Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action Set to Retire

After starting @MomsDemand and serving as a full-time volunteer for a decade, I’m stepping back from my leadership role at the end of 2023. It’s been the honor of a lifetime to lead this organization and fight for gun safety while empowering women to lead.https://t.co/pCDCRjUVPn

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) January 9, 2023

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action has announced that she’s stepping down from managing the gun-control organization.

The impresario of the self-styled “grassroots” gun-control group has been at the helm since its beginnings as a Facebook page in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012.

Not long after its launch, Moms Demand combined forces with Mayors Against Illegal Guns to form Everytown for Gun Safety. The new outfit would be primarily funded by the Daddy Warbucks of gun control – Michael Bloomberg.

Watts has spent the past decade haranguing legislators at nearly every level of government, pushing for tougher restrictions on law-abiding citizens’ 2A rights.

With Bloomberg’s war chest at her disposal, Watts organized thousands of moms across the country to stage red-shirted publicity stunts at news hearings promoting gun control. Her organization also encouraged supporters to run for public office, claiming to have backed 140 new winners at various levels of government.

Watts’ departure from Moms Demand Action prompted an effusive write-up in The Washington Post. The publication lauded her dubious achievements while proclaiming that her organization had surpassed the influence of the NRA.

While that “fact,” in terms of raw numbers, is certainly up for debate, there is another way to measure her success or lack thereof. That is the relative failure of major gun-control reform in the U.S.

For example, there is no federal ban on so-called “assault weapons” or “high capacity” magazines. Criminalizing private transfers, aka “universal background checks,” the crown jewel for gun controllers, has yet to clear Congress. Two huge losses for Watts.

SEE ALSO: Watts: Pro-Gun Activists Hate Us Because We’re Women 

Additionally, during her decade-long tenure, Constitutional-carry laws have expanded from four to twenty-five states. There has also been a major rise in 2A Sanctuary resolutions, approved in more than 1200 localities in states around the country. These resolutions are designed to uphold the Constitution and protect citizens from draconian gun laws.

Not to mention the slew of legal challenges to existing laws and pending gun-control legislation in the wake of last summer’s Supreme Court Bruen decision. It would appear that the landscape of 2A rights is shifting towards proponents of individual liberty.

Some have speculated that Watts may be headed for a sweetheart job at a progressive-leaning think tank, and Watts herself has even left the door open for running for public office.

Certainly, her trajectory, coupled with her physical relocation from an “Indiana housewife” to a “Bay-area gun control activist” would seem to support that speculation.

Ultimately, it’s not the face of the gun-control organization that matters as much to 2A proponents as it is the ongoing legal victories stacking up against unconstitutional restrictions on individual rights across the country.

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