Kaitlin Bennett Target Of Op-Ed Claiming She's No Activist

(Screenshot via Twitter/Kaitlin Bennett)

Kaitlin Bennett wasn’t a name most of us were familiar with until she strapped on an AR-15 after graduation and walked through her campus, taking photos along the way. She pointed out how, just 24 hours earlier as a student, what she was doing was illegal. Now, with a diploma in hand, she was suddenly trustworthy enough to handle a firearm on a particular patch of real estate.

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The photos went viral, and Bennett became a Second Amendment sensation.

Since then, she’s continued to battle for the Second Amendment, especially on social media. However, her efforts aren’t appreciated by all.

Since May, most of Bennett’s tweets have been controversial and various gun rallies she attends get a lot of attention. Her latest catchphrase has been, “You know I carry, right?” Which was in retaliation to being “threatened” at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania by a liberal protester.

Bennett has also made a name for herself by selling merchandise with her photo and catchphrases on them, all while using the hashtag #2A obsessively.

Kaitlin Bennett isn’t an activist, she’s just a girl who graduated college and is now complaining about anything to stay relevant. This girl is only relevant because half of the people are her supporters – who think she walks on water – and the other half of people despise her.

Activists are people who do everything in their power to try and change the situations they are arguing for. A proper gun activist would be involved with talking to their representatives about pro-gun legislature or empowering people to learn about gun rights and gun safety. Not someone whose only goal in life is to get a rise out of people.

Supporting the second amendment can be done in a non-threatening way, but that isn’t what Bennett is doing. Instead, she is creating videos and merchandise to sell only to support herself. She isn’t actively donating to causes that support the second amendment, she isn’t lobbying in support of gun rights. All she does is go and harass people and get harassed by other people while tweeting about how inept liberals are.

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The problem, however, is that activism takes on many forms, and that includes energizing the base. Bennett’s efforts give people something to rally behind, which leads to things like talking to Congress and raising money for pro-gun groups.

While this writer wants to scream about how Bennett is threatening people, let’s keep in mind that this “threat” which is enclosed in scare quotes to make readers doubt the veracity of the claims, was a man clearly saying that he could rape her if he wanted to.

Now, responding with the phrase “I carry” certainly makes a lot of sense to me. Especially since the guy clearly states he can rape her, which implies somehow that it’s allowed. Further the “believe all women” crowd surrounding them claims he said no such thing despite the video showing he said just that.

Frankly, Bennett isn’t the threatening one, and the pathetic attempt to tone police her or to tell her how she should conduct her activism is beyond pathetic.

People keep trying to neuter what pro-gun activists do, basically telling us to sit down and shut up in public and conduct our activism out of sight, but no. We’re not interested in doing that, for one simple reason. Out of sight is out of mind. If people don’t see us engaging, they don’t see public “complaining” as the writer accuses Bennett of doing, they assume that we simply don’t exist.

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If that happens, people feel isolated and alone and unwilling to make the stands necessary to protect our Constitutional rights. Before long, people will reshape their beliefs to fit in better, and that means the death of what we all hold dear.

So no. Bennett should keep doing what she’s doing, even if some people who agree with her disagree with how she’s going about things. Others love it, and it lets plenty of people know that they’re not alone. Not by a long shot.

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