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March 13, 2018 01:03 PM UTC

Colorado conservatives lash out at students who advocate for gun safety laws or plan to walk out of class tomorrow

  • 15 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Last month, after students from Parkland, Florida began speaking out for gun safety laws in the wake of a massacre at their high school, Denver conservative radio host Randy Corporon went on the attack, calling the students “manipulated damaged children” and “brainwashed Florida teenagers” and accusing “the left” of “seizing on this tragedy and weaponizing these children against the rights of fellow American citizens, and against a political party, and against an organization like the NRA.”

“[The students] have no idea what they are doing,” said KNUS 710-AM Corporon on air Feb. 20. “They’re being manipulated by these leftists. This is the war for our civilization that I talk about.”

“If you listen to these speeches, that are very well read by these students, it’s very difficult for me to believe that these students wrote many of these speeches and statements themselves,” Corporon explains.  “They do not sound like 14-year-olds or 15-year-olds. Or even 16-year-olds or 17-year-olds…”

“It is their teachers. It is the leftists that are in their lives, could be their parents…

“These kids should be with their families, with their friends. They should be going through the mourning process. They shouldn’t be drawn in to this political turmoil, this political whirlwind that’s going on right now, but they’re in it. And we cannot let them seize the day and own the conversation.”

With students across Colorado set to walk out of class tomorrow to support of Florida teenagers and advocate for gun safety laws, I asked Corporon if he stood behind these comments–or if he’d changed his mind, or possibly tempered it, after seeing how the students, many of whom studied debate in school, have organized themselves and expressed their views.

“No, I don’t feel any differently about it than I did at the time, and you can re-quote me and re-affirm what I said,”  Corporon told me, adding that he still opposes tomorrow’s walk out, in part because “we’re just making kids targets with no protection whatsoever.” “If my kids were in school still, they would not be participating in any walk out. That’s for sure.”

 

Multiple Colorado conservatives have lashed out at Wednesday’s planned student walk out.

“My guess is that there are millions of kids like these Billings High students who aren’t being coached or organized by the alt-left,” wrote former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican, on Facebook, referring to students who were vocalizing their plan to stay in school. “At least we can hope there are still teachers out there somewhere who have actually taught kids to think critically.

Colorado state Senate candidate Pat McIntire seems to agree with Tancredo.

“The right to protest and the right to un-infringed gun ownership are both protected by the same Bill of Rights,” wrote McIntire, a Republican, on Facebook. “Which means tomorrow, some individuals will be using their constitutional right to advocate for the removal of someone else’s constitutional right. That doesn’t seem right to me.”

Former Jefferson County School Board member Julie Williams, a well-known Colorado conservative, posted the meme pictured above on Facebook this week, writing that she’s “not okay” with the walk out.

Another Colorado talk radio host and former GOP congressional candidate Jeff Crank wrote on Facebook, “What will school boards around America do when students stage a walkout for prayer if administrators do nothing when they walk out for politics tomorrow? The First Amendment applies to all.”

Corporon would crack down on schools and stop any protests Wednesday.

“Parents with kids in these schools should tell their kids, ‘Under no circumstances do you walk out that door and get into this march. You should be in school.’ And they should be raising holy hell with the school principals and the school administrators,” Corporon said on air Feb. 20.

I told Corporon that I have a teenager at East High, and if I told her not to walk out, she would do it anyway. Do you feel like you can actually exert that kind of control over a teenager with a mind of her own, I asked Corporon.

His response: “Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I didn’t get into power struggles with my kids. We had a real mutual respect. And part of that was, I would always hear them out. But while they were living at my home, decisions that I made applied to them We really never had a problem with it. And they are both very good and independent thinkers. I get teenagers. They are tough.”

In December, Corporon served as the lawyer for State Rep. Lori Saine (R-Firestone), who was arrested after her gun set off alarms at a Denver International Airport.

“Well, I would hope more people would feel sorry for her for forgetting she had [the loaded gun] and being in custody here [in jail] for going on 30 hours,” Corporon told a reporter.

Listen below to excerpts of KNUS 710-AM radio host Randy Corporon, guest hosting for Stephan Tubbs, on Feb. 20.

This post was updated with a comment from Corporon.

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15 thoughts on “Colorado conservatives lash out at students who advocate for gun safety laws or plan to walk out of class tomorrow”

    1. Even in my beet-red neck of the woods, we had ~30% attendance last time there was a massive nationwide student walkout about inaction on responsible gun laws.

      The kids were not and won't be marching in the streets – and half of them have used at least BB guns or hunted at some point in their lives – but they're all hyper connected on social media, and when an "alert" about possible shooters at local schools surfaced, they stayed home that day.

      It was not a protest – but it was a pretty clear message that they don't feel safe at school.

  3. “Which means tomorrow, some individuals will be using their constitutional right to advocate for the removal of someone else’s constitutional right. That doesn’t seem right to me.”

    Bet Pat doesn’t apply that same thought process with every Colorado Springs group he campaigns in front of?

    1. How do you know these kids are being indoctrinated by anyone? Where is your proof? Just because a talk show host makes such allegation doesn't prove anything. Its nothing more than his or her unfounded opinion. Proof sir, please.

      1. Moddy's idea of "proof" is about 80 proof with a dash of juniper berry.  And an olive or two.

        Heavy on the vermouth, please, he’s conservative.

    2. Let's play Which is Actually Indoctrination everybody! Its the fun game where we take a second to actually think about a situation, rather than just parroting what Comrade Trump tweeted about this morning. Today's matchup is:

      Threat of getting shot just for going to class and being a good student

      vs.

      NRA TV

      Ready? Go!

    3. Nutlid.  Do you care about the lives of children who have been born?

      Could you give us a logical argument as to how children deciding to walk out of school to protest the fact that they are not safe to learn in their own schools is indoctrination?

       

      Tell us please.

  5. When members of my generation protested the Viet Nam war, we were told that we were too young, we didn't understand global politics, we were just plain wrong, etc. etc. etc.

    Well guess what? 50 years later, we learned that those most vocal members of my generation were right. And before you think I'm some far left wing, bleeding liberal, I'm a retired military officer with combat service and a Bronze Star.

    To the young people who are taking this strong stand and from my generation to yours – YOU GO! And let us know how us old geezers can help.

    1. Old geezer here, who as a student protested the Vietnam War. We protested not only the immorality and illegality of the war, but for many it was a matter of self preservation – the specter of the draft forcing you to fight for and perhaps dying for a hopeless cause you didn't believe in. The young people protesting today have every right to protest because the reality is they could be the next victim of a madman's bullet.

      To the young people who are taking this strong stand and from my generation to yours – YOU GO! And let us know how us old geezers can help.

      yesyes

  6. Anyone with a notion there is an "un-infringed right" to guns in the Second Amendment needs a remedial civics course or should make an effort to go buy a fully-automatic weapon or a sawed-off shotgun.

    I'd refer them to the Heller decision in 2008 or the follow-up suits resolved at the Circuit Court level (when the Supreme Court did not take the cases) — but reading Samuel Alito's opinion or the majority opinions endorsing state and local controls could be hazardous to their health. Heads exploding could limit their future in politics.

  7. Corporon and his gun-nutter audience obviously believe that Second Amendment rights should "trump" First Amendment rights, and all the other Amendments, of course.

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