Targeted by Gun Nuts

[militaryWife]

Targeted by Gun Nuts
After she wrote a gun-control op-ed, the writer got threats and worse: a blogosphere hit job on her murdered brother.
By Jenny Price

'A SPINELESS retard with the character of pond scum." A "whacko," "greedy un-American idiot," "fascist," "whining liberal" and "nasty little gun grabber."

Those are just some of the names I've been called since I published an Op-Ed article in the Washington Post to commemorate the fifth anniversary of my brother's death. After briefly stating that David and his fiancee were shot and killed by the fiancee's mother, who was angry that she had to move out of their L.A. apartment, I went on to argue for a national ban on handguns. The gun control lobby, led by the Brady Campaign, has worked passionately to make guns safer and to regulate their sales. But such measures, I contended, will never significantly reduce the annual U.S. death toll by firearms — 12,000 — because most murderers use legally purchased handguns and know how to operate them safely.

A couple of days later, while procrastinating on a writing assignment, I Googled my article. And so began my strange, weeklong trip through chat rooms on such pro-gun websites as keepandbeararms.com freerepublic.com, packing.org and rightnation.us.


...

So much more at the link.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-price13aug13,0,4661455.story?coll=la-opinion-center

[ceile]

1. Not surprised

at the hatred spewed on those sites.

[-..__...]

5. I can think of at least one (unnamed), DU'er...

who regularly spews the same vitrol, hatred and name calling towards all gun owners.

[Lindacooks]

2. I know it's small comfort, but

you know you're on the right side when you're the one getting death threats.

[militaryWife]

3. seems she was "cyber-stalked" by some freeper named

Plutarch, who thought he might 'prove' she was lying and didn't even have a brother....

seriously mental, they are.

[Howardx]

4. i love the way she called out freerepublic

"In the midst of my detective work, I received an e-mail from a medical doctor who praised my "terrific opinion piece" and asked for "a link to any newspaper accounts." But I quickly determined that Plutarch had sent the e-mail using his real name (I can Google too).

Plutarch found a photograph of me on the Internet and posted it on the freerepublic site. He worked so hard on the case that I was rooting for him to be the guy who finally figured it out. But just after he promised his colleagues that he'd call the L.A. County coroner's office, "DakotaRed" posted a recent newspaper piece about my family that mentioned the murder. The freerepublic discussion stopped abruptly, and the chat rooms on the other pro-gun sites soon moved on as well.

So ended the efforts to prove that David either deserved to be shot to death or that he never existed."


"I can cite statistics, and I can tell you why the right to carry a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun with a 10-shot clip is not guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment. But the paranoia and bone-chilling hatred that spew from such sites as packing.org and freerepublic.com make for an equally — and unusually — effective argument for a ban on handguns."

indeed

[bperci108]

6. Sadly....

The Gun Debate is sickeningly similar to the Abortion Debate: In the case of both issues, the ramparts on both sides are manned by fanatics and extremists.

Clinic blockaders and bombers and cyber-stalking gun fetishists on the right; No-restrictions-of-any-kind-or-for-any-reason abortion rights people and ban-them-all weaponphobes on the left.

Neither side represents reality or the will of the people.

Somewhere in the middle lies the solution to both problems, but since these are such polarizing issues and neither side will compromise, and it could be said, have a fundamentalist-like zeal for their respective positions, we get nowhere fast.

:shrug:

[Demeter]

7. No One Has Ever Accused Pro-Choice People of Extremism

nor died of gunshots through the window, nor bombs in their homes or places of work. Nor been stalked, cyber-stalked, or otherwise victimized.

Such "even-handedness" simply isn't true.

Since I don't follow those in favor of sensible gun laws, I couldn't say the same, but on the other hand, it's never made the press (and you know it would be shouted from the rafters if a gun fancier was hugged to death by a member of Brady's Law supporters).

[bperci108]

9. Perhaps; perhaps not.

But that wasn't the point of my reply.

"Even-handedness" has nothing to do with it, nor was I drawing any sort of moral equivalency.

The point remains that as long as extremists on both sides of the debate on both of those issues (and others equally as divisive), no real progress will be achieved in finding a workable solution agreeable to most of the people most of the time.

[tlsmith1963]

8. Read It Yesterday

And I immediately thought of DU & how people here "do battle" with the freerepublic.com people all the time. I wasn't surprised by the responses she got from those far-Right wackos. I just wonder if the spelling in the comments was bad, as usual.:evilgrin: :rofl:

Tammy