Allison Plattsmier is a 22-year-old Vanderbilt graduate student whose work opposing campus carry gained her an invitation to the White House to talk about gun control. When we commented on an article on her in The Tennessean, she took exception:
“The statement about banning assault weapons, magazines, background checks, etc. was taken out of context when I was stating solutions that other people have proposed. … My quote was ‘some people have said ... I think we should ban assault rifles ...’ etc.” We offered to publish a correction if she could access a recording of the interview; regretfully, she could not.
Plattsmier also told us, “I have been trying to educate myself on both sides of this argument and would love to hear your thoughts about what you think are viable solutions to the issue at hand. I am really trying to offer solutions from both sides during my [White House] visit, but as I am not a gun owner, I am unsure the best way to represent.” We welcomed such a conversation, and provided our contact info to her (the complete transcript of our conversation is here). That’s the last we heard from Plattmier.
On Oct. 25, the Vanderbilt Hustler reported on her White House junket. About campus carry, she was quoted as saying, “We could potentially see an increase in armed sexual assaults and crimes of passion. School should be a safe place for people to come and learn about their passion. Adding more guns to the situation will only make students more scared, and it could really hinder their performance.”
While there, Plattsmier met up with “Cocks Not Glocks” pseudo-activists from the University of Texas—young women equally clueless about the ongoing, important gun rights debate, but who were also honored by Obama with a White House invitation.
We asked campus carry specialist and frequent America’s 1st Freedom contributor Antonia Okafor to respond:
The very same weekend that America was reeling from the released tapes of Donald Trump and “Access Hollywood” star Billy Bush, the Obama administration embraced the truly obscene by inviting anti-gun/anti-campus-concealed-carry activists to the White House.As for the four young women that make up Cocks Not Glocks, the only work they have done is to make college students, and millennials in general, a laughingstock across America.
In August, a group of marketing students conducted an anti-campus-carry protest that included waving over 4,500 sex toys on the University of Texas in Austin campus. The name of the group and protest was #CocksNotGlocks. They were protesting a newly implemented law that allows law-abiding citizens with permits to carry concealed firearms the right to do so into any public university building. My work as a campus-carry activist includes my work with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, the group that lobbied and helped pass the bill in 2015. In the nearly two years that I worked with this group, my opposition in Texas was essentially professors, administrators, and George Soros- and Michael Bloomberg-funded lobby groups.
As for the four young women that make up Cocks Not Glocks, the only work they have done is to make college students, and millennials in general, a laughingstock across America. But the Obama administration doesn’t see it that way. Political stunts and antics are held with higher esteem than actual public policy influencers—those who put in the blood, sweat and tears to ensure that students have the same rights guaranteed to us under the Second Amendment, just like our off-campus peers. While Obama was holding press conferences shaming Donald Trump for private, lewd comments made public, he was proudly and unashamedly condoning the fact that by inviting this pseudo-activist group to the White House, the words “cock” and “dildo” had been publicly used in the White House for the very first time.
Revolutionary.
The same line of thinking goes for fellow White House invitee Allison Plattsmier, a self proclaimed anti-campus carry activist from Nashville, Tenn. Plattsmier is a grad student who lumps in her anti-gun advocacy with myriad other volunteer activities. Having an opinion on policy, however, does not make her an activist. It also does not warrant the White House honoring these individuals in lieu of those who have worked tirelessly on the issue.
Stuart Dedmon, midwest regional director of Students for Concealed Carry and 2015 youth leadership award recipient, played an integral part in getting a bill known as “professor carry” passed. The law allows professors, full-time staff and administrators the option to carry concealed firearms on campus in Tennessee. Dedmon is also frustrated with so-called activists who essentially use these opportunities as resume builders.
“As someone who has dedicated countless hours studying the facts regarding campus carry and advancing the cause through activism, it's disappointing to see my peers on the opposing side of the debate rewarded with visits to the White House for ignoring the facts and basing their stance on emotional rhetoric,” Dedmon told me. “As scholars, we should be expected to consider facts when taking a stance on any social issue, not just gun rights.”
Before you credit my response to these White House invitations to spiteful jealously, please know this: I am not surprised that President Obama, a “progressive” Democrat, would honor those on the gun-control side over those in the gun-rights movement. What is troubling is that these individuals, most of whom have openly said they not only don’t know the issue or policy behind what they are passionately opposing, are also not gun owners themselves. Some have bragged that they do not see the need to ever own or shoot a gun. But they have no problem making it harder for everyone else to do so.
I’ve seen this time and time again. It is intellectually dishonest, and frankly it makes our side—the side based on facts and reason, not emotional hot air—the side that continues to win in this important debate.
You won’t see us being honored in the media or in the White House anytime soon, but you will continue to see campus-carry legislation passed.
That’s a solid victory in my eyes.Antonia Okafor is the former southwest regional director for Students for Concealed Carry and a frequent contributor to America’s 1st Freedom.
