Media Matters Gins up Phony Outrage Over Radio Host Carrying Gun at Costco

David Codrea and Mark Walters on the set of American Trigger Sports Network.

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Prominent pro-gun radio host promotes the dangerous practice of openly carrying firearms where they are explicitly not allowed,” Media Matters practically gasps in a Friday hit piece designed to stir up those who find some kind of weird relevance in acting like they’re indignant. “Mark Walters: ‘I walked out of there … laughing, because I’m carrying a gun in violation of their policy.’”

They were referring to Thursday’s Armed American Radio Daily Defense program when I was Mark’s guest. The segment of our conversation they featured was where Mark and I were discussing where boycotts can work, as demonstrated by Dick’s CEO Ed Stacks’s latest admissions about losing a quarter billion dollars, and where they’ll be negligible and/or can impose more burden on the boycotter than the target.

That they’re talking about us at all shows they have someone listening to us, and that says we’re not only on their radar, they feel compelled to direct negative attention our way. This is the second time in recent months they’ve felt forced to clutch their pearls and treat our on-air chats as something juicy they just can’t wait to hiss to their echo chamber about.

The thing is, if they’re listening, they’re not doing it that closely. Either that or (more likely, come to think of it), accuracy doesn’t matter to them, at least as much as agenda.  From their transcript:

“Because I’ve picked up the phone before and called Costco and said, ‘I was just in your store, laughing and carrying my sidearm in violation of your store policy.’”

The recording they posted on their site clearly states at 1:45:

“I was just in your store lawfully carrying my sidearm in violation of your store policy.” [Emphasis added.]

Walters broke no law. And Media Matters is about the last group that should be feigning outrage. Notably since in 2012, Daily Caller reported “paranoid” Media Matters founder David Brock had bodyguards, and an “executive assistant [who] carried a handgun to public events,” including in Washington, D.C. At the time of the report, that was illegal. Add to that Media Matters reportedly coordinated spin with Eric Holder’s Department of Justice on stories about ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious “gun-walking” plot that resulted in the deaths of two federal agents and an untold number of Mexican nationals.

The Daily Caller report cited employee assessments of Brock’s “volatile and erratic behavior and struggled with mental illness,” and his abusive treatment of employees:

“Meanwhile, Brock became rigid and harsh with his employees — ‘viciously mean,’ in the words of someone who witnessed it. ‘He spent a lot of time ripping up researchers. It was abusive. I never understood why more people didn’t quit.’ One staffer recalls Brock saying he would like to fire a researcher for being physically repugnant. ‘David definitely does not like ugly people.’”

It makes it fair to ask what kind of self-loathing lickspittles would work for such a man, or for Media Matters President Angelo Carusone, who “wrote of ‘japs,’ ‘jewry’ and ‘trannies’.” If there’s one thing “progressives” are consistent with, it’s in-your-face hypocrisy.

The other thing they’re consistent with is a total lack of original ideas – like the documented evil of “socialism” advocated by these geniuses and their even more-pathetic fanboys. Leaving ignorant and childish comments invoking Markley’s Law and equating open carriers with being mass-murderers-in-waiting is hardly new and “forward-thinking.

That’s how you know these people are totalitarians. A true egalitarian would understand that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is the most equitable power-sharing arrangement ever devised.

You can listen to my entire interview with Mark Walters, in context and sans cherry-picking and lies, at the Armed American Radio archive.


About David Codrea:David Codrea

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

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Nam62

I do it all the time! That’s what concealed carry is all about.

Mack

“I was just in your store lawfully carrying …”

That’s all. Great rebuttal to Media Matters.

They do NOT care about the truth.

joefoam

If potential shooters were confronted with a store full of armed civilians they would think twice. If store owners were held personally responsible for denying customers the opportunity to defend themselves the policy would disappear.

Larry

This is why for the life of me I cannot understand how, in a Walmart in El Paso Frickin’ TEXAS, there was apparently not a single armed customer available to take on a mass killing maniac.

Heed the Call-up

Because most law-abiding citizens will not carry where they are told they are not allowed by store policy, regardless of the legality of the policy; either that or just not shop there. I avoid places with that policy, so if a person were to do the El Paso in one of those stores by me, I won’t be there to help.

DMH

They’d be horrified by how many people shop at Costco regularly–gasp–while armed!

JoeUSooner

I did so (shop while concealed-carrying) at Costco, just yesterday. My wife was less-than-amused, but that’s another issue entirely.

In Oklahoma, “no guns” signs do not carry weight-of-law. If a property owner/manager asks a guest/patron (including – or perhaps especially – an armed one) to leave, that person must leave immediately or they may face a trespassing charge [but – absent any other violations – not a firearms-related charge!].

Heed the Call-up

Virginia has a similar law, “no gun” signs do not carry the weight of law, and only if asked to leave and refuse, you could face a misdemeanor trespassing charge.

Tionico

I used to shop at costco while carrying on a regular basis. But I don’t do that anymore. Nope. I let y membership expire, so I can’t go iin there except with a friend who has a card. And if I DO go in there again, I WILL be armed. My friend may or may not be aware, but that’s HIS problem. Not mine

Vince

As a side issue, Dick’s SAID they destroyed the firearms but offered no proof. The IRS WILL require proof as a write off. Let’s see the proof.

joefoam

The object of the game is to make gun ownership abhorrent, to the point that even seeing a weapon is dangerous. When they establish that goal the next one will be a total ban on ownership.

Dubi Loo

Tickled pink to know Armed American Radio is living in their tiny little heads.

SGT_Wombat

Wait! What? Since when can’t you carry in a Costco? I always do. Have to look at the door next time and see if they have the “legal” sticker. All the Jewel-Osco’s in Chicago have an incorrect sticker on the door, at least the one I shop at does.

Tionico

in my state, no business open to the public can legally outlaw armed citizens from carrying inside. Even if they have the prescribed signs, which almost none do, (so I walk right past them as if they were not there, because they carry no more meaning than the blank wall to which they are appended) the worst that can happen is that I get “made” and asked to remove my weapon from their premises. Upon failure or refusal to do so, (I would simply turn, abandon my full chopping cart, and walk out the door, not to return for that… Read more »

Larry

Nah, you miss the weaselicity in play here. Costco doesn’t post. Instead, they have a clause in their membership contract saying that you agree not to carry. Since by and large only members can get into a Costco store, everybody in the store has “volunteered” to be defenseless.

StWayne

Short of entering a local state or federal building, I’m armed. No politician is ever going to turn me into a soft target because my death equates to some abstract statistic that they can manipulate for political gain. Screw them — and the armed bodyguard they rode in on!

Tionico

I used to shop at costco while carrying on a regular basis. But I don’t do that anymore. Nope. I let y membership expire, so I can’t go iin there except with a friend who has a card. And if I DO go in there again, I WILL be armed. My friend may or may not be aware, but that’s HIS problem. Not mine