Tonight on Twitter, if you can believe it, Twitchy favorite Brad Thor and Twitchy regular Michael Ian Black had a nice, polite discussion on guns and the second amendment. No personal insults were issued. No trash talk. No attacks of any sort. Just two guys arguing their respective positions, passionately at times:
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982422782029041665
Agreed. Tough convo but no personal insults. Good debate. https://t.co/tTRcv9cJuy
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
But right in the middle of the “good debate,” Twitter sent Brad Thor a warning that his account was at risk, saying “those who intimidate or threaten others may lose their accounts”:
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982420102342696960
WTF Twitter?
Black kindly copied Twitter on his reply, calling the social media’s company’s warning “bulls*it“:
Here’s the entire discussion (or most of it … there were a lot of tweets back and forth):
Here's another reason why the NRA, a terrorist organization *roots for* mass shootings. Their membership goes up. pic.twitter.com/UT0RVSmDuU
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982377256382357504
The NRA, a terrorist organization, exists to sell guns and nothing else. I don't have a "side," except the side that wishes to reduce gun violence. Which side are you on? https://t.co/p1DiaSafox
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982401580430450689
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982402674493673473
Thank you, Brad. I like your books – one of my great escapes is reading thrillers. I love them, and you're particularly great at writing them. https://t.co/rYFqduL1lv
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982408414327435264
That's like asking like an oncologist why he only treats cancer? Doesn't he care about heart attacks? What about aneurisms? I focus on gun violence because it is a preventable epidemic. We can cure it. https://t.co/YDIDM4h9FC
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
We are all, hopefully, on the side of the individual. Individuals are killed with guns every single day. 33k+ of them every year. Most of those deaths are preventable. The NRA prevents the preventable. They profit off children's blood. They are a terrorist organization. https://t.co/p2DqSsmO59
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982409019489964032
It's impossible to say. I don't focus on any individual shooting. I focus on the epidemic: 33k+ gun death a year, another 60k injured, 100ks of families destroyed. 1.4M dead in the last 50 years. The single greatest obstacle to getting those numbers down is the NRA. https://t.co/GWLchYGIld
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982409579362471936
I brand the NRA a terrorist organization and you will have to decide for yourself whether or not you support that organization. Employing the tactics of terrorism makes them a terrorist organization; supporting them makes you a supporter. Does it make you a terrorist? Not to me. https://t.co/UqgXgfjXsg
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982410347352125440
Right. The old "if you want to reduce the gun violence statistics, simply remove the gun violence" tactic. https://t.co/tRON7hAOz0
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982410187561750528
If automobile manufacturers expresly designed vehicles to kill, served no purpose besides killing, and then they resisted all efforts to make them less likely to kill, yes. But that's not the case. https://t.co/Oa4lP1N9YC
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982411564794961920
Brad, I think you are supporting a terrorist organization. I think being a terrorist connotes something different. I do not think the NRA directly commits acts of violence. They use indirect methods to incite it, and exploit violence for profits when it occurs. https://t.co/gwQ5IHpCeX
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982413045489074177
Donations in 2016 were down, but only account for less than 1/2 of their funding. The other $ comes from unknown "donations," including from Russia. The NRA is now being investigated for illegally funneling money to the Trump campaign. https://t.co/V6fSSQSMQT
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982414981491806208
Great. Then ask for your money back. They won't care because Alexander Torshin and his Russian oligarch pals have a lot more cash than you. https://t.co/PZ6wkF8T8W
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982416529059975170
The *reason* gun store owners believed that is because the NRA *told* them that. "He's coming for your guns!!!" He never did. He should have. https://t.co/KtBGqdxMpE
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982417344533352448
Thank you, Brad. I am open to any discussion on this topic. I know my position is extreme, but I believe it to be correct. I take no pleasure in it. I would love for the NRA to be on the side of reducing gun violence. They are not.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982419088524922880
I'm sorry, I don't agree with the premise that "terrible things happen." These massacres (and the routine day-to-day violence) aren't acts of God. They are preventable. As I have said, the people doing the most to prevent them from happening, on every front: the NRA.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/982418146387775490
I'm not aware of your position on Trump. That's ignorance on my part, not a slight to you.
— Michael Ian Black (@michaelianblack) April 7, 2018
Update: We’ve corrected an editing error: It’s “Michael Ian Black,” not “Ian Michael Black.”
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