It seems that the "grass roots" group is rooted in a more elite class than anyone wants to let on; it would ruin the narrative that everyday people want Big Government to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.
Even the Moms Demand Action page tries to paint a quaint picture of Watts, stating, "Moms Demand Action was founded by stay-at-home mom Shannon Watts on December 15, 2012, in response to the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School." But a shocking report by Newsbusters tells a slightly different story about who Shannon Watts really is.
Who is Shannon Watts?
If you looked at Watts' "About" page on the site, you'd see her described as a stay-at-home mom of five and "former communications executive" before Moms Demand Action was created. In an interview with NPR, Watts is described as an apolitical, laundry-folding mom who just wants to protect kids from harm -- but as a PR executive for some of the nation's most lucrative companies, Watts clearly knows how to play the public image card. Indeed, the history of Shannon Watts is far different than the story painted by the media.
As Newsbusters reports:
A donor search at Open Secrets for the Utterly Non-Political Mom Folding Laundry finds $1,750 in donations in 2012 to Barack Obama for President, and $250 to Rob Zerban, the Democrat running against Rep. Paul Ryan in Wisconsin. In 2011, she sent $500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In 2010, there was $500 to the DNC Services Corp., and $1,000 for EMILY’s List, which only funds female pro-abortion Democrats.
Estimates indicate Watts has made around $10,000 in political donations, and about one-third of those sums were given before the Sandy Hook school shooting. Yet, NPR reportedly described Watts as having "never done anything political before." Beyond the fact that Watts is not the "accidental activist" she's portrayed as being, digging a little deeper shows there are even more red flags to behold.
Shannon Watts used to go by the surname "Troughton" and only recently changed her name. She began her career in 1993, as a public affairs officer for Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan (D), the Missouri House of Representatives, and the Missouri Department of Economic Development. In 1998, she became the Vice President of Corporate and Public Affairs at Fleishman-Hillard, a top public relations company.
In 2001, Watts became Director of Global and Public Affairs for Monsanto, where she reportedly "led external initiatives designed to generate positive, proactive media coverage of the company’s agriculture biotechnology products." Monsanto is known for their heavy-handed public relations campaigns, often aimed at smearing real science and hiding the truth about their toxic products.
Between 2004 and 2006, Watts worked as a communications director for GE, and later became Vice President of Corporate Communications at WellPoint, a health insurance company.
Watts continued advancing along her career path until mid-2012. So much for the "stay-at-home mom."
"Like drips on a rock"
The Monsanto executive-turned-activist is bent on making gun control happen -- and Moms Demand Action has the funds to keep pressing the issue for as long as they'd like. Writing for Breitbart, AWR Hawkins posits that increasing financial support for Moms Demand Action seems to be giving Watts and her team confidence that one day, they may just wear down Second Amendment supporters enough to "win."
"It’s like drips on a rock, but that is ultimately how change gets made," Watts stated recently. Whether or not Watts wants those changes she's petitioning for to apply to herself and other members of the "elite" remains to be seen. But, the allegedly anti-gun activist was recently spotted walking around a local park with some friends -- and a few armed guards.
Nothing says "hypocrisy" like a gun control activist walking around with a few big guys with "scary" guns for safety. It's fine when Watts wants to protect herself with a firearm, but heaven forbid regular citizens do the same.
There are steep suspicions that Watts didn't just form Moms Demand Action overnight in response to the Sandy Hook Shootings. As Freedom Outpost argues, "[A] veteran lefty public-relations expert, who donated to the Obama campaign seven times, starting a well-organized, well-funded anti-gun group sounds a lot more likely than does a Susie homemaker nobody, who claims she started her anti-gun campaign with little more than a Facebook page."
With everything else Watts has lied about to increase public appeal, it's hard not to wonder: What else is she lying about? Perhaps Moms Demand Action wasn't born out of upset in response to the Sandy Hook shooting at all. Perhaps it's just another front group, pushing the gun control narrative for a more clandestine purpose. Who knows?
See more coverage of stories about threats to the second amendment at Guns.news.
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