BREAKING: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Supported Conspiracy Theory About Mass Shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; Everytown Responds
1.19.2021
NEW YORK – Everytown for Gun Safety, and Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, Everytown’s grassroots networks, released the following statements in response to revelations that “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) agreed with a 2018 Facebook comment that the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was actually a ‘false flag’ planned event.” In a separate 2018 post, Rep. Greene claimed: “I am told that Nancy Pelosi tells Hillary Clinton several times a month that ‘we need another school shooting’ in order to persuade the public to want strict gun control.”
“Rep. Greene owes the survivors of the Parkland tragedy a retraction and an apology for promoting these absurd and deeply hurtful conspiracy theories,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “The last thing gun violence survivors need is a so-called public servant with a track record of spinning paranoid fantasies about a gun violence crisis that claims more than 100 American lives every day.”
“This is beyond the pale, even for Congress’s most unabashed conspiracy theorist and gun extremist,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. “Chaos agents who spread false and dangerous disinformation have no place in our country, let alone in the halls of Congress.”
“I didn’t think this was possible, but somehow, Rep. Greene has sunk to yet another low in her gun fanaticism and radical extremism,” said Sari Kaufman, a volunteer leader with Students Demand Action and a member of the Everytown Survivor Network who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “Her callous, hateful comments are a vile insult to survivors like myself, our families, and everyone touched by gun violence. Shame on her.”
Ahead of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, Rep. Greene used language that further incited the violence at the Capitol by referring to the day as Republicans’ “1776 moment.”A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center highlighted dangerous ties between Rep. Greene and several extremist organizations, such as the Georgia Three Percent Security Force Intel Militia, Gun Owners of America and anti-LGBTQ hate groups Mass Resistance and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). According to the report, Rep. Greene has a “cozy relationship… with the far-right anti government militia movement” and a “long-standing friendship… [with] antigovernment militia leader Chris Hill,” the leader of the Georgia Three Percent Security Force.
According to Media Matters for America, Rep. Greene has “expressed support for QAnon, the violence-linked conspiracy theory that the FBI has labeled a potential domestic terror threat. She has also pushed conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks, the killing of Democratic staffer Seth Rich, and Pizzagate, among others.” After she won her primary, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent. Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up – a real WINNER!”
Read the full report here.
More than 1,500 people in Georgia die every year from gun violence. More information on gun violence in Georgia is available here, and more information on gun violence in the U.S. is available here.