Well, Gayle Trotter spoke her mind at yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing gun violence, and good for her! Huffington Post, Slate, and Jezebel all went into attack mode after her testimony, which mainly revolved around how banning so-called assault weapons would be detrimental to women’s safety. Jezebel called her “Palin-esque.” Huffington Post called her testimony “outrageous.” So, off the bat, you know she was probably right given the left-wing reaction (snark).
However, it appears a lot of liberal women seem to hate her because she’s a Senior Fellow at the evil Independent Women’s Forum. Amanda Marcotte of Slate’s Double X blog, who also led the “cyber-lynch mob” against the Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, said that:
The Independent Women’s Forum was founded in 1992 out of a coalition of conservative women organized to support Clarence Thomas in the face of allegations that he sexually harassed Anita Hill. True to those roots, one of their primary functions since then has been to undermine efforts to end sexual abuse and violence against women. Their long-standing opposition to the Violence Against Women Act no doubt contributed to the GOP finding excuses to avoid reauthorizing it. They’ve organized protests of campus fundraising for anti-violence organizations. So who else would you turn to if you’re the gun industry and wanting someone to testify in favor of guns, with an eye towards trying to get women to buy more of your product? This is an era where Rush Limbaugh thinks it’s funny to mock kids who don’t want to die. All bets are off when it comes to defending guns.
Jezebel reiterated the same point.
Aha: Trotter is a Senior Fellow at the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, a nonprofit that describes its mission on its website as: “increasing the number of women who understand and value the benefits of limited government, personal liberty, and free markets,” and “countering those who seek to ever-expand government.” Basically, it seems like Trotter is down to tackle any standard conservative issue, a theory evidenced by the rhetoric she recently employed in a Fox News op-ed; she called Obama “a card-carrying member of the jet-setting liberal class that wants to bargain with the American people to win their votes.” Just cleared my “GOP talking points” bingo card in in one fell swoop!
And so did the Huffington Post.
Despite her strong emphasis on the need to prevent violent crimes against women at home, Trotter is an outspoken opponent of the Violence Against Women Act, a law designed to aid women faced with domestic violence. In 2012, she wrote on the Independent Women’s Forum’s blog that VAWA infringed upon the rights of men who were falsely accused of domestic abuse. The law would also embolden “false accusers,” who would take “needed resources like shelters and legal aid … denying real victims of abuse access to these supports,” she wrote. Trotter and the forum characterized VAWA as “reckless demagoguery.”
So, the IWF is against VAWA. Who cares? We’re talking about gun violence, and the Democratic attempt to heavily curb our Second Amendment rights. However, why did feminists have such a strong reaction to Ms. Trotter? Oh, she said:
Guns make women safer,” Trotter argued, because they eliminate the advantage violent criminals might have in size and strength. “Using a firearm with a magazine holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition, a woman would have a fighting chance even against multiple attackers.
I would also argue that it also keeps society from falling under tyranny. It’s good that 65% of Americans know what the right to bear arms was meant to entail by our Framers. Trotter wrote an op-ed in The Washington Times on January 17, which detailed how it’s “womanly” to support the Second Amendment and self-defense.
Armed women benefit even those who choose not to carry. In jurisdictions with concealed-carry laws, women are less likely to be raped, maimed or murdered than they are in states with stricter gun ownership laws. All women in these states reap the benefits of concealed-carry laws, which dramatically increase the risk that a would-be assailant faces.
[…]
We already have more than 20,000 under-enforced or selectively enforced gun laws on the books. Gun regulation affects only the guns of the law-abiding. Criminals will not be bound by such gestures, especially as we continually fail to prosecute serious gun violations or provide meaningful and consistent penalties for violent felonies using firearms.
She’s out of control! That’s not the right feminist/liberal narrative. Crucify her, but leave Barabbas.
All of this, despite constitutional law professor David Kopel saying at the hearing that the final study from members picked by then-Attorney General Janet Reno showed that the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons ban had abjectly failed in reducing crime. However, since that is a fact, liberals need to get personal.
Marcotte concluded her blog with this statement: “she’s too busy imagining that women might have to fend off the zombie apocalypse to worry about the real dangers that ordinary women face in this country every day.” Jezebel’s Katie J.M. Baker had a similar tone.
Looks like someone wants to be the next Sarah Palin! But could you please leave us ladies out of your defense of Second Amendment rights? That is not a gun in our pocket [,]and we are not happy to see you.
I could show you Code Pink’s twitter timeline, but I don’t give a platform to morons. She was mocked during her testimony. What’s apparently clear is that feminism, despite being advertised as an open forum for all women, is really only for those affiliated with left-wing politics. These are individuals who want abortion funded by taxpayers, their birth control pills funded by taxpayers, and a hyper-regulatory progressive state to keep in all intact. Any deviation from that agenda is considered anti-feminist, anti-woman, and traitorous. They try to adhere to the belief that no one can, or should, define feminism, but are appalled when someone articulates a more conservative vision of it. It’s a totalitarian way of thinking, which is pervasive on the left.
Case in point, if you’re Black, Hispanic, Asian, or part of any minority group and vote Republican, you’re considered a traitor. Does anyone remember the hate congressional candidate Mia Love reaped during the 2012 election cycle?
Trotter gave her opinions about the dangers of more gun laws from Washington. It hamstrings law-abiding citizens, and has de minimis effects on crime. However, that got feminists in a tizzy, and now they’re smearing her as that IWF lady. Joe Scarborough called her a “jackass” this morning on his show for defense of assault weapons, and Twitchy noted the sexist smears coming from proggies on Twitter.
Liberals are engaging in this depraved behavior because their side lost this debate back in 2000, and this exercise in calling her “Palin-esque” is all that they have left.
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