no proof that the Liberals or the Left have ever supported the 1st amendment. But they do support the burning of a cross on the private property of a black person by the KKK.
“Gun shop owner sues state” from Tracy California
http://www.ttownmedia.com/tracy_press/news/gun-shop-owner-sues-state/article_81e95e60-6b98-11e4-bd65-73a8c62cbadc.html
btw
The ACLU helped write the 1967 Mulford Act in California. Alan G. Sieroty, Democrat, was elected to the State Assembly in 1966 to represent the 59th District of Los Angeles County. He served on the Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulford_Act
If I said I want your gunms and you said “come and take it” Id think “thank you” now if I said I want your gunms and you said “I will blow your guts out if you do” I might take that as a threat?
That reminds me of a recent Beto joke going around. “I know Texans are happy to give up their AR 15s, because the keep saying to me ‘come and take it.'”
Newsflash…it’s not Shannon Watts, it’s her handlers. And they’re coming for ALL of our remaining rights. You have to be living under a rock or have room temperature IQ not to understand this at this point.