Prior to the NRA convention, the NRA PR team works with Fox News and their home grown trolls to intimidate and discredit gun-control activists. A coordinated attack is underway right now.
Amanda Gailey, left, and Catherine Koebel, co-founders of The Great American Gun Melt, protest outside NRA lobbyist Chris Cox’s home in Alexandria.
My friend Amanda Gailey protested outside of NRA lobbyist Chris Cox’s home and his wife’s business, Ivy Lane Linens & Living in Old Town Alexandria Virginia, a few weeks ago. I wrote about it here, NRA Fears Women Brandishing Posters Protest Gun-Lobbyist Cox
Both protests were peaceful and legal. The Coxs called the police at both locations. The police made it clear the protesters did nothing wrong, however a woman identified as Cox’s wife did assault Catherine Koebel, one of the two protesters at the business, when she snatched the video recording phone from her hand and threw it on the ground. Catherine Koebel declined to press charges
The WaPo did a story about this. Protesters target NRA lobbyist’s home and wife’s business.
Tucker Carlson did a story about it during his ‘The Aggressive Left” segment under the heading “Campus Craziness.”
Tucker was very concerned about people going to Cox’s house to protest. He questioned Jason Nichols, a University of Maryland professor about it asking,“Is it okay, if you decide you disagree with someone you can show up at his house and scream at his wife and kids?”
NOTE: Gailey and her fellow protester did not scream at Cox’s wife and kids. I have a copy of the entire protest recorded as evidence. They also were on a busy public intersection. (Watch the last section of the video below. WARNING not polite language, photo of child who was shot.)
Tucker is really concerned about what is “normal” and asked, “Do decent people do this?” He states he believes that this crosses over into, “indefensible behavior.”
Tucker says doing this is not okay. “It’s disgusting and wrong.” Those are his words. If you have the stomach for it, watch the first part of his smarmy, annoying, disingenuous segment.
Fox Intimidation
Today it appears Carlson sent a producer to Lincoln Nebraska in full Jesse Watters, James O’Keefe mode. The producer and a cameraman showed up in a truck outside Gailey’s home, followed her to her daughter’s middle school and then confronted her. He didn’t give his full name, or the program he was working for, just Charles.
Charles Couger, a producer for Tucker Carlson on Fox News
He starts with, “All we want to know is whether you’re comfortable…”
Meanwhile Gailey starts recording, identifies the truck and asks the name of the producer and the station he is with. He declines to say it on camera for Gailey.
“Are you okay with people confronting you about your political beliefs in your private life like you did to Chris Cox?”
Gailey gives her message to Cox, reiterating the point of her protest, that Cox makes his money off of the death and misery of Americans. He can live in a fancy neighborhood because he sucks his wealth out of dead children’s bodies. Every bullet from every gun in every dead baby in this country profits Chris Cox.
[BTW I have the full video from Gailey’s POV and it is available for Rachel Maddow’s producers. Especially if Carlson does a segment on this…]
Tucker said in his “Campus Craziness” segment that standing on a street corner with a sign outside someone’s house is “a threat.”
Carlson’s comment mirrors the language of the NRA attorney for the Coxes who said, “These coordinated tactics have crossed the line of civility and human decency.”
GOP Intimidation
The producer also asks Gailey about the three state senators trying to take her on. (Nebraska politicians Holloran, Erdman and Brewer are attacking Gailey because she and her group, Nebraskans Against Gun Violence, blocked NRA legislation.)
Gailey was not doing anything wrong using her 1st Amendment rights, but the politicians think she should be more civil. They believe professors should model what they call “right behavior” propriety, civility and respect for opposing viewpoints, which they state “used to be the hallmarks of a good education at UNL.” (Link)
Also Gov. Pete Ricketts rescinded Gailey’s “Admiral in the Nebraska Navy” award after Gailey testified against a bill the governor supported. Nebraska is a landlocked state, it’s a joke award given to people who are nominated by friends. Ricketts is speaking at the NRA convention this Friday.
The coordination that the NRA complains about and the threats that they talk about are classic projection. They pitched the idea to Carlson, who sent a producer out with the premise, “Liberal snowflakes don’t like it when THEY are protested! Make the liberal snowflakes cry!” This is a variation of the tactic used by James O’Keefe and his people or the Koch-funded conservative group Turning Point USA people (who have actively gone after Gailey and other professors at UNL.) They try to turn the tables on liberals with false equivalencies, “You liberals say you are tolerant but you won’t tolerate my hate speech!”
Assault Rifles vs Assault Posters
Two days ago in Phoenix there was a “die in” calling for better gun laws in Arizona. A group called Patriot Movement AZ (or Arizona Patriots) protested the students and teachers by shouting at them while open carrying handguns on their hips.
Jennifer Harrison, of member of Patriot Movement Arizona, who shouted at children at a protest in Phoenix while carrying a gun.
Another photo of Jennifer Harrison and Arizona Patriots with Arizona Governor Doug Ducey
There is a huge qualitative difference between an armed protest and a paper one. In Arizona they are both legal. Does Tucker see these armed protests as normal and what “decent people do?”
When the Maryland professor addressed the question of protesters going to the Coxs’ house he said, “I’m assuming he’s armed.” referring to Cox. Carson recoiled in shock, “It’s not a matter about being armed. I hope we aren’t suggesting it’s going to get to gun play. I’m asking a philosophical question.” (BTW, armed security were both at the house and at the business.)
Yeah right. This is a classic NRA open carry gun toter “philosophical” question, “I’m just showing off my 2nd Amendment right on my hip. What are you afraid of? The gun is just an inanimate object. It’s all legal.” But of course armed protesters ARE suggesting that it might get to gun play, and they will “win the discussion” because of it.
One of the ways that the NRA uses its power is to unleash its fan base against individuals who oppose them. They especially love to go after women. They like to tell them just how afraid they should be if they don’t carry guns. And then some show up with their guns as proof that it’s a scary world out there.
Patriot Movement, AZ Note the alleged White Power hand sign
Keep an eye out for individuals like this who show up to peaceful protests armed. It turns out that for some of them it is NOT legal for them to carry.
As we have been seeing in Florida and other states, people who shouldn’t legally have guns, sometimes still do. The system just hasn’t caught up recording and submitting their mental health issues. Maybe their father gave them back their guns that they weren’t supposed to have. Check up on open carry people to see if they should be carrying.
I’m glad Gailey recorded this because it can be used now in advance to counter the NRA/Fox/GOP narrative. This is the method that I advise people to use when they are up against the O’Keefe’s and Turning Point USA trolls.
However, EVEN when the whole video is available to disprove the accusations, the politicians, NRA trolls and Fox RW media still keep pushing their lies and their desired narrative. That is why I always suggest to my activist friends “ABR. Always Be Recording!” Video can be useful in the future. I know, I’m from it!
