On September 4, The Indianapolis Star ran a column mocking Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’s current Kroger gun ban campaign.
Breitbart News reported that Moms Demand launched the Kroger campaign on August 18 and renewed efforts on September 4, after Kroger refused to change its policy on firearms.
In the Star column, opinion editor Tim Swarens asked rhetorically, “Of all the issues that Moms Demand could target, is banning firearms in the produce section really a public safety priority?”
He also seized on statistics provided by Moms Demand representative Michele Mueller, who wrote an op-ed for the Cincinnati Enquirer in which she claimed that “at least 16 shootings and demonstrations by gun extremists” have taken place at Kroger locations. Swarens noted that Mueller made this claim without providing any documenting support; she simply threw it out for readers to accept as Gospel.
To be fair, Swarens made clear that he is not a fan of citizens openly carrying AR-15s and similar rifles in public. Yet he admitted that those who do so, while viewed as “extreme,” are “almost all … law-abiding citizens.” He asserted, therefore, that “barring these people from Kroger wouldn’t make you or me any safer while buying a loaf of bread.”
“The lack of real-world impact,” Swarens stated, “doesn’t really matter to the Moms Demand crowd,” however, because their Kroger campaign “is about symbolism, not practical results.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.