Unholy Alliance for Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety
Frederick Clarkson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri Jan 23, 2015 at 11:00:16 PM EST
When I obtained a post from a private email listserv of gun control advocates, I wasn't sure what to do with it. Then I heard that an intense discussion had broken out and that it was spilling out onto social media, and spreading like a western wildfire. Prochoice gun safety advocates were not happy about the promotion of an anti-abortion leader by Everytown for Gun Safety, the national organization founded by billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg.

It all started when Kirsten Moore, Director of Partnerships at Everytown posted an op-ed to a private listserv of gun control advocates.  That was not unusual, but the op-ed was authored by anti-abortion militant Rob Schenck who linked gun safety with the anti-abortion cause in a hair raising fashion and not too subtly invoking 9/11 and the twin towers:

"Twin terrors - Abortion, gunfire"

Moore wanted fellow gun control advocates to know:  

"This piece by Reverend Rob Schenck - a vital new voice in the gun violence prevention movement - will run in tomorrow's print edition of USA Today."

Clearly, Moore and Everytown had been working with Schenck.  Lucy McBath, Everytown's national spokesperson, was not only quoted in the piece, but later posted a pic on Twitter portraying her standing with Schenck at the anti-abortion demonstration in Washington, DC, March for Life. (Held on the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.)

Gun violence rips the moral fabric of our nation. I'm proud to stand with this man of the cloth #IStandForLife pic.twitter.com/91nAEzABSO

-- Lucia Kay McBath (@lucymcbath) January 22, 2015

McBath describes herself this way: "National Spokesperson, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Faith and Community Outreach Organizer, Everytown, Jordan's mom!"  (McBath is the mother of Jordan Davis, who was murdered by a man who was offended by his loud music.)

In his op-ed, Schenck argues that preventing gun violence is a life issue. Fair enough and many a prochoice person would welcome antichoice people to the cause, even though they may disagree on other things.  But Schenck is a strange coalition partner, and does not even support gun safety legislation.

He is an anti-abortion theocrat whose politics were forged in the heady days of Operation Rescue's mob violence against abortion clinics and he is a vocal supporter of one of America's most openly theocratic elected officials, Judge Roy Moore of Alabama. He is also a longtime and well known anti-marriage equality activist.

In his USA Today op-ed, he makes a false equivalence between a few episodes of violence against antiabortion activists, and the three-decade campaign of arsons, bombings, assassinations and in a word, domestic terrorism, that has been waged against abortion providers.

This in turn is at least a doubly false equivalence, as he compares this domestic terrorism to a woman's right to choose. Among other lowlights in Schenck's career, he was arrested for his involvement in trying to give a dead fetus to President Clinton. He was arrested during his support for Roy Moore, who was removed as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for defying a federal court order to take out of the state courthouse the monument to the Ten Commandments he had installed in the courthouse.

While prochoice opponents of gun violence objected to Schenck's views and Everytown's alliance with him in social media, notably on Facebook, Schenck's op-ed also angered the Right over his apparent support for "gun control" -- as noted by Breitbart.com. This led Schenck to issue a statement in which he claimed he does not support gun control, but "self control."

"The recommendation I made at this week's pro-life event was not for government action, but for pro-life Christians to enter the discussion about how we can reduce incidents of murder, suicide, and accidental death due to the misuse of firearms...

The ultimate solution to the crisis of unnecessary gun deaths will not be found in more federal laws, but neither will it be found in having more people pack heat. The solution will be found in the human conscience enlightened by God's law and love for humanity in Christ. That's the message the pro-life community can bring into this important debate."

Schenck wants to have it both ways. Align himself and his anti-abortion agenda with opposition to gun violence while opposing governmental action to prevent gun violence.

Everytown's unwise alliance with Rob Schenck is reminiscent of the Susan G. Komen Foundation's defunding Planned Parenthood's breast cancer prevention programs because some opportunistic Komen officials were antiabortion.

Sometimes common sense just flies out the window.




Display:
I'm on a lot of email lists for different gun safety/sense organizations, but I think I'll be removing myself from Everytown's. There are plenty of others.

by phatkhat on Sat Jan 24, 2015 at 12:55:27 AM EST


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