FOIA Requests: A Weapon We Can All Use To Fight the Anti-Gun Industry

As we are all aware, AstroTurf groups such as Shannon Watts’s Moms Demand Action (which is a copy cat of another movement from the early 2000’s that faded) are very good at what they do: getting attention. They are at city council meetings, county board meetings, and, as we have seen recently in districts in Illinois, even at school board meetings.

They have two goals. The first is getting Michael Bloomberg’s their agenda enacted. The second is getting publicity in order to get their brand out for recruitment and positive press, in which they even attempt to lure unsuspecting firearms trainers to help spread their anti-gun message.

They are ready at a moment’s notice and the local chapters work together to back each other up when needed. Like it or not, they’re influential to people in power. They are organized and united in their mission.

Given that, what’s something that you, a reader and average gun owner who works a 9 to 5 job and can’t be an on-call billionaire’s activist can do that takes little to no effort, but can help fight the well funded anti-gun activist groups? You can file a FOIA request with your local government bodies. And you do not have to be Judicial Watch to do it.

Where do you start? How about your local public high school district? You could find something good that you can submit to your local press and they just might run a story on the findings if they’re interesting enough.

What’s not in that link above is the actual document, so here you go.

Busting county political party heads who use taxpayer resources and work on behalf of gun control organizations to recruit kids in school is bad enough. But how about catching a local Moms Demand Action chapter using a public high school to recruit students as props for an event with a U.S. Congressman and Shannon Watts so that they can use kids as props for their agenda?

Another Interesting thing here is that the Congressman, Rep. Brad Schneider, seems to have given the marching orders to MDA.

School districts are a hit or miss. Most of what you receive back is just “junk” emails that Everytown/Moms Demand Action send out to everyone on their mailing lists.

The best results come when you pry into local governments. Can you imagine the outrage that might ensue from a mayor allowing Moms Demand Action to use police resources at their convenience in order to keep people away from their meetings in public places?

And no, the NRA never sent out an alert for people to attend MDA gatherings here.

Sometimes, you need to go big, such as seeing what’s going on after a tragedy in which the mayor states he belongs to Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns (Everytown).

It was pretty disgusting that Everytown jumped at the opportunity to use the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in order to advance their anti-preemption agenda almost immediately (the Tree of Life shooting was 10/27/18…check the dates on emails).

These emails confirmed very early on that Everytown‘s Eric Tirschwell was the legal driving force behind the Pittsburgh gun ban.

This one came from Paul John, Everytown’s manager or “mayoral outreach.”

Lastly, some FOIA work and a little research can further reveal agendas after other tragedies, such as the Highlands Ranch STEM school shooting in which the students walked out of the vigil that was organized for them.

Full story (and FOIA work) on how the vigil was organized and by who here.

As a new contributor to TTAG, why is this being published? What does this have to do with what’s going on around the country now?

These findings were uncovered by individuals who became “accidental activists” just like the NPC’s (non-playable characters) who comprise the ranks of the gun grabbing orgs. The difference is we don’t think and act like a herd. We’re able to do this as individuals who are not associated with any organization and pass the info on or publish it to social media.

As for what does this have to do with what’s happening today, the answer is simple: we as Second Amendment activists and gun owners need all hands on deck.

This is something that can be done fairly quickly and effortlessly. It’s as simple as Googling the government body you wish to FOIA (Ex: “Cheyenne Park District FOIA request”) and submitting a request in a fashion similar to this:

Good Morning/Evening/Afternoon,

I’d Like to submit a FOIA request for the following:

All emails sent to and sent from employees/officials between xx/xx/xx and xx/xx/xx and the followings groups (group name would be located in the email body or email signature).

-(group name)

-(group name)

This is a personal request and not for commercial purposes. Any hits can be emailed back to me at this email address in digital format. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Your Name (Doesn’t need to be your real name unless they ask you for it) 

It’s that simple in most cases. Sometimes a fee may be associated with the search depending on the state/number of documents requested. They will inform you before they release the requested documents, though. You can chose not to pay and let the request go if you wish.

Hopefully you found this inspirational and choose to give it a shot. You have nothing to lose. Be prepared, though. Some shady state and local governments don’t like to give you the information you’re asking for (even after the newly-elected governor signs a executive order on transparency).

It has to make you wonder why.