{"id":7230,"date":"2013-01-09T14:18:32","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T19:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gunpoliticsny.com\/?p=7230"},"modified":"2013-01-09T14:18:32","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T19:18:32","slug":"giffords-astroturf-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gunpoliticsny.com\/?p=7230","title":{"rendered":"Giffords’ astroturf group"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Washington Post, “Gabrielle Giffords, husband Mark Kelly launch anti-gun-violence group<\/a>“:<\/p>\n

“Mark Kelly woke up in the middle of the night in his hotel room in China and looked at his BlackBerry: Twenty children in Connecticut, all shot to death. He immediately called his wife thousands of miles away, Gabrielle Giffords. \u201cI said to her, \u2018Gabby, we can\u2019t just put out a statement anymore,\u2019\u2009\u201d Kelly recounted in an interview Tuesday. \u201cTwenty first-graders and their teachers, murdered in a classroom. If we just talk about it, things won\u2019t change. We need to try and help.\u201d With that, a couple who survived their own episode of gun violence decided to make themselves the new faces of the push to toughen the country\u2019s gun laws. The astronaut and his wife \u2014 who as a Democratic congresswoman representing Arizona was shot in the head in 2011 outside a Tucson supermarket \u2014 announced on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the shooting, that they were forming their own political group to take on the powerful National Rifle Association<\/a> …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where’s their money coming from<\/a>?<\/p>\n

“Steve and Amber Mostyn, wealthy Texas trial attorneys, said today that they are giving $1 million to help start the gun-control advocacy group formed by former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.\u00a0Steve Mostyn, one of the top contributors to a super political action committee that helped President Barack Obama\u2019s<\/a> re-election effort, is listed as treasurer of Giffords\u2019s new super-PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions<\/a>. Mostyn said the group will have a nonprofit wing, which will be used to conduct a public education campaign …”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They’re going to fail for the same reason all antigun groups are failing: lack of real public support. \u00a0This is yet another attempt on the part of wealthy professional activists and politicians to put up an\u00a0eminence front<\/a>\u00a0in order to sell an unpopular agenda to the public. \u00a0It is nothing but astroturf.<\/p>\n

What these people simply refuse to accept is that gunnies political power comes not from money, but from ordinary citizens themselves. \u00a0That is why gun sales are up and why applications for CCWs are up all across the country. \u00a0The antis simply cannot match that.<\/p>\n