Kent State Graduate, Kaitlin Bennett, celebrated her recent graduation by posting a photo of her on campus holding an assault rifle, and social media is not having it.
Bennett decided to make a statement after graduating by tweeting a photo of a AR-10 slung over her shoulders and holding a graduation cap with the words “come and take it” on it.
“Now that I have graduated from @Kent State, I can finally arm myself on campus,” she tweeted on Sunday. “I should have been able to do so as a student — especially since 4 unarmed students were shot and killed by the government on this campus.”
Now that I graduated from @KentState, I can finally arm myself on campus. I should have been able to do so as a student- especially since 4 unarmed students were shot and killed by the government on this campus. #CampusCarryNow pic.twitter.com/a91fQH44cq
— Kaitlin Marie (@KaitMarieox) May 13, 2018
According to USA Today, Bennett references the Ohio National Guardsmen who killed four students and injured nine others at the school during a Vietnam War protest in 1970. And as reported by the Washington Post, the college prohibits students, faculty, and staff from carry any “deadly weapons” on campus.
The photo was met with a ton of criticism on social media. “If a person of color was walking around on campus with a gun the whole damn police station would come and shoot them in a second #WhitePrivilege,” one person commented on Twitter, referencing the reality that people of color, especially black men and women, are significantly more likely to be shot and killed by police for even looking like they might have a weapon.
If person of color was walking around campus with a gun the whole damn police station would come and shoot them in a second #WhitePrivilege
— Riley (@Rilezmae) May 15, 2018
Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg retweeted a similar post with the same hashtag “white privilege.” Bennett called the tweet “racist” and mocked the gun-control activist on Twitter for having “tiny arms with Hitler-like bands,” according to the Washington Post. It should be noted that there’s some complicated (but super important!) semantics at play when it comes to talking about whether comments like these could actually be considered “racist.” (But TL;DR: They can’t.)
Bennett made an appearance on Fox News today where she responded even further to the post that, “I wasn’t expecting the blatant racism that’s been thrown at me. They’re saying that I have white privilege for going out on campus with my AR-10. I think that’s very insulting to minorities. I don’t think that anything bad would happen to them.”
Another commented on Bennett’s photo asking, “[sic] what exactly you need a weapon like that for other than a task that would lead to mass destruction. that’s a weapon of war. was this to merely start controversy or are you just an extremely hostile and dangerous person? you shouldn’t be taking so much pride in this.”
may I just ask what exactly you need a weapon like that for other than a task that would lead to mass destruction. that’s a weapon of war. was this to merely start controversy or are you just an extremely hostile and dangerous person? you shouldnt be taking so much pride in this
— nikki (@astrlolgy) May 14, 2018
“The Kent State Massacre would have gone better if those unarmed students had been pointing AR-15s at the National Guard” – a college graduate https://t.co/PQ1E8VIKcU
— Chase Mitchell (@ChaseMit) May 17, 2018
While there’s definitely a lot of polarizing positions in the gun control discourse, it’s definitely important to remember to look at all sides critically and intersectionally.