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  • 2018-03-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Was Ellen DeGeneres Surrounded by Armed Guards at an Anti-Gun Rally? (en)
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  • Comedian Ellen DeGeneres has frequently used her platform to speak out against gun violence; in 2016, she signed a petition advocating for background checks and other gun control measures, and in February 2018 — shortly after seventeen people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida — she invited some of the surviving students onto her show to talk about the #NeverAgain movement. DeGeneres's advocacy for gun control seems to have rubbed some people the wrong way, however. A few disreputable sources have attempted to paint the talk show host as a hypocrite by circulating an image of her in a crowd, along with the claim that she demanded that armed guards accompany her to an anti-gun rally: Other versions of this image, such as one posted by the web site DC Whispers, claimed that six guns could be spotted in this photograph: This image was not taken at an anti-gun rally. And although some of the individuals in this photograph may indeed be carrying a weapon (most likely the police officers), there is not one single definitive image of a gun. It was actually taken in Boston in August 2011, when DeGeneres was in the city to promote her show: Boston.com has several other images of the event. The blog Carrots & Cake, which also documented the event, credited the image used in this meme to Twitter user @Kafranklin21, but it appears that the original image has been removed. This claim, then, was made up out of the whole cloth by disreputable web sites attempting to smear DeGeneres as a hypocrite. We're also not entirely convinced that the pictured security guard is truly carrying a weapon: The item in the guard's pocket might be a gun, but it looks more like a walkie-talkie to us. Regardless, it's the only object in this photograph that even vaguely resembles a firearm. We can assume that the police officer is on duty and therefore carrying a weapon, but this... this... and these... ...simply are not guns. This meme does not show Ellen DeGeneres at an anti-gun rally, nor does it provide any proof that the star demanded to be protected by armed guards. (en)
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