http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-price13aug13,0,4206961.story?coll=la
I've already sent my short response to Ms. Price at
[email protected]
I'll add it after this intro to her article.
My e-mail to her:
I've already sent my short response to Ms. Price at
[email protected]
I'll add it after this intro to her article.
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, Jenny Price is a freelance writer and research scholar at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women.
August 13, 2006
'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.
I was not surprised by the insults directed at me. I'm familiar with the name-calling in gun control debates: "stupid," "beyond stupid," "liar," "criminal-coddling leftist scumbag," "Los Angeles coward."
I also expected threats: "OK beotch … come get my gun … bullets first."
--snip--
My e-mail to her:
I'm a little puzzled as to the point of your article.
You've taken some name-calling which was written on forums but not necessarily sent to you directly as supporting your point of view?
A scholar would have gone straight for the strongest RKBA-related arguments (whether they dealt with your personal situation or RKBA in general) off-thread or otherwise.
Yours is a cheap attempt to score political points. In my mind, no better than the name-calling you detest.
By the way, for really nasty name-calling, go no further than http://www.democraticunderground.com/
Rick
Phx, Az
