A Squirrel Hill, Pennsylvania man running a fundraiser for gun control learned a valuable lesson this week. Ron Gaydos thought celeb George Takei’s promotion to 10 million followers would result in a flood of donations for gun control. In the end, Takei’s post netted next to nothing: a mere $200.
It all started when Gaydos started his gun control fundraiser Monday. Seeing gun rights supporters rallying in Pittsburgh to protest the mayor’s feeble attempt to defy Pennsylvania’s preemption law proved too much for Mr. Gaydos, who called them “out-of-town pro-semi-automatic rifle protestors”.
Ignoring experience and reality, Gaydos believes laws, not good guys with guns, stop bad people from committing evil. So he put up a fundraiser on Facebook to raise money for gun control.
He also talked his local newspaper into writing a story about it.
That story caught the eye of former ‘Star Trek’ actor and anti-gun progressive activist George Takei. The former Mr. Sulu has about 10 million followers on Facebook. Allegedly.
Gaydos, excited to have the washed-up, has-been actor’s blessing and kind words, contacted his local newspaper again. And treating it like Russian collusion breaking news, the Tribune-Review published another piece, this time touting Takei’s Facebook post:
‘Star Trek’ star George Takei supports Pittsburgh anti-gun effort
A Squirrel Hill man’s Facebook fundraiser for anti-gun groups received some star-studded recognition Wednesday from one of social media’s most prolific users.
George Takei, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu on the original “Star Trek” TV show, on Wednesday posted a Tribune-Review story about Ron Gaydos on his Facebook page. Takei, an outspoken activist in support of social justice, has 9.5 million Facebook followers.
“Here’s something just about anyone can do…,” Takei wrote on the page. “After a recent rally in Pittsburgh, in which hundreds of armed pro-gun activists descended on city hall, a local business owner got so disgusted he raised more than $3,000 for gun control groups (including Ceasefire PA) on Facebook!”
However, the last paragraph of the piece told the true story of the pathetic results of Takei’s plug. When asked about the donations received after the Facebook post, Gaydos mumbled,
“I think a couple more hundred came in after yesterday’s post, but I haven’t had all the crazy increase happen,” Gaydos said.
A couple hundred bucks. That’s some crazy increase. Divided by 10 million followers and using public school math…that works out to two one-thousandths of a penny from each. Oh my!
The optimistic Mr. Gaydos tried to spin the truth hard enough to leave anyone still reading dizzy.
“Sometimes it’s something that takes a couple days for the notice and the momentum to build up.”
Uh huh. You keep waiting, Mr. Gaydos. In the meantime, the rest of us see clearly just how seriously we should endorsements from influencers like has-been, B-list celebrities. Takei and his alleged followers are truly a farce to be reckoned with – at least when it comes to taking meaningful action to support gun control.