On Tuesday, Zack Ford, LGBTQ editor of ThinkProgress, tweeted out his thoughts about a story run by the Daily Caller. That story told the tale of a 25-year-old woman accosted by a 19-year-old armed mugger; she had a concealed carry license, and she shot him. The would-be mugger died.
This prompted Ford to lament his death, and tweet, “Conservatives are thrilled a woman with a concealed-carry permit shot and killed a 19-year-old would-be mugger. That’s not how justice works. The penalty for theft is not death, nor do we want it to be.”
This prompted a spasm of outrage across the political spectrum. The woman had a right to defend her own life, and the man risked whatever happened to him when he pulled a gun on a woman. As the NRA’s Dana Loesch tweeted:
Initially, Ford doubled down. Then, after he was ratioed beyond all imagination, he offered an apology:
The apology, in total, reads:
I want to offer both some apologies and clarifications about a poorly-worded tweet I sent about an incident of gun violence. I have since deleted the tweet. First, I believe people have the right to defend themselves. My tweet suggested otherwise, and for that I apologize. My tweet also ignored the context that this took place in a neighborhood with high rates of violence. That’s an experience I don’t have and shouldn’t speak to. For that I also apologize. My tweet suggested that conservative outlets covering this story were happy about a death. That was not my intention, and I apologize. My ideal is for a world in which guns do not have to be a part of anyone’s daily life and in which gun deaths are not a part of our daily news. I stand by this ideal and disagree with the proposition that more guns will make people safer. I’m going to try to be more sensitive in my advocacy in the future. For now, I stand humbled by my mistake and simply ask that others will continue to work with me in good faith to end gun violence for all people.
The apology is merited and well-received.