Conservative pundit Kaitlin Bennett, who made headlines in 2018 for openly carrying an AR-10 rifle at Kent State University after graduating, is outraged after Instagram took down her iconic photo following her Twitter feud with rapper Lil Nas X.
In the 2018 snap, Bennett was seen wearing a simple white dress with the assault rifle strapped to her back as she carried her graduation cap in one hand which has the words, "Come and take it" written in white along with a logo of a firearm. The university building could be seen in the backdrop as she has her back turned toward the camera.
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However, the photo has been taken down recently by Instagram as the social media platform claimed that it was against their community guidelines. According to the censor placed on it, the photo was removed for "violence and incitement". The company said, “We don’t allow content that may lead to a genuine risk to physical harm or direct threat to public safety”.
It should also be noted that a second photo where she stands on the steps of the university, looking back and smiling at the camera, wearing the same outfit and carrying the same gun has been allowed to stay up. The reason behind making the discrimination is not known.
In an interview with Gateway Pundit, Bennett said that Instagram did not just remove the post, they also accused her of a crime and if they truly believe that she was guilty, they should call the police on her. “If Instagram is going to say that I’m making direct threats to public safety, then they should call the cops. They’re not just taking down a post that they say goes against community standards, they’re accusing me of committing a crime,” Bennett said. “Ironically they are perfectly okay with letting thousands of liberals use their platform to make direct threats against me all the time.”
Bennett also claimed that by questioning her intent behind the photo, Instagram inadvertently sided with mass shooters. “I took my graduation photo as a statement that the Kent State massacre wouldn’t have happened if the students that got shot had guns,” she added. “By taking down my graduation photo, Instagram is siding with the mass shooters.”
The aftermath of the photo
At the time of the photo going viral, Bennett claimed that as a student at Kent, she should have been able to open-carry for self-defense, citing the 1970 Kent State shootings where Ohio National Guardsmen fired on unarmed students protesting the US bombing of Cambodia.
Later that year, Bennett organized an open-carry rally at Kent State. The university released a statement that a cease and desist had been issued against advertising the event, as Bennett had not attempted to register the event with the university. She returned to Kent State in November to host a discussion on gun rights.
Lil Nas X feud
The rapper has been in the news ever since he released the video of his new single 'Montero', which features him giving a lapdance to satan. He then recently went on to announce his customized Nike 'Satan Shoes'; in collaboration with the clothing brand MSCHF, which created quite a stir online. Bennett hopped onto the bandwagon and tweeted a screenshot of her Twitter account being blocked by the 21-year-old rapper. She posted a tweet saying that she's "thankful" for being blocked by the young rapper. "It's week like these that I'm thankful to be blocked by Lil Nas X," wrote the pro-guns activist.
The rapper clapped back by mocking Kaitlin and bringing up the infamous meme doing the rounds on the Internet featuring a photo of a half-naked girl whose face was replaced with Kaitlin's and the girl seemed to have soiled herself. Lil Nas wrote, "I still see ur tweets shitty pants." After that, Bennett threw shade at him by tweeting, "The guy that takes it up the ass from Satan wants to talk about ‘shitty pants?'” But she didn't stop there, she took it a bit further and followed up her tweet by asking the rapper if he had recently seen his father. She wrote, "Do you still see your dad?" he slammed Kaitlin by replying, "Yep and I might f**k yours.”
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