On Tuesday, an opinion columnist for The Los Angeles Times who seems to have hostility toward guns and a contempt for Trump voters offered a novel suggestion for people wishing to buy or rent a place to live: make real-estate listings delineate the “prevalence of gun-ownership in a 50-mile radius” around the listed home.
Virginia Heffernan tweeted, “Real-estate listings should include prevalence of gun-ownership in a 50-mile radius and number of annual mass shootings in the region. Time to change what a ‘bad neighborhood’ is.”
“[A]nd introduce a meaningful tax on guns and gun violence,” she continued. “No one should say ‘this is a great place to raise kids’ about neighborhoods where even one person has an assault rifle.”
“The metric would be simple,” she posited. “Example: Staten Island (pop 474k) has 4x the gun ownership per capita of the Bronx (pop 1.4m). If that reads as safer or more frer (sic) to some people, Staten Island is for them. If not, maybe time for the Bronx. Take race, class, politics out of the real-estate equation.”
…and introduce a meaningful tax on guns and gun violence.
No one should say “this is a great place to raise kids” about neighborhoods where even one person has an assault rifle.
— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) June 8, 2021
If that reads as safer or more frer to some people, Staten Island is for them. If not, maybe time for the Bronx. Take race, class, politics out of the real-estate equation.
— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) June 8, 2021
When someone brought up the infamous interactive map of local gun owners published by the Journal-News of the Westchester and Rockland counties of New York in 2012, Heffernan replied, “Not doxing. Just available data on gun ownership per capita.”
Not doxing. Just available data on gun ownership per capita.
— Virginia Heffernan (@page88) June 8, 2021
Heffernan, who has referred to former President Trump as “brain-addled,” wrote in July 2020:
The pandemic kicked off a rush on, of all things, guns. In locked-down states, gun stores were declared as essential as groceries. Widespread unemployment and then the George Floyd protests may have added to the rush to arms. In any case, according to the Wall Street Journal, unprecedented numbers of Americans purchased guns between March and June, and the FBI processed a record number of firearm background checks: 7.8 million. It’s not clear what guns might do against microbes or joblessness, but maybe it’s axiomatic in America: When afraid, buy guns.
In February, Heffernan noted that her Trump-loving neighbors had done her a favor and “plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job,” but then likened them to Nazi supporters and Hezbollah terrorists, snapping, “My neighbors supported a man who showed near-murderous contempt for the majority of Americans. They kept him in business with their support,” before pontificating, “I also can’t give my neighbors absolution; it’s not mine to give.”
Former Fox News anchor and current podcast host Megyn Kelly fired back with some advice for the kindly neighbors: “This woman compares her Trump-supporting neighbors, who plowed her driveway, to Nazi sympathizers & Hezbollah & wrestles w/whether to show them any kindness since she ‘can’t give them absolution.’ Note to Virginia Heffernen’s neighbors: don’t plow again.”
This woman compares her Trump-supporting neighbors, who plowed her driveway, to Nazi sympathizers & Hezbollah & wrestles w/whether to show them any kindness since she “can’t give them absolution.”
Note to Virginia Heffernen’s neighbors: don’t plow again. https://t.co/ZZCnPfI46S— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) February 7, 2021
Heffernan began her diatribe by explaining, “Oh, heck no. The Trumpites next door to our pandemic getaway, who seem as devoted to the ex-president as you can get without being Q fans, just plowed our driveway without being asked and did a great job. How am I going to resist demands for unity in the face of this act of aggressive niceness?”
She even acknowledged this was no ordinary snow-shoveling: “Of course, on some level, I realize I owe them thanks — and, man, it really looks like the guy back-dragged the driveway like a pro — but how much thanks?”
After quoting actor Eddie Murphy from an old “Saturday Night Live” saying, “Slowly I began to realize that when white people are alone, they give things to each other. For free,” Heffernan segued to likening the neighbors to the terrorist group Hezbollah: “Hezbollah, the Shiite Islamist political party in Lebanon, also gives things away for free. … like other mafias, Hezbollah tends to its own — the Shiite sick, elderly and hungry. They offer protection and hospitality and win loyalty that way. And they also demand devotion to their brutal, us-versus-them anti-Sunni cause. Some of us are family, the favors say; the rest are infidels.”