The first major NRA assault on a congressional challenger has been launched. And guess who they chose to go after? Me! A teacher who took a strong stance in support of the kids in Parkland and destroyed an AR-15.

If the NRA thinks the idea of a teacher in Congress is dangerous but it’s fine to keep selling AR-15’s and bump stocks, I think that says a lot. And they are clearly worried because they have engaged tens of thousands of NRA trolls in a sustained, coordinated, online attack on me!

We already knew that strong 2018 challengers would be hit hard. So we were not the least bit surprised by the immense ugliness coming our way when (just hours after a poll came out showing that 2nd District voters preferred the Democrat to the Republican 44-39%) my campaign Facebook page was subjected to a nasty, orchestrated attack.

In an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate me, they shared a video I’d made -- one letting the kids at Parkland know that I supported them -- on some of the darkest parts of the internet. And I am now being attacked with some of most vicious, hateful and misogynistic comments I’ve ever seen.

I know how important it is that I not allow the NRA to be successful in their first smear of a 2018 challenger. We do not want their trolls to feel emboldened. So I am fighting back hard.

I am standing strong for kids nationwide who are being attacked both with guns and with intimidating words. Can you please help me fight back on my Facebook page?

Here’s what happened... After word of the poll came out, well-organized gun extremists shared my two-week-old video cutting an AR-15 into pieces to make sure that it would never be used an instrument of mass murder. Thousands of NRA trolls went so far as to falsely accuse me of a federal crime!

If it were actually a crime to destroy a weapon that has killed dozens of school children, then that law would need to be changed. But the truth is the rifle had been made inoperable before the sawing, and we’d turned the salvage over to the police that same day. I did everything legally, but that didn’t stop them from falsely accusing me of a making an illegal weapon rather than destroying a lethal one.

I’m glad the NRA is trying to intimidate me. It shows they realize that a teacher who cannot be bought and who is passionate about protecting our kids against gun violence is a threat to them. They do not want me speaking out on the floor of Congress. So today I will proudly wear the label of “Disarmed and Dangerous to the NRA.”

Thank you for reading this post. I’m proud to be on this journey with you. I hope I can count on you to show the NRA that their vicious attacks against challengers to their own will not succeed. A donation of $50 in honor of every state the NRA trolls live in would be immensely helpful.

Not afraid,

Karen Mallard