One of those stories turned up in my Facebook feed today. (Facebook — weaponized stupid for profit.)
A woman named Storm Durham claimed on social media she was fired from Roanoke City Social Service for having a concealed carry permit. Not for having a gun on her at workplace, just for having a permit. Supposedly three police officers escorted her out of the building.
This seemed just weird enough to provoke my interest. I did a quick search, and her story is all over right wing websites. Something about it didn’t add up.
Townhall, of all places, has a few more details. She apparently posted a follow up video.
...She also detailed more about why she was fired. Besides the "safety risk" regarding her concealed carry permit, she was cited for wearing loafers at training and not closing a predetermined amount of cases in her employee evaluation. She had to close three cases a day, which she did, but was out due to a concussion and broke her leg soon afterwards. She added that she addressed and corrected the citations listed against her, which Durham said were bogus to begin with.
As for the other allegation that she was really was fired because her boyfriend brought a gun to her office, Durham said it's false, adding that he’s only been on the property twice. He helped her carry her bag in when she was on crutches due to her broken leg.
and…
This is not a confirmation of her story, just a video providing more details from her side of it. We'll be keeping you updated if this was a gross violation of constitutional rights or if we're being taken for a ride.
The old saw that comes to mind is “A Lie can travel halfway around the world while the Truth is still putting on its boots.” The story is now out there. I wonder how many will follow it up to find out what the real story is? I wonder if her permit will be revoked if this all turns out to be a pathetic attempt to play the victim card?
UPDATE: Just to make it a little more clear why I decided to write about this, it was after searching with Bing and just now Google for more information, I was struck by how many of the links that popped up were from the wingnutosphere. Her initial story apparently went viral there. It’s the kind of story they live for; it confirms all their worst fears. I’m wondering if it will die down now that more details are coming out?
In any case, it’s not something that would normally pop up on the radar here at Kos, but would become established ‘truth’ on the right, like the story that Lincoln is going to be taken off the $5 bill for (I forget what*) and similar stories designed to provoke outrage at (fill in the blank) liberals, etc.
* Just found the link “...because of his racist views.”