In yesterday’s excellent post What’s Gun Control’s Next Target, former DHS risk analyst Nick Leghorn identified three possible fronts in the endless campaign to deny Americans their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms: children, mental health and handguns. Nick didn’t reference it, but the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence recently released a turgid 16+ minute comments-disabled video called Pathology of Gun Violence [above]. It clearly indicates that the Brady Bunch is dead set on pursuing the “gun violence” as a “public heath issue” – despite the Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex’s failed attempt to get a like-minded doctor appointed as U.S. Surgeon General. To spare you those precious minutes, here’s four major takeaways . . .
1. The Bradys are targeting gun dealers – “Guns are not like drugs,” the narrator intones, “They don’t start out on a black market.” In other words, the Bradys want to choke off gun sales at the source. Targeting gun dealers is the way you “cure” the “disease” of “gun deaths.” Hence the Bradys Stop Bad Apple Gun Dealer Campaign. Click here for the Brady video declaring war on gun dealers.
2. The Bradys should see a doctor about background checks – The Brady Campaign’s metaphorical hard-on for “universal background checks” has lasted a lot longer than four hours. They declare expanded background checks “our biggest policy priority.” Their unstated goal: regulate ALL firearms transactions. Their central lie: private, unregulated sales account for 40 percent of all gun purchases. (Simply. Not. True.)
3. The Bradys are heathens – According to Wikipedia, “animism is the worldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.” It’s a profoundly unscientific view, devoid of a rational basis. But it’s how the Bradys roll, constantly blaming guns for “gun deaths.” “When you look at how these guns end up causing 30k deaths per year,” the narrator beguins [2:00]. “They cause much of the urban and gang violence that is devastating so many of our communities,” he asserts [6:15]. “And they lead to tragedies of domestic violence,” he declares [6:30]. Etc.
4. The Bradys want your guns – The bit at the end about firearms-related suicides contains a startling admission: “This isn’t a gun problem. It’s a responsibility problem.” So suicide is a responsibility problem but criminals with guns are not. Go figure. And while you’re doing that, know this: the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wants your guns. The mask slips at 12:10.
We need major public education and awareness campaigns. We need to change social norms, just like we’ve seen on those other analagous issues like drunk driving and tobacco, where campaigns like “friends don’t let friends drive drunk” and second hand smoke have stigmatized behavior that was considered not only acceptable but glamorous a generation ago. Just watch one episode of Mad Men and think about how far we’ve come on those issues.
We believe we have the same kind of potential to create the same kind of sea change around guns through the same kind of health and public safety campaigns.
What kind of sea change would that be, then? *crickets chirping* We can fill in the blanks: an end to civilian gun ownership. They may be overshadowed by billionaire ballistic bully boy Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety and its wholly-owned subsidiary Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, but the Brady Campaign are to gun rights what poison is to food safety.
Luckily, the Brady Campaign is reality-divorced. See their strategy chart above? Here’s what they say about “Opportunity for Impact”: “If we can’t demonstrate how a program or activity will impact the number of gun deaths, we won’t pursue it.” Animists with animus promising to use rational analysis when deciding where to spend their pro-gun control time, effort and money – without the slightest ability to deal with facts. How’s that working out for them? Badly, thankfully. Long may it do so.
Have they taken a penny from foreign sources to overturn the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America?
Have they given any of their money to any foreign government, or Person or Persons on the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s OFAC SDN list?
Are they attempting to disarm you for the next Civil War, or War with China?
What would they say their motivation was if they were?
“They want to take your guns.”
What do you expect for an organization that used to be known as Handgun Control, Inc. and before that the Coalition to Ban Handguns?
In other news, water is wet.
John
Water is wet except when it’s frozen. Then it can crush you. Boil it and it will burn you.
My Point?….
It is as I’ve been saying for some time.
Were thinking about gun control as a hardware restriction problem. ThEYRE approaching the issue as a social norm which needs to be changed. This presents a major problem for us , one which is more serious then it seems.
We all know how laws evolve from the general will of the people. But what determines the general social will of the people? Socially approved norms. It is why a 15 round magazine is a tool in South Dakota, and a weapon of vice in San Fransisco.This may come as a surprise to some individuals, but at one time Jeff Cooper and his team were headquartered in Southern California. What changed? Social perception, after which the politicians changed too. Resulting in California becoming the anti gun cesspit it is now.
The Bradys aren’t going after congress. They’re going after our neighbors and our kids. We need to get our Public Relations act together, and fast. We need a Nick Naylor in the NRA, ASAP. Or in ten years were going to see “concealed carry sections” sprouting up all over America.
The point of going after grass roots mentality/laws is well stated.
Time to convince a neighbor or twelve guns are not evil.
You hit the nail on the head. We must have a national take your neighbors out shooting month.
+ 1,000
And to that I would add “Take all the women you can to the range”. They are 50% of the ‘people”, and they vote.
This April, two of my children made chalk drawings all over the driveway of their school and the sidewalk in front of their school. They drew guns. Childish-looking autopistols, but very definitely guns. People holding them, people shooting them, and just plain still lifes of guns. Probably 12 or 15 guns, total.
Result: Suspension? Detention? Dismissal? Nope. We homeschool. So they got a “nice work” from their principal.
Homeschool, people.
-John
Well said John.
New years resolution we should all make: Take at least one person not familiar with guns to the range at least once.
TTAG annual recognition award? Person that introduces the most people in a year?
This is why the post about TTAG being an echo chamber is so germane. You cannot combat an attempt to change public perception from one political perspective; you will invariably be boxed into a corner.
“Were thinking about gun control as a hardware restriction problem. ThEYRE approaching the issue as a social norm which needs to be changed. This presents a major problem for us , one which is more serious then it seems.”
And it’s only going to become more problematic as megacities come to dominate political demographics everywhere. Tightly-controlled, statist political machines and huddled populations with little positive exposure to firearms is demographically fertile ground for anits.
Well put. Look at those states where one megacity (not the capital) dominates the politics of the mostly rural interior. Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, New York are examples.
“Changing the culture” is what Sarah Brady has always been about, just like Amitai Etzioni & Josh Sugarmann. Making social pariahs & scapegoats out of gun owners (especially defensive shooters) is what it’s about. Transforming gun owners into a troublesome minority that must be dealt with by `right thinking people’. is what it’s about.
In other words, dictatorship.
The have been pursuing this goal for about 50 years, and they have been losing. They have repeatedly been pushing it as a top-down media campaign.
The big problem that they have is that they must lie in order to convince anyone. As people get interested and look into details, they convert to our side or become neutral.
The social change in California came about by immigration from the east coast and from Mexico, both areas where government control of guns has been the norm for decades.
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2014/07/book-review-rise-of-anti-media-by-brian.html
I suggest “Rise of the Anti-Media” as a scholarly work on how this is being combated.
Leave it to liberals to try to fix something that doesn’t need fixing at the expense of anyone other than themselves.
Brady is hideous and dishonest, but what is our response? Simply claiming our rights? Or do we have something constructive to offer? Too many Americans *are* killed with guns — accidents, suicides, crimes. Fewer than 20 years ago, but still, too many. We are the ones with the guns. We are the ones who understand guns. What can we offer actually to help ameliorate the problem besides simply bashing the antis? Rights are good. This site is all about rights. Perhaps we should talk about our responsibilities, too. That, it seems to me, is the only way to forestall more attempts at stupid, counterproductive, anti-American gun laws.
How about holding criminals accountable? This is another leftist point of view: We are responsible, not the people that do the crime. That is the core of ” we need to do something about it”. BS.
Also, secure your non-carry weapons. Most guns used by professional criminals are stolen, so having your guns stolen should be a mark of shame.
Hear hear! On your hip or in your safe.
We do talk about responsibilities. A lot. Firearms are stored by most people far differently than they were 20-plus years ago. This reduces the amount of stolen guns on the streets and accidents in the home. And we did this through discussion and education, not laws mandating how firearms are to be stored. Similarly, we have reduced accidents, both in the home and while hunting, through education on safe gun handling and hunting. We have done a lot to address responsibility. Addressing responsibility does not have to be done through one-size-fits-all laws mandating “responsible” behavior.
Dan, you offer the question what do we have to offer” in response, as if 2A activists haven’t been offering-
Eddie Eagle NRA gun safety education for decades- read the “Rise of the Anti-Media” for a chronology of the NRA- a service provider for the US Government to help build better riflemen, post Civil War, and so on-
You are a gun-guy researcher- why dont YOU write about all the unsung heroes-
American hunters and sportsmen who have raised generations of kids to be responsible shooters, and founded organizations like Duck Stamps Unlimited, which has put more acres into wetlands than the greenies ever will.
How about, Appleseed, and the many many state groups that do the same,
how about the teaching schools that have sprouted up, Gunsite, Thunder Ranch, too many others to mention, who preach and teach safety, responsible use, etc.
Dan, I know you get it already because you have written a couple of brave articles about education- keep up the good work, and spread the word. Its not just Huffington Post that liberals read, you know…
What can we offer- more of TTAG – the gun facts, the debate, the spreading of truth- pass it along to your friends, family, to other gun friendly or interested folk.
Give money to the strong lobbies- NRA, SAF, GOA, and to the states groups that are working locally-
and stop the infighting, the circular firing squads, to focus more on the positives we all share-
individual responsibility, freedom, service to community and nation, none of these “traditional” virtues have gone out of style, they are still what works-
and speaking plainly to the alternative, and to the hidden or obscured truths behind the Ferguson tragedy, the dysfunction of the urban family, the high rate of crime, the failure of the top-down progressive “system” to infantilize the individual, in exchange for the EBT card, Obamaphone, free education, medicine,
these are hard truths, but proven over and over in history, and as Breitbart said, you cant change the politics until you change the culture- keep reading, learning, sharing and speaking up…. its working. Horizontal integration of grassroots efforts, enabled by social media, for great causes, works vs top-down tyrrany by the elite.
More, and faster, please.
“What can we offer actually to help ameliorate the problem besides simply bashing the antis? Rights are good. This site is all about rights. Perhaps we should talk about our responsibilities, too.”
There is a marvelously twisted Catch-22 buried in the logic of the anti-gun activists, and it is this: Putting aside the suicides (we’re doing OK as a nation) the majority of homicides involving a firearm take place exactly in those dense urban neighborhoods ruled for many decades by the Democrats and their civil-service unions.
The anti’s blow the bugle for gun registration, massive growth in legal disqualification, and exponential growth in the red-tape required to avail ourselves of a constitutional right. They trot out the homicide statistics as the justification. Yet these tallies of wanton bloodshed emanate, largely, from the very neighborhoods of their core voting constituencies. We have poured trillions of dollars into those crime-ridden urban zones from every direction for 40+ years; infrastructure, education, SNAP, affirmative action, Pell grants, medicaid, etc. What we did not pour in, propagandize for, was the culture of laws not men …and the culture of empowered elders.
As the ancients said, “Physician, heal thyself.” I say “Urban Democrats, heal your own.” The very people controlling and ‘leading’ the ethnic ghettos have done nothing openly to change the “don’t rat!” culture, or the cultural belief that grievances should be settled with force, not a police report and courts. Perhaps this is also the preferred culture of the large urban civil-service unions, which also enforce a private law of their own. We, moderate and conservative suburbia, exurbia, and the rural voters, have no control whatever over the policies implemented in the metropolitan areas, especially the drug-fueled crime zones, yet somehow we are held to be responsible for the statistics that flow from them. What rot.
“Gun Control” is really in very large part a case of ‘kicking the dog’ –or displaced aggression– by the political coteries responsible for indulging the urban morality of disrespecting elders and of crime gang membership as a career choice. It could also be likened to a shell game, in which the politician seeks to distract the nation from observing the culture of the politician’s own constituents. I’m not watching his hand. I’m watching his voters.
Mr. Chicago has contributed nothing to the culture and peace of Salt Lake City or the New Hampshire countryside. In turn these and similar areas are not to blame for the culture of urban New Orleans, Detroit, or South Chicago.
Our responsibilities? What is this “our” all of a sudden? The urban lords of politics don’t give us a second’s thought but to make us scapegoats for the blood running in their streets.
+1 on all the above, but it isn’t so much the party as the tendencies of political machine operators to pander to easy issues, pay-off constituencies, and pocket taxpayer money. Allowing for effective long-term solutions is not personally profitable.
NRA News Commentators | Ep. 81: Colion Noir “Chicago” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9PU5UBP5wk)
Do away with all guns overnight. The next tool would be?? Knives, clubs, ropes, fists, etc…..
Stop chastising the tool, and go after the rational that uses said tool. Go after the system that fails to make criminals responsible for their actions.
If you are made to feel insecure simply by seeing my gun, perhaps you should address your insecurities instead of making it my problem….
/rant over
Friends don’t let friends be disarmed.
Suicide is a public health issue–but it is not a gun or a “gun violence” issue. That is 2/3 of their “issue” gone right there, since they cannot establish that reducing access to guns will reduce the suicide rate. That leaves 5-10,000 deaths due to criminal violence, 80% of which are black kids killing other black kids with stolen firearms, and again something their efforts will have no effect upon. The number left are a mere statistical blip in a country of 310,000,000+ people. Wouldn’t their efforts and money be better spent on something upon which they might actually have an impact? If their laws and limits will not significantly reduce inner-city violence, they should pack it up and go home. Shootings like that of Mr.Brady, Newtown, Giffords and Aurora are statistical outliers that nothing they propose will eliminate or reduce.
And they use the Obama definition of “kids”, IE anyone under the age of 25.
Leave color out of it. It has nothing to do with the topic, and makes you look racist so that others will ignore anything you have to say.
No, it has EVERYTHING to do with the topic. Democrats laid the groundwork for this when they decided that they would destroy the black family in order to create a permanent dependent underclass.
Which is why every single place where black children are murdering other black children is run by Democrats.
THIS IS THE OUTCOME THE DEMOCRATS WANTED!
+1 – its not about skin color, sex, preference, or religion-
Its about behavior, what you do, whether you take responsibility for yourself and your actions.
Plenty of respected black role models have spoken up, post-Ferguson, so we only need to link to those statements, and more, including the statistics, that Nick and staff have compiled so diligently on guns, to point out the obvious.
We have plenty of proof, based on our own readers speaking up that TTAG is diverse and welcoming to anyone with those same values, regardless of race or creed.
Only trolls come here to make crude racist comments, and personal insults, and we need to be on guard for that cheap trick, for its all the progtards have left…
Poor urban latino, white and asian males are also far more likely to form gangs and zap each other with stolen guns at alarming regularity. It is just that there are more poor urban black males to start with
And before the 1968 gun control act there were no NICS background checks and there was no real serious society breakdown
What caused the change?
America turned it’s back on God and on Jesus
America lost its moral compas
You can make all the gun laws you want that will not restrain the evil in man to do that you have to deal with mans core his heart and soul his spirit and mind
If you ban all guns criminals will build them ban bullets criminals will make those
They will steal them from law enforcement and the military
Ban law abiding citizens from owning firearms and you will increase the violent crime rate and systematically produce a tyrannical police state
Maybe that’s what the Brady’s want
“America turned it’s back on God and on Jesus
America lost its moral compas”
Um, violent crime is at all time lows, but sensationalistic headlines generating moral panics are at all time highs.
If they can’t demonstrate how an activity or program will “impact the number of gun deaths”, they won’t pursue it? That, of course is a meaningless statement, as even an INCREASE in the number of “gun deaths” would represent an “impact”. Laying aside the latitude they could take with the word “demonstrate” (e.g. liberals “demonstrate” all the time the positive impact of so-called “gun buybacks”, even though there is not a shred of empirical evidence to be found that they actually prevent anything in the way of violence, crime, or deaths).
Please don’t give us Heathens a bad reputation by comparing us to the Brady campaign. I’m serious here, one of the terms that Asatruar use to describe ourselves and separate ourselves from the namby-pamby new-age pagans is the use of the word heathens.
I just was about to say the same thing.
Well there argument is without Merritt. I originally had harmful intent when I legally bought my first pistol years ago. Then I got my CCW permit. Well that changed my attitude 100%. I now own 7 firearms, and the most protective person in my neighborhood. Would never use my firearms in an illegal way. Also their numbers are wrong. Go look at gunfacts.info for the real numbers.
Truly the new plan of attack. I’ve seen it from the antis and fence-sitters I know. Most of them consider possession and ownership of a firearm as anachronistic and abnormal. They don’t see the need, even from a security standpoint. They can’t even fathom sporting use as is even socially acceptable in Europe, their gun-control utopia. Their biggest question is “What are you afraid of?”
I was never specifically afraid of crime. I don’t leave the house and twitch at every breeze and shadow. I go out of the house, aware, and armed, and I feel safe. There’s a really good chance I’ll come home, never having used my gun in self-defense. I leave the house in Condition Yellow, as it were. It could be the day I have to defend myself, but it probably won’t. If it does, I’ll go into the situation knowing I have a specific advantage, even with my nascent training.
And of course, I can never get a concrete response as to what their solution is, and if I do, it is usually an ineffective or fanciful response. “Run like hell”, “pepper spray”, “learn karate”, “act crazy”, and so on.
Or “It’ll never happen”. Until it does.
Somewhere in their heads, they think society has and will progress to some sort of peaceful utopia where no one does another harm. But, barring procedures and policies that even the antis would find abhorrent (genetic engineering, drug-based mandatory mind control), that will never happen.
Pod, you said, “Their biggest question is “What are you afraid of?”
Just ask them if they are afraid of their house burning down and then ask them why they have smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher.
Why are they afraid of crashing their car? Then why do you wear a seatbelt?
Why are they afraid of their house getting burglarized? Then why do you lock your door?
Helmet on bicycle, safety glasses, etc. You get the idea. They love to feel safe and practice it in their everyday life, remind them of it and their question to you will be answered.
Excellent talking points. Next time an anti gets into my car, I’ll ask them why they are putting a seatbelt on? I’m an excellent driver and my vehicle is top-rated in crash tests, so what are they worried about?
Nice flow chart….garbage in, garbage out.
Don’t you just love that the pathology of gun violence starts at the gun store, and not further up the chain to poverty, parenting, social environment. I suppose the pathology of knife violence starts at Sur La Table or Ikea.
*facepalm
And while we are on the topic of disingenuous bullying billionaires, a visit to the Seattle Times website, SeattleTimes.com, will demonstrate
EIGHT embedded hyperlink advertisements on the homepage alone for Every Town for Gun Safety ads in support of the ridiculous background check initiative 594. $50 million buys you all a lot of column inches to spread your agenda-driven lies
Private ownership of firearms is effectively prohibited in Mexico, a short and inexpensive drive to the south, with a cost of living below that of the US. Why not just emigrate to the land of unicorns and rainbows, instead of wasting your time here?
Do us a favor, burn your passport at the border.
Where do they get this ALL stolen guns are used in crimes bs? Most criminals steal stuff then just sell it to average joes for cash. They dont say…I stole an ak, let me call up my neighborhood murder and make some cash. Even the average burglar is sickened by stone cold killers and the thought of helping them out.
Theres too many loaded stats in this video to take anything they say serious.
Loaded stats, and what are their definitions? For example, are they counting school shootings the CNN way, i.e. gangland murders to and from school and not on school property?
After that !@#$ annoying ad started playing on the TTAG site (seriously, RF, you need to do something about that), I watched the video on youtube.
Big surprise – “Comments are disabled for this video.”
They’re still telling the 40% lie. No surprise there, either. The whole thing is full of made-up statistics.
They have defined the battlefield. Good choice on their part. They will work their evil magic over time and generations. It is working for them. We counter this by engaging them on this field of battle. Are you listening NRA? We need a PR campaign as well as legislative action.
Stopped the video the second I saw ‘public health’.
Guns do not cause violence the same way smoking causes cancer.
Alcohol does not cause drunk driving unless the drunk person is stupid enough to drive. The same way guns do not cause violence unless the person holding it is violent. I would argue that guns are regulated much much more than alcohol and that any effort to regulate them more places too much of a burden on law abiding gun owners to prove they are innocent.
They are currently trying to close the online ammo and firearm equipment buying loop hole. How do I know, because I subscribe to their e-mail lists. I think all gun owners should subscribe, it costs them more money to send out e-mails to more people and it gives you a clue as to what they are up to.
“Just watch one episode of Mad Men and think about how far we’ve come on those issues.”
Because looking at a fictional TV show for historical perspective is a good idea.
Yet… somehow… consistent with people that dream of the land of unicorns.
Ho hum. Been a gun owner long enough to know that it’s all been tried before.The antis have been drubbed on every front they’ve ever tried. Bring it on. Again.
The scary part about his video, even though half their stats and conclusions are wrong, is that they are taking a logic based approach to address the public as opposed to the historically reactional, emotional approach.
Means nothing. Even a delusional person thinks with logic. It just isn’t shared by anyone else at the moment.
I’m now wondering how they intend to keep vacuuming for cash now that Bill Brady has passed on to his everlasting reward [sic] ? They have nobody to trot out for the MSM any more.
amusing video. about 96% blatant falsehood but amusing none the less.
Brady Campaign strategy chart:
Phase 1: Collect underpants
Phase 2: ?
Phase 3: Profit
Guns are like drugs, though. A lot of “illegal” drugs are legally prescribed painkillers sold by the patient, or those obtained by lying to a doctor, no? Many users of illegal drugs start on legal pills, no? At least with heroin many abusers start with oxycontin, switching to heroin after their access to a source of oxycontin dries up.
Wait. The Brady campaign has a core competency?
Andrew Breitbart used to emphasize that “Politics is downstream of culture.” Change the culture, change the politics.
BTW, this has been the leftist strategy since at least the 1930’s. The European communists realized that a peasant-based revolution would never happen in Europe like in Russia because the middle class was too strong. How to get rid of the middle class? Capture important cultural institutions, particularly higher education, and then destroy the family. Bourgeoise attitudes on self-reliance, hard work, saving for the future, sexual discipline, etc, are passed primarily from parents to children. Convince mothers their children don’t need fathers, then you have destroyed the primary channel for transmission of culture. Other channels, controlled by lefties, gain influence. Culture changes in desired direction. They are well on their way to victory.