Pro-gun pundit Dana Loesch suggests Democrats want to massacre gun owners like the US Army did at Wounded Knee

Special Programs Guns & Public Safety

Written by Cydney Hargis

Published

Pro-gun commentator Dana Loesch referenced a 19th century massacre of Native Americans to imply the U.S. government would slaughter its own citizens in order to enforce an assault weapons ban. 

During the third Democratic presidential primary debate on September 12, candidate Beto O’Rourke doubled down on his proposed assault weapons ban and mandatory buyback program, telling ABC News host and debate moderator David Muir: “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47. We’re not going to allow it to be used against our fellow Americans anymore.” The remark drew criticism from Republican Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain, who threatened O’Rourke after his debate appearance in a since-deleted tweeted that read, “My AR is ready for you Robert Francis.” 

Loesch, a former National Rifle Association spokesperson, appeared on Fox News the following night to denounce the proposed policies and accuse O’Rourke of making “a threat” to “forcibly steal [gunowners’] lawfully owned and responsibly used property.” Loesch also referenced the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which she said was “one of the earliest attempts at mass confiscation of firearms in the United States.” “So I don’t know if that’s what Democrats and Beto O’Rourke are trying to move us towards,” she said.

From the September 13 edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

BRIAN KILMEADE (HOST): Dana, [O’Rourke] made that statement last night, the T-shirt is ready to go. You mentioned -- Briscoe just mentioned he had flip-flopped. I had forgotten that from his Senate run. Where is this conversation heading? 

DANA LOESCH: Well -- and Brian, I'm so glad that you are talking about this. And yeah, everybody knows Briscoe Cain’s name now. The T-shirt, I am absolutely amazed that a lawmaker, that someone running for the highest office in the land, would actually try to raise money off of a threat to the public. And I want to be really clear about this. When you tell law-abiding Americans that you are going to forcibly steal their lawfully owned and responsibly used property, that’s a threat. And saying that “No, you are not, I want to be able to defend myself” in return, that is not a threat. I mean, telling someone like Beto O'Rourke has been doing --, that's a threat of promised action. And I mean, I want to take everyone back to one of the earliest attempts at mass confiscation of firearms in the United States. And that was Wounded Knee. So I don't know if that's what Democrats and Beto O'Rourke are trying to move us towards. I sincerely hope not. I hope they respect the law of the land. I hope they respect the Constitution. But I just find this talk reprehensible and I think that the party needs to show where they are with Americans and condemn it.

The massacre Loesch implied the Democrats “are trying to move us towards” took place in 1890 after the U.S. Army surrounded a group of Lakota Sioux Indians and demanded they give up their weapons. A shot was fired when a fight broke out between a tribe member and a soldier, and 150 Sioux were killed by Army cavalry in the massacre that followed (though some historians claim the actual number of casualties was up to twice as high). Around half of the victims were women and children. 

President Donald Trump previously invoked Wounded Knee to make fun of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, suggesting she should have filmed a campaign commercial from “Wounded Knee … with her husband dressed in full Indian garb.” 

Loesch’s insensitive and offensive reference to the slaughter of Native Americans is just her latest attempt to fearmonger about an assault weapons ban. Following O’Rourke’s comments at the third Democratic debate, Loesch tweeted on September 13 that such a policy is a “state-sanctioned threat.” The next day, she said on Fox News’ Watters World that a ban and buyback is “implicit forcible theft, which would result in violence.”

Loesch also hosted Cain on the September 13 edition of her radio program, The Dana Show, and echoed other conservative media figures to defend his tweet, saying it was not a threat and instead claiming that O’Rourke’s proposed policy was the real danger.