The president of the National Rifle Association is paying off-duty Cobb County sheriff’s deputies to provide around-the-clock protection of her home.
Carolyn Meadows, an East Cobb resident, now has at least one deputy continuously stationed outside her home in the wake of two mass shootings that left dozens of people dead in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
Glenn Daniel, a spokesman with the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed the information, adding the deputies are working a “part-time detail on behalf of the home/property owner.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked Daniel how many deputies were hired by Meadows, but he said the agency would not release that information “due to officer safety.”
The NRA has not returned phone calls from the AJC asking for details, including how long the deputies have been guarding Meadows’ home and whether the organization has received any threats following the mass shootings.
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Cobb County Republican Party Chairman Jason Shepherd told the AJC that he reached out to Meadows after he heard of her decision to hire the deputies.
Shepherd said he was not aware of any specific threats made to Meadows. “I’m guessing she’s dealing with whatever’s going on as best as she can,” he said.
Meadows, 80, was elected president of the gun-rights group in April, taking over for former president Oliver North.
She is a pioneer in Georgia Republican politics. She has served as a Georgia representative on the Republican National Committee, helped organize the 1999 state presidential campaign for Steve Forbes, and supported Casey Cagle for governor in 2018, bringing with her an NRA endorsement.
The NRA posted on its website that its "deepest sympathies" are with the victims and family members of those killed by the two gunmen, as well as the two communities that have been forever changed by the mass shootings. While it said it would not engage in politicizing the shootings, the NRA said it was committed to the "safe and lawful use of firearms by those exercising their Second Amendment freedoms."
RELATED: Timeline: 21 mass shootings in the United States in 2019
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