By: Ashleigh Meyer
Iowa State Senator Claire Celsi retweeted what appears to be a random Twitter user’s comments on Michigan’s consideration to ban firearms inside the state capitol building. Her response: “Ya think? I’d say gun-toting protestors totally abused their privilege.”
Their “privilege.”
The comments come after a peaceful group of protestors gathered at the Michigan state capitol building to protest Gov. Whitmer’s stay-at-home orders. Some of the protestors LEGALLY open carried firearms into the capitol building, and now Democratic legislators, after recovering from their panic attacks at the sight of a gun, are moving to restrict firearms inside. Even though nothing happened.
The internet responded, as it does, quickly and efficiently, to help clear up the senator’s confusion. Celsi received many response tweets with a variety of backlash, including photos of the peaceful rally and a host of questions. One Twitter user asked, “[D]o Iowa state senators take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution, or was an amendment passed allowing them to ignore it?”
Celsi’s apparent confusion between the word “privilege” and the word “right” seems to be a common struggle among her contemporaries. A quick glance at the Constitution should solve this problem, as it is not called the “Bill of Privileges.”
Celsi has found herself in hot water with gun owners before, over yet another Twitter battle, this time in the summer of 2019. In that thread, she threatened supporters of the Second Amendment, saying they needed to “be nice” to her, or she would take their rights away. Then, Celsi promptly blocked several individuals from her Twitter page, a move that President Trump was forced to correct when a federal court deemed it unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment.
Celsi has been sued over the action, but it appears she will not be held to the same standard. Now that is a privilege.
Ashleigh Meyer is a professional writer and Conservative political journalist from south western Virginia.