Assault rifle

Nothing says “pro-life” like an assault rifle

Do you think a fertilized egg is a human? Are you convinced abortion is murder? Support the righteous souls defending human dignity and the preciousness of life by purchasing an assault rifle.

Personhood Ohio needs some extra cash for a mass mailing to promote (you guessed it) a personhood amendment on the Ohio ballot, but its traditional fundraising tactics aren’t up to the task. Patrick Johnston, the organization’s director, is up for the challenge. Always willing to sacrifice for innocent clumps of cells, Johnston is selling his beloved guns and ammunition to bring in some cash for the campaign.

In a recent fundraising email, Johnston justified his decision to protect fetuses rather than fulfill his duty to shoot things.  RH Reality Check reports that he wrote:

I’m a firm believer that the Second Amendment protects the future of freedom, but not as much as justice for the preborn. See, if God’s against you, your guns won’t help you at all. The shedding of innocent blood will bring God’s wrath on the land – and then you can wave freedom goodbye. So protecting Ohio’s children is more important than securing your right to keep and bear arms.

From his rhetoric, you’d think we could count on Johnston for help during the next round of the post-Newtown gun control push, a legislative effort–hot in Ohio–inspired by the conviction that we should care more about (already born) kids’ lives than the joys of shooting. But Johnston isn’t actually sacrificing one freedom for another: he’s arming the historically violent anti-choice movement in the name of saving lives.

Assault rifle

Washington, DC

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com. During her four years at the site, she wrote about gender violence, reproductive justice, and education equity and ran the site's book review column. She is now a Skadden Fellow at the National Women's Law Center and also serves as the Board Chair of Know Your IX, a national student-led movement to end gender violence, which she co-founded and previously co-directed. Alexandra has written for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Nation, and she is the co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project: 57 Visions of a Wildly Better Future. She has spoken about violence against women and reproductive justice at campuses across the country and on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, ESPN, and NPR.

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com.

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