Here’s what Moms Demand Action tweeted:
Demand Action
@DemandAction 12 Nov
How the gun lobby restricts the First Amendment to protect their extreme view of the Second Amendment: http://maig.us/HPEs4l
The link is The Slate article, Guns & Ammo Editor’s Hope For “Healthy Exchange of Ideas” Costs Him His Job.
It’s not surprising that MDA misunderstands the Second Amendment, yet you’d think they would know what the First Amendment is all about.
The “gun lobby” restricted nothing, I am not a registered lobbyist and neither are the thousands of gun owners who used their First Amendment right to complain about Dick Metcalf’s anti-gun column on Guns & Ammo, and to let them know they were cancelling their subscription.
Then two gun manufacturers also exercised their First Amendment to let the magazine know they were displeased.
There was no restriction of the First Amendment because it wasn’t government that fired Dick Metcalf.
There’s no right to be an Editor at Guns & Ammo or to publish a column. Even a simple letters to the editor are printed and sometimes edited for length at the discretion of the publication.
Free speech is a right, being published is a privilege. I’m extremely proud that Chattanoogan.com published my article: “Chattanooga Times should secede from the Free Press,” but if they reject what I send them tomorrow, that’s their prerogative, not mine.
