By Dean Weingarten
Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)- Moms Demand Action has produced an Internet meme that they believe will further their cause.
They posted the picture shown above. At first glance, it looks a bit intimidating.
That is what it is meant to look like. The angle and cropping has been done to create an effect. All photographers do this to some extent.
It is the story that goes with the photograph that makes the tale.
Here is another photograph that shows the same group in the same pose, but gives a different take on what was going on:
Note the flags and the children posing in front. Note the fellow in the red shirt on the right and the angle that his rifle is at. Note the man in the green shirt just to the left of him, the large bald man behind Mr. Green Shirt and the head peaking above the flag with the green baseball cap on. Compare them to the people in the first photograph. It is clear that they are in the same pose and the same place. The two photographs were just taken from different angles.
On the National Review article, a person who claimed to be there said that one of the Moms Demanding Action took one picture, maybe even asked them to pose (misspelled “post”) in the quote, while another Mom took the first image:
One of the Moms Demanding Action asked us to post (bottom pic) she took in the parking lot. She even took a picture with my phone for me at my request. Her friends inside took the top pic while we were posing for the bottom one. LOL
Shannon Watts says that they only took one picture. Note that in the picture that Shannon claims (the top one) the open carriers are facing away from the restaurant, because Shannon says it was taken from the restaurant.
No, Watts says. “The only one taken by us,” she told me, “was the one where they’re in front of a car crouching down. The moms took it from inside the restaurant.
The author of the National Review article, Charles C. W. Cooke, thinks the Moms might have a reasonable charge of intimidation, but not if they came out and took a picture of the people that they claim were intimidating them.
I disagree. Intimidation has to have a reasonable basis. It is not a subjective notion. If it were, the authorities could always find a way to stifle any dissent, because you can always find someone to claim that they were intimidated by anything, especially any kind of political action.
No jury would find the people posed in the second shot, with flags flying and toddlers on display, to be deliberately intimidating.
The Moms demanding action are the ones attempting to do the intimidating, using the muscle of the State to do it.
c2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten;
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
I think that it is time for “National Media Ethical Exams and Licensing” to gather news. Our lives are so complicated and fast paced that we really need to know truth, not agenda driven propaganda.
The constitutional situation is that there is no right to gather the news, but once someone has a news story you can’t restrain them.
As with obammy, they must use lies to effectively reach the stupid, lazy, and selfish.
Progressives ( read democratic demons ) , cannot function compatibly with any form of honesty because the truth is too damaging to their political agenda , it IS the communist agenda .
THIS is why I carry condoms with me, in case I come across any of these liberal nutbags, I hand them a condom and tell them to go f*ck themselves.
Twist it to suit your agenda…Just like the MSN
Liars lie, it is what they do best.
MOMs demand (infringement) is a cult organization that hates debate or truth. i wished i could get this photo on some of the sites i am trying to argue on
These gun grabbers are scummy liars. A friend posted a list from these reprobates of “school shootings” since New Town to “prove” how prevalent school shootings were. I think there were 17 on the list. I searched the Internet to see what each one was about. Of the 17, only 2 were truly “school shootings” were someone brought a gun into the school to shoot students. And even then, it was a kid that was bullied. The rest were: WORKPLACE SHOOTINGS, were a co-worker, present or past, shot one or more co-workers; ROMANCES GONE BAD, where the shooter went looking… Read more »