“What does the number 2,432,448 mean to you?” an email blast in my inbox asks. “To the team here at Everytown for Gun Safety, that’s the number of postcards we’ll be delivering to U.S. senators, representatives and governors in every state over the next few weeks. Why? Because dedicated supporters like you took a stand after the shootings in Santa Barbara, CA to declare “Not One More” — and to remind your elected officials that you’re counting on them to take action to reduce gun violence in this country.” Needless to say, the effort does not represent 2,432,448 individual supporters sending individual cards. Quite how many honest-to-God people have OK’ed Everytown’s tree-killing campaign is a secret. In fact, one wonders . . .
how much this will cost. And, equally, how the civilian disarmament group’s fund-raising aspect is going. Here’s the pitch:
We’ve done the math, and it’s going to cost about 25 cents to deliver each postcard. Here’s how your gift can help:
$12.50 covers 50 postcards (One for every Governor!)
$25 covers 100 postcards (That’s the whole U.S. Senate!)
$133.75 covers postcards to every member of Congress (535)
I ask this because the mainstream media trumpeted the fact that Michael Bloomberg, Everytown’s paterfamilias, is pumping $50m into the cause. That’s got to be a strong disincentive for everyday pro-gun control folks who’ve been asked to open their wallet. Speaking of which . . .
Where is Bloomberg spending the money?
We here at the sharp end haven’t noticed any Everytown anti-gun media blitz since Mayor Mike went public with his purse strings thing. Or any “grass-roots” activity either. In fact, Everytown’s recent Brooklyn Bridge demo fell well short of its thousand-people promise. Surely, a hundred thousand dollars here and there could have swelled those numbers to create a suitably impressive display.
It’s certainly possible that Mayor Mike’s buying faux Facebook followers. Everytown’s FB page started life with over 400k “likes.” It’s weekly growth beats that of TTAG – which I find highly implausible. We’ve posted 154 times compared to Everytown’s eight. Anyway, the cost of that effort – should it be so – wouldn’t even dent the interest on Bloomberg’s $50m.
Maybe Hizzoner is standing pat until the 2014 elections kick into high gear, when he’ll dump money into pro-gun pols’ campaign coffers and pay big bucks for anti-gun ads. Or maybe Bloomberg’s promise was just smoke and mirrors. After all, he didn’t say over what period the $50m would be spent.
False war? Sun Tsu told us “All warfare is based on deception.” All civilian disarmament certainly is. Then again, he advises us to “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” Watch the skies people. Watch the skies.