PHOTO: Hundreds of Ohio University students pursue Katilin Bennet, also known as the ‘Kent State Gun Girl,’ seen in middle with microphone (screenshot)



By David Martinez

Under an onslaught of tossed liquids, cursing, and angry students, fascist media personality, Kaitlin Bennett, AKA the ‘Kent State Gun Girl,’ was chased off the Ohio University campus in Athens this past Monday.

Bennett had visited the university to film videos in which she attempts to interview young people and trap them in dishonest reactionary dialogues around guns or other issues, always attempting to paint her interviewees as ignorant in the eyes of her right-wing audience.

Once she was spotted on campus, students who understood her as nothing more than a opportunistic instigator drew attention to her presence via social media, and soon, a crowd swelled to hundreds of students intent on chasing her off of campus.

As Bennett, her bodyguard, and film crew tried to evade the crowd, she was swarmed by the large group amid chants of “Go home!” At one point students loudly chanted “Where’s your diaper?” and threw toilet paper at her, referencing a rumor about Bennett losing control of her bowels while heavily inebriated at a college party.

The bodyguard resorted to picking Bennett up and carrying her back to her vehicle, the crowd still in pursuit. In video taken from inside the truck posted to her own twitter profile, students are seen shouting and giving her the middle finger, and start to throw cups of liquid into the open window and against the vehicle. With panic in her voice Bennett is heard saying, “They’re still throwing stuff,” as she urges her driver to flee.

Since her expulsion by the brave students of Ohio University, Bennett has rushed to play the victim and capitalize on the events with her right-wing audience, including a possible visit to the White House. Bennett began her political trajectory as a leader of Turning Point USA, a university-based reactionary organization. Her nickname derives from her graduation photos from Kent State University in which she carries an AR-10 rifle slung over her shoulder and a graduation cap with ‘come and take it’ written on it.

In videos where she accosts people in the streets with a microphone and camera, Bennett aims to create provocative content in order to reap profits and contribute to the reactionary media industry that propagates the backwards ideology of US imperialism. Bennett has been embraced by the fascist conspiracy theory outlet, Infowars, and co-founded Liberty Hangout, a reactionary media source which has openly supported Holocaust denial, narratives of ‘white genocide,’ and hosted interviews with notable fascists like Christopher Cantwell.

Most young people have a sincere desire to build a world free of the threat of mass shootings and other anti-people violence, but are misled by liberals and reactionaries, both of whom prop up the decaying US imperialist society that creates the conditions for mass shooters and a resurgent fascist movement. Fed lies and empty analyses by the liberal wing of the bourgeoisie, many see supporting gun control as their only option to stop the epidemic of mass shootings. But liberal elements of the ruling class not only deceive students who want to transform society, they recoil at and chastise any instance of righteous rebellion, even when justified anger or violence is directed at deserving fascists, as in the case of Bennett.

Reactionary elements mock young people’s desire for a better world because it threatens their defense of US imperialism, as they vehemently uphold the backwards US constitution, specifically the second amendment ‘right to bear arms.’ While opposing federal intervention in private gun ownership, they reinforce the US imperialist state’s total domination over the world’s proletariat and oppressed nations. Gun rights for reactionaries means gun access for the sections of society that will carry out the wishes of US imperialists to repress working class revolution.

Revolutionaries reject both the liberal and reactionary views towards gun control, and understand that neither group nor their ideological positions serve the working class. All power grows from the barrel of the gun, and guided by revolutionary ideology, the working class must put weapons in the service of proletarian revolution and against US imperialism, whether in its liberal or reactionized form.

Universities are a vital site of struggle and reactionaries are constantly vying to either conquer them or discredit the youth’s desire for real societal transformation. Bennett has sown wide disdain among young people who see her for the fraud she is and this time they were ready to act against her posturing. She could only resort to self-victimization in the face of this.

Already, Bennett has vowed to return with an “army of gun owners for an open-carry walk through campus.” While full of bluster, this should not be taken as an idle threat. If she returns, Ohio University students should fight back with even greater force and determination than they have already shown. Fascists like Bennett are paper tigers who crumple in the face of the rebellious masses.

All those who desire revolution should fully reject the false and dangerous liberal mantra to ‘avoid giving attention’ to reactionaries or fascists. Instead, like the students of Ohio University, the people are correct to give fascists more attention in the form of anger, direct action, and revolutionary violence that destroys fascists’ ability to organize and carry out their threats against the working class and oppressed peoples of the world.

While weapons of all types are necessary for revolution, the people are primary, and reactionaries will inevitably be crushed under the onslaught of the masses heroically pursuing them to their demise.