Leftist propaganda website Think Progress is trying to jump on Bloomberg’s latest bandwagon by offering up a shamelessly dishonest op-ed, “5 Ways Gun Safety Advocates Are Using The NRA’s Playbook Against It“:
“Reward lawmakers who vote with you; punish those who don’t. Core to the NRA strategy is to reward those legislators who take positive action and positions on gun reform — and punish those who don’t, even when they otherwise align politically. This longtime tactic is one gun safety groups have historically stayed away from, and it is the one Everytown has been most explicit about duplicating from the NRA …”
This simply is not true. Antigun organizations did try to engage in electioneering activity just like NRA, but failed miserably at it because their endorsements mean nothing as they do not represent a voting block.
“Deploy your members to every town hall, where they can hijack the conversation. The NRA has long employed its members to turn out and make gun rights an issue — everywhere they go … Gun safety groups have already started to play this game over the past year …”
This is misleading. NRA members and supporters turn up at town hall meetings on their own accord, not at some direction from NRA HQ. Gunnies have grassroots, antis have astroturf.
“Make your constituent base as broad as possible. Everytown plans to boost its membership from 1.5 to 2.5 million over the next year. But the NRA already claims to have more than 5 million members behind it …”
This is misleading as the Bloomberg bunch does not claim to have dues-paying members like NRA, but rather “supporters” which disguises the true number of people who willing join and/or donate to the group. If they really had 1.5 million dues-paying members now, then why did Mike have to donate $50 million to bankroll this operation?
“Make the conversation about principles, not guns. The NRA has made gun rights about more than guns. NRA-ILA Executive Director put it this way: “I’ve met thousands of NRA members and I know that we all share the same core belief in freedom. The Second Amendment is just a guarantee of one specific freedom; it represents a value system that goes far beyond gun ownership. As the old saying goes, ‘Gun control isn’t about guns. It’s about control.’” … The gun safety movement has always had the obvious symbolism of safety and security. But in the past year they have tailored their message to emphasize community, and in particular, family …”
This is not true. While the antis have changed their mouthpieces and talking points every so often in an effort to remain relevant in the eyes of sympathetic media, their core message and objective has always been the same: go after the guns. How long will Everytown last? I give it a couple of years before it changes it name and morphs into something else with the same agenda.
“Turn your opponent’s strengths against them. After the Newtown Massacre, Mayors Against Guns invested $12 million in television ads against the NRA in key states. These ads were persuasive and helped make gun safety a national conversation …”
This is not true. The real “national conversation” on guns is over and gunnies won. That is why Congress refused to advance the antis agenda. The antis, their legislative allies and talking heads in the media, simply refuse to admit gun control is unpopular and that the general public is not as dumb and uninformed as they like to think it is.
