Has New Yorkers Against Gun Violence’s funding been drying up? There is an interesting admission from noted antigun bigot Gloria Cruz in this Daily News story:
“… Gloria Cruz has been a tireless crusader against guns … Cruz gave up her position with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence last year after the group ran out of funding …”
That explains why they weren’t getting anywhere with their lobbying efforts. What it doesn’t do is help to explain what Gov. Cuomo was thinking when he pushed SAFE? If the gun control movement is so unpopular that they can’t find funding in New York City then what exactly did Cuomo think he was going to get in return for reviving a largely dead issue?
Criminals are bad people who do bad things for bad reasons.
I cannot say for sure what happened to NYAGV, but dig into the checks sent by groups like Joyce and my guess is we’ll see a shift. The gun control movement is not dying. What we are seeing nationwide is a consolidation of the gun control movement into a more cohesive (read: top down) organization.
Brady is all but gone. So are some of the other old-school orgs. The independent state groups are now withering, as well.
Growing are the astroturf and “managed” gun control groups: the Giffords org; Mom’s Demand Attention; etc. The central theme there is they play along and take direction from above.
The reason all this is happening is a recognition by the funding sources that the inmates were running the asylum. Joyce would send a check to just about anyone who hated guns, and never really demanded anything resembling success. Bloomberg is not that kind of guy, and neither is the Obama/OFA crowd. They blame the antics of the independent groups for the failure of gun control, so the best thing they can do to be successful is to enforce command and control over them. Money talks.
I don’t think this is a good thing. The new re-grouped opposition is going to be much more worrisome.
Antigun groups have always been run by professional politicians and activists with no real support. Giffords, Moms, MAIG, etc. are no different.