At a Florida Wal-Mart Tuesday, an overzealous “vigilante” noticed a customer enter the store and tuck a gun under his coat. Fearing the worst, 43-year-old Michael Foster leapt into action. He tackled the 62-year-old Clarence Daniels by the entrance, hollering to anyone who would listen.
“He’s got a gun!” Foster reportedly cried, putting the man into a chokehold.
Daniels, eager to settle the confrontation before it escalated, yelled a simple reply: “I have a permit!”
The men were untangled from each other. When Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, they put Foster under arrest and charged him with battery. “Unfortunately, he tackled a guy that was a law-abiding citizen,” said a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. “We understand it’s alarming for people to see other people with guns, but Florida has a large population of concealed weapons permit holders.”
That might have been the end of the story – a good reminder for concealed carry citizens to actually keep their weapons concealed, and a good reminder to others that you should think before you act – but the anti-gunners have to get their jabs in first. Shannon Watts, the irrepressible leader of Moms Demand Action, tweeted her thoughts on the matter:
“Man arrested for tackling man with gun at Walmart,” she said. “Because America.”
Watts, in her zeal to eliminate guns from the country, apparently condones assaulting concealed-carry permit holders with impunity. That wouldn’t be too surprising; the social media pages of Moms Demand Action and other anti-gun groups are often littered with support for this kind of illegal action. There is, for instance, a disturbing amount of support for “SWATting” gun owners if they are seen in public places. These liberals think it’s funny to call the police, report a man with a gun, and see how the mayhem unfolds.
In condemning the arrest, Watts is merely giving us a glimpse of what we can expect from liberal activism over the next few years. These extremist groups have decided that the Constitution doesn’t matter, the laws don’t matter, and arguments on the other side of the issue don’t matter. All that matters is what they believe. And since they realize that the totality of law enforcement is against them, they will just have to use guerrilla-style tactics to carry out their aims.
If that seems like an unwise move – attacking armed citizens – then it’s just another layer to their strategy. What could be better for the cause? You have to throw a few martyrs in the fire to get people to pay attention. Watts could probably fund her organization for a year off the headlines if one of her minions was shot by a law-abiding gun owner.
Watts and her benefactor, Michael Bloomberg, are tired of waiting for the Constitution to wither away. Like President Obama, they’ve decided that America’s rights are flexible depending on how they personally feel about them. And it’s that attitude toward freedom that makes them so dangerous.
