By David Codrea
USA – -(Ammoland.com)- “Kim Kardashian posted an impassioned piece about gun control on her website on Friday to mark National Gun Violence Awareness Day,” the UK’s Daily Mail “reported” approvingly. “Like many other celebrities the reality star urged her fans to wear orange in recognition of the movement.”
She was promoting an annual propaganda stunt by Michael Bloomberg’s Astroturf group, Everytown. The object is to solicit and exploit photos of useful idiots who are happy to be swindled out of their rights and intent on dragging everybody else along with them.
As should be expected from Opposite Day “progressives,” what is intended as a show of strength is really a display of weakness. That’s why the well-financed Bloomberg Magical Misery Tour of a few years back not only had to pad their “deaths” list with the names of violent criminals, but even had to keep their tour stops unpublicized lest they end up embarrassingly outnumbered by gun owner rights advocates.
So it should surprise no one that a few years back, the Wear Orange website bragged:
“Millions of Americans are coming together…”
The most recent iteration claims “thousands.” That’s all they could get despite nationwide supportive media coverage and boosts from celebrity social media feeds. Is it any wonder the recent NRA Annual meeting attracted over 80,000 attendees, while the Moms Demand Action counter-protest was measured in dozens?
Kardashian alone claims 53.3M Twitter followers, and that’s a pretty sorry statement on the priorities many people have. What exactly is she famous for again, aside from being famous for exhibitionism and narcissism? It’s reminiscent of a cultural degeneracy indicator I call “The pH Factor.”
“’Right now, there are more guns owned by civilians in this country than in any other country in the world,” Kardashian declares on her website, as if that’s a bad thing. “’In February of this year President Trump actually signed a bill revoking a regulation recommended by President Obama that would have added 75,000 names of people with registered mental illness to a national background check database. This is crazy!”
No, this is due process.
“Is it more important to protect the second amendment than to protect our own children?” she asks, as if the two are mutually exclusive. “We have imposed restrictions on a number of constitutional rights for the sake of protecting people in this country, including freedom of speech and the right to exercise religious beliefs, so why is the second amendment any different?”
“We” have not passed bans on fundamental rights. And contrary to popular misconception, you can yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. “We” have not required prior restraint background checks, licensing and permitting in order to generally exercise personal freedom of speech and worship. True, we have libel laws, copyright laws and the like, but we also have laws against shooting people or ripping off proprietary gunmaker designs. And yeah, if you want to hold a parade or engage in activity that competes with the rights of others, a permit can factor in – but you don’t need one to personally traverse open public spaces.
Still, all Kardashian wants to do is “enact… laws that would help protect innocent Americans from people who should not have access to firearms”:
“I’m not against guns and I’m not against people owning guns. After what happened to me in Paris, I know how important it is to be safe and to have armed security. All of my security team is armed, but they also support stricter gun control laws and believe that we should restrict access to firearms for people with mental illness, anyone previously convicted of a misdemeanor, those who have been subject to a temporary restraining order and those at a higher risk of committing gun violence.”
She has an armed security team. They can go places armed you and I could not, at least not without risking arrest. Naturally her protectors enjoy and profit from their “Only Ones”-like exclusivity, and besides, how long would their employment last if they publicly disagreed with their employer? As for the mental illness and restraining order prohibitions, again, before denying fundamental rights to people who have not been convicted of any crime or adjudicated a danger to themselves or others, due process requirements must first be satisfied.
But the real kicker: She says she’s not against guns but wants to prohibit anyone convicted of a misdemeanor from owning them?
Like husband Kanye West for assaulting a photographer?
Like stepparent Caitlyn Jenner narrowly avoided over a car crash?
Like she herself could have been charged for her role in secretly recording Taylor Swift?
The elites who can afford armed security details aren’t affected by edicts imposed on commoners. Bloomberg himself travels everywhere in Everytown with an armed retinue, including in foreign places where even most police don’t carry guns. And whether she realizes it or not, the gun owner controls she calls for are mere incremental steps toward a monopoly of violence end game.
The ruling class and celebrities have theirs. So what if a few followers and fans get killed off who don’t? They won’t even register on the bottom line.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament.
In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.