The NRA Launches Sexist Attack on Moms Demand Action
Back in May, Mark Follman of Mother Jones wrote a scathing piece describing the way fringe gun rights groups like Open Carry Texas target female gun control advocates. You'd think that the National Rifle Association, which holds itself out as a more professional organization than these fringe groups, would be hesitant to court allegations of sexism by singling out women for attack. But, no.
See the latest issue of the NRA magazine America's 1st Freedom, which features an attempted exposé of Shannon Watts, the leader of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. Written by Dave Kopel, the piece starts with the accusation that Watts is a "stand-in, stay-at-home" frontwoman for Michael Bloomberg, even though Bloomberg is no shrinking violet on this issue. But Kopel's main argument against Watts is that she is a phony for presenting herself as a stay-at-home mom, when she actually performs paid work:
Had Watts “been a stay-at-home mom” for the previous five years? Not exactly. In December 2008, Watts announced the formation of her public relations firm, VoxPop Public Relations, including an impressive list of clients for which she was already working. The registered address for her PR firm was a residence, so presumably she was running her pr firm out of her house. Her children were all well into school-age or older, so it’s likely that she had plenty of time to run her business during the day.
While Kopel hastens to add that there's "nothing wrong" with being a paid professional (thanks), he then proceeds to cast doubt on his own assertion by painting Watts' career in the worst possible light, complaining that her anti-gun advocacy helped her achieve "the dream of every public relations professional—landing a fabulously rich client," Michael Bloomberg's "gun prohibition empire." See, she's a gold-digger: "She landed the 16th-richest man in the world (according to Forbes magazine): Michael Bloomberg and his $32 billion." Something tells me that Watts' work with Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety organization does not actually entitle her to Bloomberg's billions.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/08/26/the_nra_attacks_shannon_watts_of_moms_demand_action.html
= new reply since forum marked as read