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.