U.S. News‘ headline above an AP report on Everytown for Gun Safety: Backed by activist moms and Bloomberg’s money, gun-safety group expands influence in states. The article regurgitates Everytown’s spin on their progress (or lack thereof) degrading and destroying Americans’ gun rights. Pay no attention to our resounding defeat on the national level. Or polls that show majority and growing support for gun rights. Or gun rights expanding in more than a dozen states. We’re kicking ass and taking names on the state and local level! I’ll spare you the anti-gunners’ bloody shirt-waving high-fives. To his credit . . .
AP writer Ryan J. Foley includes some choice NRA quotes pushing back against Everytown’s PR. Like this:
In its most recent tax filing, Everytown reported $36 million in spending in 2013, or about 10 times as much as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, a prominent gun-control group that has little presence in states. The 5 million-member NRA spent $290 million that year, including $27 million on its lobbying arm.
The NRA remains a potent force in states. Gun rights supporters have successfully pushed for legislation to allow concealed weapons in more public places and to loosen permit and license requirements that they say undermine the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
A new law in Maine, for example, allows legal gun owners to carry concealed handguns without a permit, wiping out a mandatory permit system that had been in effect for nearly a century. It was a defeat for Everytown, which ran television, radio and digital ads across the state against the bill.
Texas lawmakers gave the gun lobby its best session in 20 years, passing bills to allow those with permits to carry guns in plain sight and to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. Yet even there, lobbying from gun-control supporters helped obtain a significant concession that will allow university administrators to carve out gun-free zones.
Did you catch that? Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg personally pledged $50m to the gun control crusade. According to this, he’s already spent most of it, with $700k allocated to the Virginia Senatorial race. Some say Bloomberg made a $50m per year commitment. Regardless, Mayor Mike will dip into his bank account again – as long as the AP and the rest of the mainstream media continue their hosannahs. Which they will.
“People tend to listen to moms for lots of reasons,” said North Carolina Rep. Duane Hall, a Democrat. Like other lawmakers, he wore an orange tie to show solidarity when hundreds of moms in orange — the favorite color of a girl killed in Chicago — packed the Capitol earlier this year during debate on the gun bill.
People tend to ignore Moms demanding action for gun control in America for a lot of reasons, too. Bottom line: you can try to buy common sense gun control but you can’t buy common sense. Thank God.