A video posted to Twitter Wednesday shows Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) harassing Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg. The video was taken in 2018 just weeks after the shooting in Parkland.
The video showing Greene tailing Hogg through D.C. was posted to Twitter by Fred Guttenberg, who is the father of one of the victims of the Parkland shooting. Greene originally posted the video to her YouTube account saying she confronted Hogg because of “his push to lobby lawmakers to trample on our Second Amendment Rights.” Since the Parkland shooting, Hogg has become an activist calling for rational gun restrictions.
Following the then-17 year old boy, who ignores Greene, she asks, “Why are you using kids as a barrier? Do you not know how to defend your stance? Look, I’m an American citizen. I’m a gun owner. I have a concealed carry permit, I carry a gun for protection for myself. And you are using your lobby and the money behind it and the kids to try to take away my Second Amendment rights. You don’t have anything to say for yourself? You can’t defend your stance?”
“You know, if school zones were protected with security guards with guns, there would be no mass shootings at schools. Do you know that? The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun. But yet you’re attacking our Second Amendment. And you have nothing to say. No words,” Greene continues.
The ‘good guy with a gun’ phrase was coined by the NRA directly after the 2012 Newtown Connecticut shooting which left 26 people dead. National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre announced during a press conference that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Since then, LaPierre’s words have been widely used by gun rights lobbyists and lawmakers alike. Publications from the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed in 2017 that as right-to-carry laws increase, violent crime also increases. Higher rates of legal gun ownership also is correlated with higher homicide rates and road rage. Cases where a “good guy with a gun” takes down an attacker are exceedingly rare, according to statistics from the American Public Health Association. The FBI warns that civilians with guns are more likely to be killed by their own firearms than kill an attacker.
David Hogg later reposted the video with his own comments to Greene.
This video is resurfacing at the same time several Facebook messages from Greene have revealed her support for the execution of several prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019.
