Spitting, Stalking, Rape Threats: How Gun Extremists Target Women

[WilliamPitt]

As Jennifer Longdon steered her wheelchair through the Indianapolis airport on April 25, she thought the roughest part of her trip was over. Earlier that day she'd participated in an emotional press conference with the new group Everytown for Gun Safety, against the backdrop of the National Rifle Association's annual meeting. A mom, gun owner, and Second Amendment supporter, Longdon was paralyzed in 2004 after being shot in her car by unknown assailants, and has since been a vocal advocate for comprehensive background checks and other gun reforms.

As Longdon sat waiting for her flight, a screen in the concourse showed footage of the press conference. A tall, thin man standing nearby stared at Longdon, then back at the screen. Then he walked up to Longdon and spat in her face. No one else blinked.

Longdon was shocked and embarrassed, she told me, but she didn't falter. "Wow, aren't you a big man," she said as he turned and walked away. Instead of calling for security, she wheeled herself to a restroom to clean herself off. She was tired—she lives with constant physical pain—and didn’t want to miss her flight. "Should I have done something more? Quite honestly, in the scheme of things it was a little man and a little moment," she said. "He felt to me like a coward and a bully."

What happened to Longdon in Indianapolis is part of a disturbing pattern. Ever since the Sandy Hook massacre, a small but vocal faction of the gun rights movement has been targeting women who speak up on the issue—whether to propose tighter regulations, educate about the dangers to children, or simply to sell guns with innovative security features. The vicious and often sexually degrading attacks have evolved far beyond online trolling, culminating in severe bullying, harassment, invasion of privacy, and physical aggression. Though vitriol flows from both sides in the gun debate, these menacing tactics have begun to alarm even some entrenched pro-gun conservatives.

The rest: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/05/guns-bullying-open-carry-women-moms-texas

[hlthe2b]

1. "begun to alarm even some entrenched pro-gun conservatives."--

how about entrenched pro-gun DUers? Seems to me they more often react with anger that the story was even posted, rather than express any outrage at the behavior.

Prove me wrong, gungeoneers?

[WilliamPitt]

2. *crickets*

[Electric Monk]

4. gejohnston has replied a couple of times in GC&RKBA, but seems shy about posting in GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172145999#post6

[appal_jack]

18. This cricket awaits your response downthread (#5), nt.

[Electric Monk]

3. Before I saw this thread, I posted this same article in the gungeon

here http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172145999

[hack89]

9. Why would you think for a second that any of us would condone such behavior?

Oh silly me, I forgot, you can't own guns without being a RW racist(and now woman hater too apparently).

[hlthe2b]

11. There are some regulars who give ample reason to believe that.

and that we don't hear from the rest of you--in calling out such attitudes/behaviors has the prospect of sullying many others.

[hack89]

14. Collective guilt is such a progressive attitude

Can't imagine a good progressive using the actions of a few to smear the many - can you?

I am responsible for my words and my actions, not those of any one else. I understand your desperate need to demonize gun owners but that doesn't mean I have to willingly go into that box you want to put me in.

[hlthe2b]

16. When one does not speak out against such terroristic tactics promoted by your pro-gun colleagues

your silence is going to be interpreted--and by many in ways you may not like.

Stamp your feet all you like, but these ugly terroristic tactics are tarring the ENTIRE pro-gun movement whether you believe it fair or not. Don't like it? DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

[hack89]

17. After the first 100 "fuck gun owners" threads

I ignore flame bait threads. Too many assholes (not you of course) too eager to demonstrate their moral superiority by condemning those that disagree.

I will do something - I will not engage in terroristic acts. And I will ignore those that want to stereotype me.

[friendly_iconoclast]

19. I did, last November. We await your apology for the associational fallacy:

In reference to this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172133670#post4


http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172133670#post17

Star Member friendly_iconoclast (10,097 posts)
17. Assholes meet astroturf...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172133670#post39

Star Member friendly_iconoclast (10,097 posts)
39. That tells us next to nothing about MDA, which is what the OP is about

More than one poster (as well as yours truly) have already decried OCT's action for being the assholish thing that it was.

HOWEVER

Since real life is not some Manichean game, OCT bringing the stupid does not in any way make MDA authentically grassroots

[hlthe2b]

21. It is your fellow pro-gunners who owe YOU the apology--for giving pro-gun factions the reputation

referred. It is not the non-gun owner nor the parents, friends, and loved ones of the victims who has given the NRA and its enablers the sorry reputation they hold today. Be mad at them. DO SOMETHING to change the situation.

[friendly_iconoclast]

24. Why should I take your advice about what I 'ought' to do?

As pointed out above, the OP is quite the hypocrite:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024886655

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024958498#post5

You haven't been a bit shy about expressing your opinion of people like me
(or you think are like me- I don't own a gun):

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=hlthe2b+%22gun+owners%22&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com

I've got a better idea- Why don't YOU get angry about the slacktivism
endemic among your antigun 'colleagues'? You lot can't even be arsed to do
much of anything at DU - and this is as friendly a territory as you're
likely to find anywhere:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1167

Category: Justice & Public Safety

Posts: 30 days

Gun Control & RKBA 3,141

Gun Control Reform Activism 273

Facebook "likes" aren't votes- the NRA knows this, people that think
one rich guys' PR campaign will swing elections haven't figured it out yet

[Skittles]

25. yet he wants to tell us what good progressives do and think

[NutmegYankee]

20. "colleagues" What The Fuck?

[Skittles]

27. ...

[hack89]

28. Because one gun owner is an asshole

Last edited Fri May 16, 2014, 08:56 AM - Edit history (1)

Every gun owner is one ? Is your outlook on life always so childish and simplistic? I understand you have a DU persona to live up to but is it really appropriate in every situation? How can I possibly take anything you take seriously?

[friendly_iconoclast]

34. Frothing hatred is just about all the American Gun Control Spring has left

Think about it-

They're not winning at the polls

They're not winning in court

They are currently depending upon the $$ of a power-tripping billionaire
to provide Facebook likes and photo-ops as a substitute for action

Considering how cack-handed the efforts of Bloomies meat puppets have
been so far, one might well wonder if it is some sort of false-flag op on his part;
I doubt that the NRA could have asked for a better set of opponents...

[Skittles]

40. aw you poor thang

keep on loving the NRA - they're your kind of folk

[Skittles]

42. and all you have left is tens of thousands of dead bodies

CONGRATULATIONS - YOU WON

[Skittles]

41. aw you POOR THANG

go to the gun range and vent your frustration, poor baby

[hack89]

43. Frustration? It is a golden age of gun rights

You may not know the feeling after two decades of a failure but you can be assured that frustration is exactly the opposite of how I feel.

If childish insults are the worse things fringe gun controllers like your self have to offer then I have nothing to be frustrated about. Would you feel frustrated in my place?

[Skittles]

44. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

dime a dozen

[hack89]

45. Have a good nap

Maybe you won't be so cranky when you wake up.

[friendly_iconoclast]

47. It drives that lot bonkers when we laugh at them

Shrill, hypocritical moralizing has always elicited that reaction from me.

Any person or group that repeatedly refuses to learn from
history should be laughed at...

[friendly_iconoclast]

46. I should have added "and childish insults" to the title of post #34

Thanks for the reminder!

[Hoyt]

52. You have to possess contempt for others to tote or train to shoot people.

[blueridge3210]

53. I'll be sure to pass that bit of wisdom on to my LEO colleagues. (nt)

[Hoyt]

58. We are not talking about law enforcement. Why is that stupid comment

so common among gun fanciers?

[blueridge3210]

59. You made no distinction between LEO and the general public.

You have to possess contempt for others to tote or train to shoot people.

Why do pro control people make broad brush smear attacks and become hostile when challenged? What is a "gun fancier" by the way?

[Hoyt]

60. Heck, one reason law enforcement needs guns is all the armed up citizens.

[blueridge3210]

61. In my experience it isn't the legal carriers that are the problem.

The threat to LEO's are, generally, from those who cannot legally possess firearms. Still curious about what a "gun fancier" is.

[Hoyt]

63. Where do they get firearms - either steal from legal owners, or owners sell them in back alley,

gun shows, etc., for fistful of cash and no background check.

We'll do it you guys' way for the next decade and there will be another 100 million guns to deal with when we finally wise up like Australia in 1996 and pass restrictions on guns.

Finally, Zimmerman, Dunn, Lanza's mom, Loughner, etc., all said the day before they murdered that they were law-abiding, responsible gun owners.

[hack89]

54. You have to possess contempt for others to believe bigoted broadbrush stereotypes

In any case I do neither so I guess I am off the hook.

[friendly_iconoclast]

32. Got anymore intellectually bankrupt stereotypes for us?

[Skittles]

39. PLENTY!!!!!!!

there's TONS OF THEM

[Brigid]

50. There is something wrong with this picture:

This guy is showing proper trigger discipline.

[derby378]

13. DU has already carried news stories about some of the events in that article, IIRC

I do know we were jumping all over the open-carry demonstration at that Moms Demand Action luncheon in Arlington, TX a few months back. The whole thing smelled of intimidation.

I've got friends who are members of Moms Demand Action, but their website seems to be short on definite plans for gun legislation other than calls for a new background check law. (Again, I gladly supported Toomey/Manchin, and wish it got the Senate vote that it deserved.) With the consolidation of Moms Demand Action with Mayors Against Illegal Guns under the Everytown banner, however, that puts Moms too close to Michael Bloomberg, whose authoritarian banter I have no use for.

There's no need to ask pro-gun DUers if we're angry about these cowardly acts. You already know the answer. But we're not going to hold hands with Bloomberg or the Brady Campaign, either.

[appal_jack]

5. So for one instance of spitting, and one ambush by water gun, all firearm owners are at fault?

Last edited Wed May 21, 2014, 01:41 AM - Edit history (3)

So for one alleged instance of spitting, and one ambush by water gun, all firearm owners are at fault? I haven't spit on anyone since elementary school, I never intend to do so again, and I think that the night time water gun ambush was a reprehensible action that could have resulted in one or more people being killed.

I also think that setting policy by anecdote is a bad idea. The gun control movement seems very attached to this very bad idea.

Of course, there are those people out there who do think that spitting, and even physical violence, is an appropriate response to others' speech. Let's examine this type of ignorant machismo:

Memo to every gomer out there who got fucked over by their high school's failure to teach Civics and never bothered to figure this out on your own:

HEY DICKHEAD.

The First Amendment protects your freedom of speech from one (1) thing: GOVERNMENTAL INTERFERENCE with you speaking your mind.

If you go into a bar and bellow NI*GER NI*GER NI*GER FUCKING NI*GER and get your ass handed to you for it, that's not a Free Speech 1st Amendment issue, you fucking useless hopeless dumbfuck dickwad puddle of tepid Fail, because the bar is NOT THE GOVERNMENT. That's the marketplace working it out.

(snip)

Your right to free speech ends exactly where I can fuck you up for life in public for being a dumbass.

I am not the government, either. Read a book, you clown car.

Who is this violence-prone meathead who would substitute ass-kicking for rational debate? Oh, it's William Rivers Pitt, taken straight from his journal (with the bolded emphasis added).

How doth the shoe fit in this case, Will?

By the way, the OP by Will Pitt from which I copied this quote garnered 238 recs here at DU.

-app

[Electric Monk]

12. Might as well include a link with your call out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024886655

[appal_jack]

15. Thanks.

Thanks. I had read the thread back when it was current, remembered its author, and therefore searched Pitt's Journal on the hunch I'd find it there. I added the recs tally on-edit, after I visited the link in curiosity, but did not think to link to the post itself.

Anyway, I did not participate in that Sterling thread due to the fact that I already knew full-well what the First Amendment says. I actually do think that a corporation (such as the NBA), which is chartered by a state (probably Delaware, but I'm too lazy right now to look it up) has some obligation to respect freedom of speech. Otherwise, you have corporations growing more powerful than states, and eclipsing Constitutional rights in both the private and public spheres (sound familiar?).

On the other hand, these ardent gunners that the MJ article highlights are just individuals. Are they acting stupidly and hatefully? Yes. Are they doing the Second Amendment any favors via their actions? No. Nonetheless, they are each staying well-shy of what Will Pitt states he might do in the face of speech he finds highly disagreeable.

-app

[ileus]

6. They must not take the threats too seriously...

else they'd start carrying their own personal protection device.

[Electric Monk]

7. Really? You're actually siding with the "Don't you wish you had a gun now, bitch?" guy? Wow.

[Logical]

57. Wow, what a rude thing to say. Nt

[Paladin]

62. Pretty much the response I'd expect from you.

If all the "good" gun owners aren't going to raise hell about the terroristic activities of a few lunatics, they lose the right to differentiate themselves from the terrorists and receive more favorable consideration. As far as I'm concerned, your response to this thread puts you right down there with the creeps phoning in the death threats.

[951-Riverside]

8. RW darling and Gun Nut Alex Jones challenged the Dad of a Aurora Colorado shooting victim to a fight

Oct 2013

[img][/img]

[hack89]

10. Alex Jones had a lot of supporters here at DU from 9/11 Truthers

Most abandoned him when he became a Birther.

[mwrguy]

22. Toters being toters

I am shocked.

[Skittles]

23. gun humping cowards

a dime a dozen

[Scootaloo]

26. Well, nobody packs heat unless they're scared of something

Or lots of somethings. Or, I suppose, everything.

[blueridge3210]

30. I'll be sure to tell my LEO colleagues

how scared we are of everything since we "pack heat".

[Scootaloo]

38. Sad thing is, I think you meant to be sarcastic

Cops are just Crips who are scared of jail.

[blueridge3210]

48. Nope, no sarcasm.

We carry on a daily basis and deal with people others would prefer do not exist. Yet we're the "scared" ones; "Crips" who are scared of jail. Maybe you should get a refund on your material; it doesn't seem to be getting much in the way of positive results.

[Enthusiast]

29. K&R from a life long hunter here.

Hunter no longer, however, due to health reasons. I still own guns.

[CrispyQ]

31. The bigger issue here is why men feel it's acceptable to threaten a woman with rape just because

they disagree with her.

Threatening a woman with harm & then reciting her address to show you know where she lives – this is considered manly behavior these days? Gun nuts are not the only ones doing this. You good & decent men need to speak out against this in your daily lives. You not only have more opportunity to educate, some minds will be more open to this message coming from a man rather than a woman.

[friendly_iconoclast]

33. Assholes like that consider guys like me gender traitors

So while in RL I can and do call out that sort of shit (and get away with it due to
my appearance), online I'm just another keyboard commando to them...

[CrispyQ]

35. I think RL matters more.

Good on you for speaking out!

[friendly_iconoclast]

36. Older White Guyness can and *should* be used for good...

..when appropriate (as in cases like these)

[AverageJoe90]

37. You're in good company, TBH. Because I'm like that too.

[friendly_iconoclast]

49. Longdon's story is suspicious- There was no CNN report, for example:

To quote DUer gejohnston:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172145999#post32

"As Longdon sat waiting for her flight, a screen in the concourse showed footage of the press conference. A tall, thin man standing nearby stared at Longdon, then back at the screen. Then he walked up to Longdon and spat in her face. No one else blinked.

Longdon was shocked and embarrassed, she told me, but she didn’t falter. “Wow, aren’t you a big man,” she said as he turned and walked away. Instead of calling for security, she wheeled herself to a restroom to clean herself off. She was tired—she lives with constant physical pain—and didn’t want to miss her flight."

Longdon said she was watching the protest on CNN. There is no record of CNN doing any such story. CNN has no record of the report.
http://www.cnn.com/search/?query=NRA%20everytown%20for%20gun%20safety&sortBy=relevance
https://www.google.com/#q=everytown+for+gun+safety+cnn
http://www.tveyes.com/?gclid=CMaW1sHpuL4CFQcSMwodnVsAeA
MDA's website made no mention of it either
http://everytown.org/in-the-news/

No photos of Longdon in Indianapolis appear on Google or Dogpile image searches.
There *is* one person in a wheelchair at that rally- but it is a child, and their
wheelchair looks nothing like Longdon's (different color).

Furthermore, the photo that Mother Jones has of Longdon shows a cop with headgear that isn't worn by the Indianapolis Police Department, the Marion County Sheriff's department, or the Indiana State Police

Do a GIS for: "Moms Demand Action" Indianapolis on Google or Dogpile
and see for yourself (Google links won't show up correctly, so you'll have to enter it yourself)

http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl.prefer/search/images?q=%20indianapolis%20longdon%20%22moms%20demand%20action%22&fcoid=408&fcop=topnav&fpid=2

http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl.prefer/search/images?q=%20indianapolis%20%22moms%20demand%20action%22&fcoid=408&fcop=topnav&fpid=2

Furthermore, since this spitting incident supposedly happened in a major airport,
where's the security camera footage of this assault?

[friendly_iconoclast]

55. Notice what's *not* said in this tweet by Mark Follman:

https://twitter.com/markfollman

Mark Follman @markfollman · May 15

To the folks ranting that attacks on Jennifer Longdon are a "lie": Phoenix PD confirmed to me, as my story notes. http://mojo.ly/1lpN3XK

[Sunlei]

51. The Airport is now aware of the spitting man? and needs to find the person & have him arrested.

No one should get away with that behavior.

[friendly_iconoclast]

56. It appears there was *no* spitting man in the airport

There was no press conference on CNN-they did not cover the MDA event.

Unless actual evidence is produced by Longdon, Mother Jones, or MDA,
I'd would argue that Longdon invented this incident and Follman swallowed
a hoax hook, line and sinker-along with several bigoted posters on this thread