Someone Swatted David Hogg...

David Hogg and his house. Fox News/WSVN/AP.

Gun control advocate David Hogg had his house swarmed by police today in a situation that turned out to be a hoax. Fox News. Someone called 911 and said that a man with an AR-15 broke into his house and was holding Hogg and his family hostage. Hogg and his family were not home and safe and it is believed that the entire situation was an example of Swatting, where trolls call 911 on people. Swatting attempts are dangerous for everyone involved and people have died in cases in the past. 

My Comment:

I'm on the record as hating David Hogg. I don't think he is any use for anything other than a gun salesman. I hate his politics and find his arguments for gun control to be stupid at best. But even I think that sending a SWAT team to his house is over the line. 

If Hogg or his family had been home there is a chance that they could have died. The cops thought there was someone who was armed there and would have to respond. Though cops are trained to not shoot people in these kinds of situations, there is always a chance of something going wrong. That would have been genuinely horrible and even though I disagree with Hogg on almost everything, I don't want him to be killed by the police. 

Had Hogg been injured or killed, or one of his family members for that matter, he would have been a martyr for gun control. Obviously having people die for no reason is bad enough, but I don't want Hogg to have any sympathy for his cause. Even though nobody was hurt he is already playing the victim, and for once he's got a point. People that would otherwise not have sympathy for him may feel sorry for him and even agree with him. Making someone into a martyr is obviously not an action in support of gun rights. It turns moderates against the cause and makes it harder to criticize his actual arguments, which are poor at best. 

Of course we don't know who is responsible for this and it's very possible it wasn't someone who has any association with gun rights whatsoever. David Hogg famously tried to start a meme war with the internet and doing so painted a target on him. Since internet trolls invented Swating I wouldn't be surprised if that is what happened here. 

Indeed, trolls are all about stirring things up. They know that gun rights and gun control is a hot button issue and that they can anger everyone by doing something like this. Gun control advocates will rightly say that they were attacked and gun rights advocates don't want to be blamed for this. Trolls would know that the shrillest voices on both sides will be losing their minds over this and they also expect a reaction from David Hogg himself. 

Hogg's a bit of "lolcow", to use some internet speak. He's the kind of person a troll likes to pick on because he is both super serious about everything and thinks he's more important than he actually is. Add that in with his left wing politics and the fact that he's basically famous for nothing and you have a prime troll target. Especially since he called out the internet directly. 

Of course there is also another possibility. This could have been a gun control supporter as well. Hogg even could have called in the threat himself, though I can't imagine he'd be that stupid. But someone who supports gun control might want to drum up sympathy for the cause. I don't find that likely but it is possible. 

Finally, I would be pretty biased if I didn't admit that it is possible that a gun rights supporter did this. If they did they are extremely stupid and don't deserve to be associated with gun rights or even gun ownership. Pulling a "prank" that has a decent chance of getting someone killed is never ok, but doing it in the name of a cause who you are going to hurt? Absolutely despicable. If this was a gun rights supporter I want him found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 

I sincerely hope this is the last time I ever have to write about David Hogg or the Parkland gun control kids. The sad thing is that Hogg's 15 minutes of fame is almost up. We have moved on to other things nationally and after he graduated we probably would have never heard from him again...