With Her Tone-Deaf Tweet, It’s Clear That Shannon Watts Just Can’t Help Herself Anymore

After seeing former president Trump shot on national television, I was glad to see figures like Joe Biden do the (politically) smart thing and call for unity while condemning what was clearly a vile act of political violence. While we all have our differences — sometimes big ones — it makes no sense to resort to violence while there’s still ample opportunity for peaceful resolutions through the ballot box, court action, and other legal, non-lethal means. On that, we should all agree.

Sadly, not everyone sees it that way. Conspiracy theories, broad-brushing, and political opportunism were everywhere in the minutes and hours after Trump was hauled off the stage in Pennsylvania by his Secret Service detail. Even if most people find the speculation and vitriol deeply distasteful, there was plenty of it on social media.

But even among the tweets from “journalists” about making America aim again and from US Congressmen expressing frustration that the assassination attempt would generate “sympathy for the devil,” one particular bit of stupidity from Shannon Watts stood out for its opportunism and its ignorance . . .

You’d think an allegedly politically savvy person would suspect that her side of the political spectrum is likely where the would-be assassin came from. Absent some wild conspiracy to make Trump look good by shooting him in the ear (there was plenty of that out there), it’s very likely that hatred for Trump was the motivation behind the shooting. While not all Democrats or even Trump’s fiercest critics are not to blame for the shooting, minutes after the shooting in which one person died and two more bystanders were seriously wounded wasn’t the time for anyone from that side to be lecturing anybody about gun violence.

The wiser and more politically astute among them did something similar to what Biden did: decrying the violence, calling for unity and expressing concern for Trump’s well-being. Others (which obviously includes Shannon Watts), blundered into the situation as if it was just another mass shooting that they could use to dance in the blood of the victims and use for political advantage.

What Watts was probably hoping nobody would realize is that even if she got her entire wishlist of additional gun rights restrictions in Pennsylvania, it would have made zero difference to a killer looking to make a 150-yard shot with a rifle.

Let’s take Watts’ gripes point by point . . .

• Gun sales are already subject to a background check and Plenty of people willing to engage in political violence have had clean backgrounds.
• A clean background means they can easily get a gun license, even in European licensing systems.
• There’s often no sign at all of trouble ahead of time that would lead to a “red flag” confiscation. Even in cases where shooters have shown clear signs of problems, nothing was done.
• You don’t need an “assault weapon” to assassinate someone, even at 150 yards.
• The shooter only fired a few shots — probably only three — so magazine restrictions would have made no difference whatsoever.
• Someone planning an assassination can easily buy a weapon long before a waiting period, even as long as 10 days.
• Open carry usually applies only to pistols. The Trump shooter used a rifle.
• The shooter wasn’t a child, he was 20 years old. What difference would this have made?
• Stricter local gun laws do virtually nothing to reduce crime.

In other words, literally nothing that Watts was criticizing about Pennsylvania law would have made any difference, let alone prevented last night’s assassination attempt.

Her ignorant tweet does, however, show us is that she’s intellectually weak and has no feel for strategy. She couldn’t see that about an hour after the shooting was a time for her side to lay low and only say nice, anodyne things until much more was known about the shooter and his motives. She just couldn’t see that nothing on her standard gun control wishlist would have done a thing to stop the attack and it made her look like just another political opportunist. She also didn’t wait long enough to see that someone likely agreed with her on those points was the person who pulled the trigger.

Watts’ tone-deaf approach here goes to show that she’s lost the gun control debate…and might not even care any more. For her, gun control is all that matters, and that single-mindedness blinds her to seeing the rest of the chess board.