Poor Shannon - The Internet Never Forgets

We know Shannon Watts as the "stay at home" mom (of five) who founded Moms Demand Action as a response to the Newtown school murders. Public relations experts are very good at spinning myths and that first sentence contains a lot of myth befitting the PR expertise of Watts. Stay at home was always debatable and mom of five is true only if you include two step-children who probably lived with their real mom and not dad's new younger wife.

An article in today's Wall Street Journal regarding RoundUp weedkiller, Monsanto, and successor company Bayer got me to thinking about Watts' past corporate affiliations. The article detailed the role that Monsanto played in supposedly objective outside research that said their product RoundUp was safe. You had company scientists reviewing the drafts of outside research and suggesting changes. One wonders what role the public relations experts at Monsanto played in this.

The law firm leading many of the lawsuits against Bayer (which previously merged with Monsanto) is Baum Hedlund Aristei Goldman PC. They have now started posting Monsanto emails found during discovery on their website. I haven't started searching them yet but I do wonder what name I might discover when I do.

For those that are unaware, long before Shannon Watts was the founder of Moms Demand Action and long before her last name was Watts, she was Shannon Troughton and served as the Director of Global Public and Corporate Affairs for Monsanto from 2001 to 2004. That was a pretty fast advancement for someone who graduated Mizzou a mere seven years earlier. It means she was damn good at spin.

Interestingly, the first article I found linking then-Shannon Troughton with RoundUp was in my former hometown newspaper The Greensboro Daily News and Record. It had to do with a lawsuit filed by Syngenta which has a major facility in Greensboro against Monsanto. Both companies produced herbicides and there was a patent battle.

From the article:

Monsanto spokeswoman Shannon Troughton said the company is "surprised and disappointed with Syngenta's lawsuit, since our business teams were in the midst of discussions on license terms for their new product."

She said Monsanto is "confident in the validity" of the patents, which the company "will vigorously defend."

Troughton added, "If Syngenta wants to face an injunction for product sales in the absence of a license, that's their business decision."

Another article quoting her talked about Brazil's ban on GMO seeds like the Monsanto "Roundup Ready" seeds and her wish that Brazil would allow them in the country. While another article quoting her details Monsanto's legal war against farmers saving seed.

The bottom line is that every time you hear Shannon Watts dancing in the blood of crime victims in her efforts to push gun control "for the children" remember her background. She's an expert at pushing the narrative and the only narrative that really matters is the one that personally benefits her the most.

Now it is time to start searching those lawsuit emails for hidden gems.

A Takeaway For Gun Owners From Pelosi's Campaign For Speaker

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will probably be the next Speaker of the House of Representatives. I say probably because there are some Democrats that are opposed to her and the aging leadership. She, Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and James Clyburn (D-SC) are all in their 70s. However, while this group of dissidents might prevent Pelosi from getting the requisite number of votes (218), it is doubtful they will win in the end.

In a story in the Washington Examiner about Pelosi's campaign for Speaker and the battle her allies are waging on her behalf was this:

As the leadership fight escalates, Pelosi’s lined up endorsements from former President Barack Obama — who called Pelosi “one of the most effective legislative leaders” on Tuesday — and key advocacy groups that helped Democrats retake the majority. Progressive groups, gun control organizations, unions, reproductive rights groups like NARAL Pro-Choice and more have thrown their weight behind Pelosi’s speaker bid.

“Do you really want to make enemies out of these groups?” said (Rep. Jan) Schakowsky, adding later, that the fight “is not just inside baseball, this has enormous ramifications for how we successfully move forward to pass an agenda that’s going to help people.”

The Brady Campaign and Shannon Watts have all formally endorsed Pelosi for Speaker. Moreover, Michael Bloomberg who "invested" over $100 million in this election cycle to get Democrats elected has worked closely with Pelosi and shared office space with her super PAC.

What does this mean for gun owners?

It should be obvious - expect gun control to be on the Democrats agenda in the House from day one of the new Congress. Pelosi has a constituency to repay and she will. I fully expect that bills will be introduced that will contain every gun control measure that you can think of and some that we haven't. Moreover, these bills will get a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee and most will pass in the House. Furthermore, the Hearing Protection Act, national reciprocity, and even provisions for use of Pittman-Robertson funds to construct shooting ranges are dead.

Our only hope for stopping these infringements will be the Senate which remains in Republican hands. Even then, there are some Republicans who might vote for things like red flag laws or bans on bump fire stocks. Fortunately, the filibuster is still alive when it comes to bills passing the Senate and it still will require 60 votes to invoke cloture. Therefore, if you haven't contacted your two Senators or Senator-elect, you better do it now and put opposition to gun control on their radar.

The Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times" will epitomize the next two years when it comes to the fight for gun rights.

Well There Goes Her Rationale For Keeping Gun Free Zones

Shannon Watts, potential congressional candidate from Colorado and Bloomberg's gift that keeps on giving, put up this tweet yesterday about the murders in Plano, Texas over the weekend. She is never one to let a family tragedy go to waste.

Majority of mass shootings in America are related to domestic violence, take place in private residences, and most victims are women. https://t.co/FwzWcAqYeQ

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) September 11, 2017

Watts and her minions have consistently argued against arming teachers and in favor of more gun free zones. Their argument is that a gun free zone is safer which people reading this blog know only creates a target rich environment for psychopaths.

Her whole supposed rationale for keeping schools, university campuses, and other public places "gun free" is to prevent mass shootings and "gun violence" (sic). Her Moms Demand Action was supposedly created in response to the murders in Newtown. (Actually, I think it was merely a vehicle to reinvent her moribund career.)

But if she is correct in stating that the majority of mass shootings take place in private residences, doesn't that shoot down her rationale for more supposed gun free zones? Private residences will never be legally gun free. It will only be on an ad hoc basis at the whims of the individual residents. The Heller decision saw to that.

Shannon Watts is nothing if not consistently inconsistent. Her only consistencies seem to be guns are bad (unless they are used to protect me), "hey, look at me", and how can I make a family tragedy into a PR gain for me.

Bloomberg's Gun Control "PR Whiz" Aligns Herself With Communists

Those arrested in Durham, North Carolina for pulling down a Confederate monument all belong to the World Workers Party. It is a Communist party off-shoot. They broke away from the Socialist Workers Party in 1959 over doctrinal differences. It seems they considered themselves more Trotskyist than the SWP. The WWP later absorbed the Spartacist League which was itself a leading Trotskyist-influenced Communist party.

The main thing to understand is that they are Communists regardless of whether they follow Stalin or Trotsky or whether they are 3rd Internationalists or 4th Internationalists. The other thing to know about the World Workers Party is that they are very much supporters of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea aka North Korea. Indeed, they strongly believe Kim Jong-Un and North Korea need "The Bomb".

You can read their tirade about the "freedom fighters" pulling down the monument here.

Thus when I saw this tweet, I wondered if the PR whiz behind understands just who she is promoting and/or aligning herself with.

"I am Spartacus!" https://t.co/SLlj35dpeE

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) August 17, 2017

The Spartacist League was also known as the Spartacus League. It eventually became the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands or the German Communist Party of pre-WWII Germany.

The irony of it is delicious.

The ignorance of that tweet is even more delicious.

I'm Amused

Jane Jetson haircut?

Not going to take fashion tips from some former Monsanto PR-hack?

I have no clue what the Demanding Mommy herself Shannon Watts had to say about Dana Loesch but it must have been catty. I know they go at each other on Twitter all the time.

Dana's response on NRA TV to Grant Stinchfield amused me no end.

Jane Jetson haircut, bwahahahahaha! I wonder if Watts has a dog named Astro...






UPDATE: Thanks to Todd Vandermyde, I now know the backstory. You can read about it here. I'm still laughing about the Jane Jetson haircut.

Just Like Clockwork

The saying that the only two sure things in this world are death and taxes needs a revision. The revision would be to add that in a (purported) campus active shooter situation where little or nothing is known, Shannon Watts of Mommies Demanding Illegal Mayors will be tweeting about it and asking for more gun control.

For school shooting victims it's not too soon to discuss our nation's lax gun laws - it's too late

Ohio State University pic.twitter.com/oWzYmf4wbf

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 28, 2016

The first report of an active shooter at Ohio State came in just before 10am EST. The above tweet was made at just a bit after 11am EST. I'd like to be able to say it was her first tweet but it wasn't. Shannon was tweeting within minutes of the first report.

Reports in the Columbus Dispatch about the incident are relatively sketchy. Some people are in the hospital reportedly with non-life threatening injuries. One of the attackers is reported dead. There is not identification of the attacker. There is no word on whether police killed the attacker or whether it was self-inflicted. There is no word on motive. There is no word on what type of weapon. The list goes on.

The bottom line is that Shannon Watts will use any attack or incident as a reason to push gun control regardless of the circumstances. Her blood dancing is really getting rather old.

UPDATE: More details of this "mass shooting" are coming out. The "shooter" actually hit a number of pedestrians with his car and then started stabbing them with a butcher knife. There were no firearms involved other than that of the OSU police officer who shot and killed the attacker approximately a minute after the attack began. The unnamed attacker is reported in another story to be a Somali refugee with permanent legal residence who was a student. Unlike earlier reports, there appears to have only been this one attacker. The motive for the attack is unknown at this time.

This Ad Was Obviously A Failure

I came across this video from Bloomberg's Everytown this morning. I thought in light of the Missouri General Assembly overriding Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of constitutional carry, it would be fun to show this waste of advertising dollars. It is obvious to me that the legislators listened to their own constituents rather than to Bloomberg.





Given that Shannon Watts (then Shannon Troughton) got her start after graduating Mizzou working for as a PR flack for Gov. Mel Carnahan (D-MO), you might be forgiven for thinking she would have a better feel for politics in her former state of residence.

France Is Not A Developed Country

Now I know most of you are wondering about the headline. How can France not be a developed country. It has the Louvre, wonderful vineyards, exquisite cuisine, couture fashion, and was the home of thousands of brilliant scientists, artists, writers, and musicians over the centuries.

Well, according to Shannon Watts of Everytown Mayors for Demanding Mommies, it just can't be because shootings like the one by the Islamofascist at a gay night club in Orlando only happen in America and no other developed country.

Dear Congress: This isn't happening in any other developed nation. DO YOUR JOB! #PrayForOrlando #MassShooting #Orlando

— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) June 12, 2016

The attack by Muslim terrorists at Le Bataclan in Paris which killed 130 and wounded hundreds more is off of Shannon's radar because it doesn't fit her gun control narrative. France, by the way, had very, very strict gun control laws as does Belgium where many of those terrorists obtained their weapons.

Terrorists are going to kill people. It is what they do. That it was a gay nightclub fits squarely within the ISIS/ISIL playbook as they despise both Americans and gays. The thought that universal background checks or adding those on the No-Fly list to the NICS database would stop a dedicated American-born Muslim terrorist from obtaining a firearm with which to kill people is ludicrous.

Moreover, that presumes that firearms are the only weapons at the disposal of a dedicated Islamofascist terrorist. A quick trip to the local Exxon or BP station would provide the makings of a very effective terror weapon.

The only thing that I do agree with in her tweet is that we should pray for the victims.

You Can't Make This Sh@% Up

It seems that the Demanding Moms for Illegal Mayors got a little ahead of themselves here and had to delete the tweet below.

Our hearts are with the victims and survivors of the horrific mass shooting and violent attacks in Paris today. pic.twitter.com/vMs5jkH9vI

— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) November 13, 2015

Mass shooting? Nice dumbing down of a terrorist attack there, Shannon.

I guess if France had universal background checks then these ISIS terrorists couldn't have obtained their full-auto AK-47s. Oh, wait, you have to have a firearms license which includes a psychological examination, criminal background check, and a defined purpose for having a firearm before you can even possess a firearm.

Those full-auto AKs? Illegal for civilians to possess. I guess terrorists don't play by the rules. Funny how that works.

Shannon Watts Lies About New NRA Video

I know you are shocked to hear that Shannon Watts lied on Twitter about a new NRA video that features Dana Loesch. Now it is no secret that no love is lost between these two. Dana has called out Shannon many a time for her lies and her use of no-neck armed guards hired by Michael Bloomberg.

Here are the tweets in question:

#NRA video implies all U.S. moms are 1) eager to shoot "thugs" in face 2) Christian 3) Leather Tuscadero https://t.co/d8eihIP8FS #gunsense

— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) September 12, 2015

Parody? #NRA's new video about their version of American ninja moms https://t.co/d8eihIP8FS @MomsDemand #gunsense pic.twitter.com/dSmd01lnY2

— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) September 12, 2015

If you watch the video below, you never hear a thing about Christianity nor do you hear any encouragement of shooting a thug in the face. What Dana said is that the media buries stories of defensive gun uses by mothers. As to the "Leather Tuscadero" Happy Days reference, that is just Shannon Watts' cattiness about Dana's leather jacket and the effectiveness of this video.





The best response on Twitter was by someone named Tom Sawyer who just nailed it!

@shannonrwatts 1) She never mentions shooting anyone 2) She never mentions religion 3) You're an idiot #WhateverItTakes @DLoesch #gunsense

— Tom Sawyer (@TomSmokin) September 12, 2015

Are We Supposed To Be Surprised?

Shannon Watts of Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors loves her corrupt politicians. At least the ones that are for more and more gun control while they have their own armed security details. She tweeted the pictures below of Hillary Clinton signing a "whatever it takes" poster yesterday.

.@HillaryClinton signed on today to Moms' pledge to do #WhateverItTakes to stop gun violence @MomsDemand #gunsense pic.twitter.com/Ffekuq8ky5

— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) September 10, 2015

Hillary probably thought she was signing a poster with her campaign motto.

Hasn't Bought A Gun There, Has She? (Updated)

The latest little campaign that has sprung from the febrile mind of Shannon Watts is against Cabelas. It's entitled, "Tell Cabela's: No Completed Background Check, No Gun Sale."

Tell @Cabelas to delay gun sales until background checks are completed #NoCheckNoSale pic.twitter.com/kwBsDEqen7 @MomsDemand #gunsense

— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) July 13, 2015

Unlike Little Ms. Shannon and her acolytes, I have actually purchased a firearm at Cabelas. I bought a used FN Mauser in 6.5x55 at the Greenville, SC store last year. As I'm sure Linoge would attest, Cabelas is not slack when it comes to gun sales.

Let me take you through the process as I remember it. Also bear in mind that I have a NC CHP which is accepted as a substitute for the NICS check in North Carolina. I also have a Curios & Relics FFL which could have allowed Cabelas to ship that Mauser to my door if I had gone that route.

First, the clerk wrote up the sale. He then took me, my ID, and the firearm to another sales counter to start the NICS check process. I was turned over to a specialist who handled the Form 4473 paperwork which was actually on the computer. After I filled out the computer screen, it was checked for accuracy. Then it was checked again by a manager. I remember having to wait until an authorized manager was available. Once she gave the OK, it was submitted to the FBI in Parkersburg, WV.

It came back OK. Duh! A manager gave the authorization to complete the sale.

Now I actually pay for the Mauser. After I paid for it, a manager walked me and the firearm out of the store. From time the transaction began until I walked out the door was close to 30 minutes.

Shannon, please tell me again how Cabelas is being a slacker when it comes to firearms transactions.

I also note that you are addressing your petition to Thomas Millner who is the CEO of Cabelas. I have one word for you - Zumbo.

Prior to becoming the CEO of Cabelas, Tommy Millner was the CEO of Remington Arms for 10 years. He was CEO of Remington when Jim Zumbo stepped on it. He pulled Remington's sponsorship of Zumbo's TV show within a matter of days after Zumbo called the AR-15 a "terrorist rifle".  Millner saw the outraged response of the gun community and he listened.

So Shannon, let me pose this simple question to you. Do you think Tommy Millner and Cabelas is going to kow-tow to you and your airhead friends OR is he going to put his business at risk?

I think we all know the correct answer.


UPDATE: Linoge posted this on Facebook regarding the differences between a denial and a hold/delay in a NICS check. He worked the Gun Library at Cabela's for a while so I think he knows of what he speaks. The key thing is that the default in the NICS check is "yes". He gave me permission to reprint it.

Wait.

Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America are harassing Cabela's for abiding by federal law?

Let's make something clear here - an FFL making a sale on an "incomplete" background check is breaking the law. Period dot.

Cabela's doesn't sell people guns if they don't complete their background checks. I should know. I helped with those background checks.

Furthermore, a "hold / delay" in the background system is NOT an "incomplete" background check.

For those not in the know, the background checks you submit to whenever you purchase a firearm from an FFL - ANY FFL at ANY location, including gun shows - can have one of three responses.

1. Approved. Congratulations. You're either not a criminal, or you don't share enough identifying characteristics with a criminal, and you're allowed to purchase a firearm.

2. Denied. Suck. You're either a criminal, or you share enough identifying characteristics with a criminal, and you can't buy that gun. You can, however, appeal the decision. I know of perfectly law-abiding folks who ONLY ever get this response, and it gets overturned every time. The system is that broken.

3. Delayed. Wat? Well, the FBI - you know, the owners of the NICS system - have an explanation of this right here: https://www.fbi.gov/…/federal-firearms-license…/a-nics-delay Basically it boils down to NICS is not willing to say the person's clean, but can't find any reason to deny him, so they're going to go do some more homework. If the FFL doesn't hear anything from NICS after three full business days have elapsed, they are allowed to lawfully transfer the firearm to the buyer.

That is not an "incomplete" background check, as the blithering imbeciles at the anti-rights organizations are trying to get everyone to believe. That is a background check that failed to discover any disqualifying problems in the buyer's history, and, as such, cannot prevent the person from purchasing the firearm.

Simply put, the government doesn't give us the permission to buy firearms. They only tell FFLs if we're not allowed to - the default, however, is "yes", as it absolutely should be in the free, permissive society that America is supposed to be.

Suffice to say, statists like the ignorant tools at Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Bans want the equation to work the other way.

Her Hypocrisy Knows No Bounds

Shannon Watts is an out and out hypocrite. She posted the tweet below yesterday. It links to a story arguing against concealed carry by legal concealed carry holders on college and university campuses. It is obviously her position and that of her organization.

You think your drunk college-age daughters are bad with their iPhones? Imagine them with guns. http://t.co/q0hKI6A1VW @MomsDemand #gunsense
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) February 26, 2015

I don't believe in visiting the sins of the parents upon the child. I won't name Mrs. Watts older daughter nor will I say which university she attends. However, I will say that the university at which Mrs. Watts' daughter attends has legal concealed carry on campus and has had it for a number of years. This is information that I gleaned from social media postings by the daughter. I believe it to be both accurate and relevant.

Thus, while Mrs. Watts' daughter attends a university where young women that are age 21 or older and have a concealed carry license are able to protect themselves from thugs, criminals, and rapists, she does not want your daughters (or for that matter, your sons) to have that same privilege.

That is the height of hypocrisy.

UPDATE: Students for Concealed Carry on Campus have called Shannon Watts out on this as well. Since one of the state's she bemoans a push for carry on campus is Colorado, they ask whether she is dishonest or oblivious given the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling that public universities cannot ban carry on campus.

Well, That Didn't Take Long

When it comes to dancing in the blood of victims and using their tragedy for her own purpose, Shannon Watts has few equals. Like a vulture attracted to carrion, she is attracted to any shooting that she can twist for her own purposes.

Yesterday, in Douglasville, Georgia, a disturbed man shot his ex-wife and children before killing himself. He reportedly killed five including himself and wounded two others. The earliest reports that I can find of this very sad tragedy was about 4:25pm.

So how long did Shannon wait until racing to Twitter to make light of this tragedy in her efforts to push gun control? How about 329 minutes or just under 5 1/2 hours. Blood takes from one to two hours to dry after being exposed to air. Thus, the blood had barely dried before she took to Twitter.

It's not too early to talk about guns after family killed by domestic violence; it's too late #Douglasville #gunsense pic.twitter.com/up4PU948ls
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) February 8, 2015

The mom and children killed are just props for Shannon. That's sad, it's pathetic, and it's repugnant. However, that is just par for the course for Shannon Watts, Mike Bloomberg, and the rest of the gun prohibitionists in Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors.

And Now You Know The Rest Of The Story

The late radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to have a feature called, "The Rest of the Story". He'd end the feature with the tagline, "And now you know the rest of the story." I saw the tweet below from Shannon Watts of Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors yesterday. Just like Al Sharpton demands "Justice!", Shannon demands "Gunsense!".

Man Steals AR-15 From @Walmart in #Asheville #NorthCarolina http://t.co/eT0GlYjVF6 @MomsDemand #gunsense
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) November 30, 2014

This is not just some Walmart store. This is my Walmart store. The one that is a five minute or less drive from my house. The one at which I buy ammo if it is in stock. In other words, I know the store and I know the gun counter. Both ammo and firearms are kept in a locked case and only certain employees have the key.

The story as reported involved the theft of an AR-15 and 150 rounds of ammunition from the locked case on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The thief purportedly shoved the rifle down his pants and just walked out.

And now for the rest of the story.

Donald Alan Skelton, 33, was arrested on Thursday as he went back to the same Walmart. According to records from the NC Department of Public Safety, Skelton was released from prison in February. His criminal record goes back to at least 2008 and includes convictions for felony breaking and entering and for being a felon in possession of a firearm.





For this theft, Skelton was charged with larceny of a firearm, misdemeanor larceny, and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held in the Buncombe County Detention Center under an $11,000 bond.

Watts got 28 retweets and 7 favorites from this tweet. How the theft of a firearm by a convicted felon relates to "gunsense" and the call for universal background checks is beyond me.

We Need #CrowbarSense

Sometimes the tweets from Shannon Watts of Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors cause me to just shake my head. We know she is trying to shake down the Kroger chain of stores because they won't kow-tow to her regarding lawful carry of firearms in their stores. This Kroger policy extends to their subsidiaries such as the Harris Teeter grocery chain here in North Carolina.

As part of Watts' shake down efforts, she sends out tweets like the one below in the hopes that her unthinking minions will uncritically re-tweet it.

Another armed robbery at @Kroger owned @HarrisTeeter #NorthCarolina http://t.co/AsLUxiYs4i @MomsDemand #gunsense #GroceriesNotGuns
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) November 17, 2014

Reading the linked story at NBC Charlotte, one finds that a man armed with a firearm and a crowbar robbed a Charlotte Harris Teeter in the pre-dawn hours of Monday. The armed robber forced some employees back into the store at gunpoint. He then forced one employee and a witness to smash a jewelry display and put the jewelry into a bag with the threat of shooting another employee. The robber then escaped with the jewelry.

Under North Carolina criminal law, this is a violation of § 14-87 (Robbery with firearms or other dangerous weapons) which is a Class D felony. The robber's actions of forcing the people back into the store meets the state's definition of kidnapping which, since no one was reported injured, is a Class E felony. We don't know if the armed robber was a felon. If he was, he would be in violation of both Federal and NC law concerning being a felon in possession of a firearm. And this is just a start. Looking at sentencing guidelines, the robber is looking at a minimum of five years for the armed robbery and two years for the kidnapping offense if this was his first brush with the law.

Armed robbery is a crime. It has nothing to do with the lawful carry of a firearm in a grocery store to protect oneself and one's family against harm. Posting this Harris Teeter grocery store against legal carry would only add one more charge to the armed robber's long list of crimes and would leave a whole lot of other people defenseless.

Perhaps since the criminal used a crowbar in the commission of his crimes, we now need #Crowbar Sense. It is as logical as #gunsense.

There's Salary And Then There's Compensation

Shannon Watts of Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors is trying to make a big deal out of the salary received by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre. She posted a tweet on Saturday asserting that Wayne made the big bucks while she, in an attempt at gun control sainthood, had zero salary.

My salary is zero dollars; Wayne paid millions: "What #NRA Pays #WayneLapierre To Sell Guns" http://t.co/e5b9K4Lsc9
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) June 8, 2014

She may be correct in her assertion that she receives no salary. That doesn't mean she is not compensated for her efforts to infringe on our Second Amendment rights.There are many ways to be compensated for your work that isn't salary.

For example, if you look at the Form 990 for Mayor Bloomberg's Illegal Mayors for both 2011 and 2012 you won't find any salary payments to then-Executive Director Mark Glaze or a listing of him under their highly compensated employees. However, you will find payments of $210,000 and $220,000 respectively to The Raben Group which was his long-time employer. Mr. Glaze was certainly compensated but it wasn't with "salary" from Bloomberg.

Likewise, I think if you search long enough or when we finally get the 2014 Form 990 for Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors you will find substantial payments to an outside consulting group. Further investigation will probably show some sort of affiliation with Shannon Watts.

Of course, Shannon Watts could be the 21st Century's version of Joan of Arc but for gun control instead of France. She could be doing this all out of altruistic sense of duty. I don't believe that for a minute and I doubt any one reading this would either. She and her husband John may be "one-percenters" but they never have seemed to be the sort to do anything for free.

There is some very valid speculation that one of the reasons that Moms Demand Action merged with MAIG was to avoid having to file a Form 990 for 2013. The merger took place in December 2013 so their finances would be subsumed under that of MAIG. Of course, this assumes that MDA received their 501(c)3 determination letter from the IRS and would be required to file the form.

As I said earlier, there are many ways to be compensated for your efforts monetarily that don't appear as salary. While Shannon Watts may be correct that she doesn't receive a salary (and that is iffy given her track record with the truth), she is getting compensated for her efforts one way or another.

Hey Shannon, This Is Old News

Shannon Watts would have you believe that Smashburger is going to be the next place they lobby to ban "open carry" thanks to open carry activists. That is, if you believe the tweets she sent out this afternoon.

.@texasabc @Smashburger also serves alcohol: http://t.co/sAJjGcYQq4 … @JoeGomezKRLD #MomsDemand #gunsense pic.twitter.com/9KJ8ypSIB3
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) May 22, 2014

.@texasabc @Smashburger also serves alcohol: http://t.co/sAJjGcYQq4 … @JoeGomezKRLD #MomsDemand #gunsense pic.twitter.com/Ntztxm6LPG
— Shannon (@shannonrwatts) May 22, 2014

The only problem is that this is old news. Smashburger has had a policy in compliance with Texas ABC Board regulations that open carry of any sort is banned. They did this in 2013. Prior to the clarification in ABC Board regulations, Smashburger was welcoming to open carriers.


The picture below is from GlockTalk in March of this year.

Take a good look at that second picture she tweeted. It is the same one from this July 2, 2013 blog post in Open Carry Texas. 

Next time Shannon tweets about a picture featuring open carry activists, take a good look. It probably is an old picture she is using to drum up business for Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors.

The Alt History Question Of The Day

Alt History asks the question what-if. Such as what if the Confederacy was given AK-47s by time-traveling South Africans as in Harry Turtledove's The Guns of the South or what if the Japanese had conducted a third strike on the morning of December 7th as in the Gingrich-Forstchen novel Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th.

So here is my alt history question of the day:  what if upon graduating from the University of Missouri Shannon Watts (or whatever her maiden name was back then) had taken a job with local firm Midway USA instead of going to work as a communications staffer for then Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan (D-MO)?

That question leads to a whole host of other questions such as:

Would she have still ended up working for Monsanto, GE Healthcare, and Wellpoint as a PR flack?

Would she have more readily identified with down home Americans like Larry and Brenda Potterfield rather than being billionaire Mike Bloomberg's BFF?

Would she have respected gun owners and their rights or would she still have used a Connecticut tragedy to reestablish her moribund PR career?

Would we see her inside the Indiana Convention Center during the NRA Annual Meeting or outside of it protesting?

I'm sure you can come up with your own series of follow-on what-if questions to my alt history question of the day.

The Houses Of "Everytown"

The world looks differently to you and me than it does to Michael Bloomberg and Shannon Watts.

Unless you live in an exclusive suburb with armed guards at the gate, I doubt your home looks like the array of homes below. It should be noted that I don't begrudge Mr. Bloomberg his money as he earned it by taking an idea for providing financial data and ran with it. That is the American Way and I applaud his entrepreneurship. Shannon Watts took the more old fashioned way and (re)married well to the former CEO of a Wellpoint subsidiary.That, too, is OK...I guess.

Bloomberg's Upper East Side Townhouse

Bloomberg's Long Island Estate

Bloomberg's Bermuda vacation residence

Bloomberg's London apartment in Cadogan Square

Bloomberg's North Salem, NY Farm

Bloomberg's Vail, Co "Mountain Haus" condo

Aerial view of Bloomberg's Wellington, FL horse farm & estate

Watt's Indiana home - street view

When you live in a million dollar plus home in a plush neighborhood, your view of the world is just different. You don't have crime at your doorstep and you really don't have to worry about home invasions. And if you are Mr. Bloomberg, you have your own private armed security detail made up of ex-NYPD cops. I don't know if Mr. Bloomberg provides armed security personnel to Mrs. Watts when she travels around the US on behalf of the Demanding Mommies but I wouldn't be surprised if he did.

However, the populist streak in me is offended about being told that I should support gun control for my own good by people who live in a well-protected environment. Moreover, my liberal arts education makes me cringe at the perversion of the word "safety" by those who really mean prohibition and control by it. If you are going to be for gun control, at least be honest about it, like it was when the Brady Campaign was called Handgun Control, Inc.

When it comes to real gun safety, it is the NRA, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and other gun rights organizations AND their members who do the grunt work of promoting gun safety. We are the ones running the Eddie Eagle classes, we are the ones teaching kids how to handle a firearm safely at home and at camp, we are the ones who invest our hard-earned money into safes, locks, and other security devices, and we are the ones providing classes to abused spouses so that they can learn how to protect themselves. And we are doing it every day in everytown at the grassroots level.

So my advice for Mr. Bloomberg and Mrs. Watts is that they should stay in their palatial homes and worry more about the next gallery opening, the next society event, or the next cocktail party than how the rest of us in Everytown America provide for our own self-defense. In other words, they should mind their own damn business and leave us in the real grassroots the hell alone.

UPDATE:  Little did I realize when I wrote that Bloomberg and Watts should worry about the "next gallery opening" that Shannon Watts and her husband John actually owned an art gallery. Thanks to "Dirk Diggler" for pointing it out. The gallery, Watts Fine Arts, was located in Zionsville, Indiana. They said their goal is to be a destination for art collectors around the Midwest. The Watts wanted to bring contemporary masters to the Midwest saying in the press release, "Watts Fine Art represents living American artists who create exceptional paintings, sculpture and photography previously only available on the East and West Coasts and in the American Southwest."

The funniest thing about all of this is not the pretentiousness of it but that I found the press release on bloomberg.com. Go figure.

UPDATE II: After I wrote about the Watts' gallery, I find that it closed its doors in October 2012.

John Watts, owner of Watts Fine Art, said despite several marketing efforts, the store will close in October because business has been slow and the shop isn’t getting enough foot traffic and sales.

“After over three years in business, it became clear to us that our strategy of bringing museum quality national artists to Indianapolis was not a fit for the local market and especially Zionsville,” he said. “We don’t see this changing for a variety of reasons and did not want to compromise on the type of art we sell or the artists we represent.

Obviously, their heathen neighbors in flyover country just didn't appreciate the efforts of the Watts to bring them culture.