On Monday, conservative commentator Bethany Mandel wrote a column for The New York Times in which she detailed how she bought a gun to protect her family after years of receiving death threats, followed by months of being attacked by the alt-right for refusing to support Donald Trump for president and then having her family’s address published online by the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer.
That precipitated this response from gun control fanatic Shannon Watts:
Interesting that the New York Times paired this op-ed by a white woman based on her anecdotes of fear and paranoia – instead of actual gun safety data – with a photo of a woman of color… https://t.co/gDayS7DcsX
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 5, 2018
Mandel fired back:
Hi Shannon – my address was published by the Daily Stormer with a target literally put on my back. My local police department still drive by my house several times a day. Not exactly tinfoil hat paranoid over here.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) March 6, 2018
The conversation only got worse from there:
I get doxxed every week. I got a dog. https://t.co/oVPSIZTEDA
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 6, 2018
That’s the amazing thing about America – you can make choices that are comfortable for your family, and I can make mine!
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) March 6, 2018
Because your privilege in feeling that a gun will make you safer is in part because you are white. CDC data actually shows the opposite about gun ownership.
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 6, 2018
The problem with America right now is that people are making gun laws based on emotion, not data.
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 6, 2018
I’m sorry have you not been promoting the Parkland students emotions for the last two weeks? Or are we only allowed to base decisions on certain emotions?
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) March 6, 2018
Their emotions are based in fact. Stronger gun laws save lives. Your emotions rely solely on anecdotes. You’re free to be wrong in a national newspaper, and I’m free to point it out.
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 6, 2018
Can anyone please explain how some emotions are based in fact but other emotions rely on anecdotes? At a loss over here. https://t.co/nDWYAVIYQg
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) March 6, 2018
Then Watts accused Mandel of white privilege despite her background — Mandel’s mother died when she was 16, her father committed suicide when she was 19, and she grew up dirt poor. But according to Watts, Mandel is racist because . . . something. Yes, really:
Bethany: when I was a kid, a man tried to climb in my bedroom window and my mother scared him off with a gun
Shannon Watts: that’s because you’re white pic.twitter.com/zbOl4SFUwu
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) March 6, 2018
So @shannonrwatts is absolutely right — Jewish women like @bethanyshondark defending themselves against Nazis is the textbook definition of white privilege. https://t.co/WksOsifLEZ
— Jerry Dunleavy IV (@JerryDunleavy) March 6, 2018
Holy mother of god. I’ve done it. I have actually managed to find the worst tweet I’ve ever seen. I am actually shocked by what she said here. pic.twitter.com/dPe9EuZwwW
— neontaster(@neontaster) March 6, 2018