Former Everytown Volunteer Blasts Organization

Kate Ranta was an Everytown Survival Fellow. She’d survived a gunshot wound inflicted by her then husband, and so she’d made it her personal crusade to rid the world of guns. Now, she’s blasting the organization she’d spent so much time and effort with.

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Why?

Because Everytown for Gun Safety is a sponsor of the Fraternal Order of Police conference:

 

The gun violence prevention movement was thrown into utter turmoil this week after survivors and advocates learned that Everytown for Gun Safety has sponsored the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) conference for two out of the past three years (2015 and 2017). Everytown volunteers like me are now leaving the organization in droves, disgusted that our leadership would partner with an organization that has been a steadfast ally of the National Rifle Association and defender of racially-motivated police brutality. For too long, gun control groups like Everytown have implemented top-down organizational models that treat gun violence prevention advocates like servants and gun violence survivors like fundraising fodder, giving us little or no say in our own advocacy. That must end now.

 

See that? Note how she equates the NRA with “racially-motivated” brutality? Now, bear in mind that the FOP hasn’t actually defended racially-motivated anything. They defend police officers who, from time to time, may find themselves accused of racially-motivated police brutality. They would have stood behind those officers regardless of the races involved, only the news media wouldn’t have made such a big deal about them if the alleged victim hadn’t been a minority.

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Let’s also note that the NRA hasn’t uttered a racist word.

None of that matters to Ranta. No, she prefers to take issue with things like sponsorships. It seems Everytown’s involvement wasn’t the only issue for her, however:

Nothing prepared me, however, for the Facebook post I saw this past weekend detailing Everytown’s financial support of the FOP. A friend of mine was looking at FOP’s website when she noticed that Everytown was listed as a sponsor of their upcoming national conference in Nashville — right alongside the NRA, First Tactical, and Beretta — the company that made the handgun my estranged husband shot me with. She immediately informed her online network of gun violence prevention advocates and survivors, including me.

Yeah, the nerve of people who need firearms to do their job accepting sponsorship from a firearms company like Beretta, who Ranta is still clearly holding a grudge against despite them having done nothing legally or morally wrong.

The reality here is that Ranta is a prime example of one of the biggest problems in our country.

She can’t tolerate the idea of anyone supposedly on her side associating with anyone she deems on the other. Everytown isn’t sharing a sponsorship with the NRA. It’s sharing sponsorship with a gun company and another company that makes tactical equipment. You know, stuff police departments need?

Let’s be honest, even if Ranta got her dream and Congress passed her dream legislation, the police would still need that gear. They’d need guns and they’d need tactical equipment.

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But, apparently because both companies will sell to private citizens, they are unworthy of associating with.

Ranta claims she resigned her spot as an Everytown Survivor Fellow after something happened on Facebook.

On Thursday, I resigned as an Everytown Survivor Fellow after being blocked by the Survivor Network Facebook page for voicing my concerns about the sponsorship. My conclusion is that dissenting voices have no place in these organizations. You toe the line or you’re out.

Why do I suspect her “voicing” her concerns was more like the shrill harpy-like screech so common in American politics, and that was why she was blocked?

It doesn’t matter.

Ranta, however, is urging people to leave the Bloomberg-backed group and support smaller groups. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. Ranta and her ilk stand against our civil rights, and it doesn’t matter who they support, we’ll stand against them.

 

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