UPDATED
A trio of university professors was the subject of a Friday Washington Post story detailing the “more aggressive” and “personal” tactics of modern gun control advocates.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Patricia Hill, a sociology researcher, allegedly doused National Rifle Association lobbyist Chris Cox’s home twice with “fake blood” — last October and again in January. She was charged with misdemeanor property destruction after the latter incident.
Hill’s UNL colleague Amanda Gailey and Catherine Koebel of William & Mary have taken a more “at the line but not crossing it” approach. They’ve been protesting outside Cox’s Alexandria, Virginia home as well as handing out flyers at his wife’s business.
Gailey and Koebel met via “gun control activist circles” and “connected over agreement that the movement has been too timid.” They now refer to themselves as “The Great American Gun Melt” and want anti-gun activism to utilize “more radical action.”
The profs justify their behavior by deeming their targets “truly indefensible human beings.”
For example, Gailey said “People need to stop treating these predatory, sick people [the Cox family] like they’re just a neighbor.”
Such from Gailey should come as little surprise; she was once involved in an incident at UNL where a colleague of hers was caught on video bullying a member of a campus conservative group.
[Gailey] thinks protests at NRA headquarters could be easily ignored by the Cox’s. “It doesn’t seem to have gotten under their skin the way this has,” [she] said.
Still, Gailey and Koebel, a biologist, say they did nothing illegal or threatening in the roughly four hours they spent protesting in Old Town Alexandria last Thursday, first at the store and then at the Cox family home. The design store is in an alley, and the protesters said they remained about a hundred feet away on the main street. At the Cox home, they remained on the sidewalk. Gailey said she did not invite any other activists because she wanted to make sure the protest was calm and legal.
Patricia Hill crossed that line, according to police, by spraying the red substance on the Cox’s house […]
Gailey and Koebel say police confirmed they were breaking no laws when they handed out fliers calling on residents to boycott Courtney Cox’s business and held signs outside her family’s home.
Koebel filed a police complaint against Courtney Cox, who she says came outside the store and told them to leave. When Koebel tried to record the encounter, she said Cox knocked the phone out of her hand, scratching her in the process.
Gailey and Koebel claim the reaction to their activism from passers-by has been “largely positive,” and they say they plan on coming back with more people.
The duo argue their demonstrations are, “by definition, less threatening” than pro-gun protests merely due to the fact they’re anti-gun.
“If I made [Cox] uncomfortable at his house, too bad, he deserves it,” Koebel said. “I felt unsafe in my home because of his product.”
UPDATE: The Facebook post from Koebel has been added to the original article.
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